St Albans Chamber Choir goes alternative

AN ALTERNATIVE to the usual carol concert is being given by St Albans Chamber Choir next Saturday, December 12. At the heart of the choir s programme at the concert, entitled This Worldes Joie, at All Saints Pastoral Centre in London Colney is British mus

AN ALTERNATIVE to the usual carol concert is being given by St Albans Chamber Choir next Saturday, December 12.

At the heart of the choir's programme at the concert, entitled This Worldes Joie, at All Saints Pastoral Centre in London Colney is British music for unaccompanied choir spanning the centuries and revealing different responses to the story of Christ's birth.

The title of the concert is taken from one of two medieval carols in the programme set by Arnold Bax, This Worldes Joie and I Sing of a Maiden. They both date from the early 1920s when, in the aftermath of World War One, British music and especially that of Bax, was much in demand and widely performed.

The earliest work on the programme is Quid petis,O fili? by English Renaissance court composer Richard Pygott but the choir will also be performing such recent works as Paul Spicer's atmospheric settings of poems by the Welsh poet R S Thomas, Four Carols for Dark Times, and Cecilia McDowall's Annunciation, a setting of one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets.

In contrast, the choir will also sing Mendelssohn's anthem Im Advent and Sweelinck's Gaudete omnes.

For the first time, the choir will be performing pieces by musical director John Gibbons, Christmas Gospel Acclamation and an arrangement of Silent Night as well as some works for choir and saxophone with St Albans-based saxophonist David Wigram.

The concert starts at 7.30pm and tickets are �12.50 unreserved or �1 for a children or full-time students. They can be obtained from the ticket secretary on 0845 658 8982 or from St Albans Tourist Information Centre.