The Naxos Book of Carols (Faber Edition) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Christmas is usually the busiest time of year for choirs, but it's a time when the wishes of choirs and audience are asymmetrical. Choral directors (and their singers) usually want to sing something new and interesting, or revive an old and underrated gem. For the audiences, however, it's about tradition; they want to hear the same songs that they heard last year, and the year before that.Antony Pitts's arrangements of classic Christmas pieces are therefore a welcome addition to the repertoire.

Unfortunately, Pitts's best arrangements in this volume are his more subtle ones, which is generally how he treats the more obscure pieces: Verbum Patris umanatur, Es ist ein Röss entsprungen, and O Jesulien Suss. With the more familiar pieces, Pitts tends to be more adventurous, and the results can sound quite strange. His alterations to the harmony in Hark the Herald Angels Sing, or O Come all Ye Faithful are original and surprising, but distractingly so. The chords don't form a coherent sequence in their own right (unlike, say, David Willcocks's arrangements), and the overall sound is unsettling. Choirs may enjoy singing them, because the music is fun and challenging, but I expect that many of the arrangements will be too strange to convince the audience.

There are some exceptions to this: his arrangements of Silent Night and Ding Dong Merrily on High are two of the stronger arrangements in the collection, and could deservedly displace some of the existing "standard" arrangements. For these, and for the less well-known pieces, the book is worth buying. But if you want more pieces that will please your audience AND your choir, you'll need to keep looking.

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Product Description:
The Naxos Book of Carols is a mixture of the very old and the very new. Commissioned by the leading international classical music label Naxos, these 24 arrangements of traditional and original carols tell the Christmas story - from the hope of Advent and the message of the angels, to the humble birth of the baby in Bethlehem and the coming of the King of Kings.

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