The Golden Carol
03:14 duration|Composed in 2024|Difficulty: Intermediate|First performed: December 2024
Commissioned by Tim Reader for The Epiphoni Consort on their 10th anniversary in 2024.
A setting of an anonymous Old English Carol ’(‘We saw the light shine out afar, On Christmas in the morning), subtitled ‘of Melchior, Balthazar, and Caspar, the Three Kings’, The Golden Carol tells of the kings’ adoration of the Christ child on that first Christmas morning. The wonder and emotional breadth of the text is brought to life through a steady build up through the two verses, in dynamic levels but also in harmonic language. Homophonic throughout, drawing influence from Bach chorales, the peaceful opening stanzas only hint at the jazz-inspired harmony which Ponniah frequently deploys in his works. More complexity, dissonance and divisi are gradually introduced until the outpouring of emotion at the climax of the piece ‘And see in heaven, our glorious home, The Star of Christmas morning.’
Golden Carol – sung by The Epiphoni Consort
Text
We saw the light shine out afar,
On Christmas in the morning,
And straight we knew Christ’s star it was,
Bright beaming in the morning.
Then did we fall on bended knee,
On Christmas in the morning,
And praised the Lord, who’d let us see
His glory at its dawning.
Oh! every thought be of His name,
On Christmas in the morning,
Who bore for us both grief and shame,
Affliction’s sharpest scorning.
And may we die, when death shall come,
On Christmas in the morning,
And see in heav’n, our glorious home,
That Star of Christmas morning.
Old English Carol
