2023 carol competition - yuk

[LMcD]

While I've hitherto felt nothing stronger than indifference to this competition, this morning's absurdly OTT brouhaha surrounding the announcement of the winners, including Petroc's Heroic Struggle With The Envelopes, really has really cheesed me off.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

When I was a secondary classroom music teacher in the 1980s, I used to take my school orchestra on a 2-day tour of local primary schools, where we gave 30 minute concerts in each one. Then a colleague suggested we invited children in local primary schools to submit melodies composed by their pupils for the orchestra to play. There were some good one, and I then arranged one from each school and these were performed in the relevant schools.

However, one school sent a contribution that made little musical sense, but even this one could be made to sound acceptable by a great deal of manipulation. The melody was exactly what had been submitted, but lots of imagination by the arranger made the end product acceptable. So it can be in a flawed competition such as this one.

[Ein Heldenleben]

When I was a secondary classroom music teacher in the 1980s, I used to take my school orchestra on a 2-day tour of local primary schools, where we gave 30 minute concerts in each one. Then a colleague suggested we invited children in local primary schools to submit melodies composed by their pupils for the orchestra to play. There were some good one, and I then arranged one from each school and these were performed in the relevant schools.

However, one school sent a contribution that made little musical sense, but even this one could be made to sound acceptable by a great deal of manipulation. The melody was exactly what had been submitted, but lots of imagination by the arranger made the end product acceptable. So it can be in a flawed competition such as this one.

A very interesting challenge. I reckon anything can be harmonised - even a twelve tone scale. In an effort to stay sane I’ve been loosely analysing the harmonisations of this years entries .It’s extraordinary how many rely on a gospel inspired plagal progression.*

* yep just listened to the winner - full of plagal cadences.

[Boilk]

In their own words: "This competition will be judged solely on the melody line. It is not necessary to provide a harmonisation or accompaniment. If you do provide a harmonisation or accompaniment, these will not be assessed as part of the judging criteria."

Not only not assessed as part of the judging criteria but discarded, as they all seem to have been (re)arranged.

The whole thing strikes me as farcical, given that the melody alone is presented to the judges. There's no concept of the fact that a large part of a melody's impact comes from each note's underlying harmony/harmonies.

[smittims]

All the ones I've heard are depressingly 'samey' in their jaunty 'singalongness', no doubt because the restricted terms of reference leave no room for any creativity. . I agree that the whole thing is a farce and reflects very poorly on Radio 3 management.

[french frank]

The whole thing strikes me as farcical, given that the melody alone is presented to the judges. There's no concept of the fact that a large part of a melody's impact comes from each note's underlying harmony/harmonies.

I can understand the 'just the tune' idea: it's what we sing when we hear the music playing. But this competition is for Radio 2: Radio 3 should demand more.

[Serial_Apologist]

I can understand the 'just the tune' idea: it's what we sing when we hear the music playing. But this competition is for Radio 2: Radio 3 should demand more.

Low budget desiderata, innit? For homophonics, so much paid out; polyphonics would breach budget requirements. This is not homophobia on my part, I just want to add.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Low budget desiderata, innit? For homophonics, so much paid out; polyphonics would breach budget requirements. This is not homophobia on my part, I just want to add.

Except that with the old rules, they didn’t have to pay anyone as the contestants did all the work themselves. Under the new patronising regime, they have to pay Iain Farrington to sort things out.

[oddoneout]

All the ones I've heard are depressingly 'samey' in their jaunty 'singalongness', no doubt because the restricted terms of reference leave no room for any creativity. . I agree that the whole thing is a farce and reflects very poorly on Radio 3 management.

Aimed at situations where music is learnt by ear rather than by reading music - more inclusive innit? Another reason why R2 would be the better home. Perhaps there could be a swap - Chorister of the Year to R3, the home of CE, and the "Carol" competition to R2.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

According to what I’ve just heard R3 are “looking for a Carol that can be sung by choirs and congregations for years to come.” A laudable aim but most of the Carols I’ve heard sound a tad too demanding for that. Jazzy syncopations, key changes , offbeat melodic lines - way beyond what a congregation could manage . And the jazzy piano accompaniments need someone can really play.

This is so true, and was illustrated to the full when the County Music Service I worked for arranged a “Big Sing” day. There were lots of “poppish” songs being blasted out by the leading group, with hardly any of the children joining in, even though the contributing schools had learnt the songs beforehand. This persisted throughout much of the day. But when a slower melody without unnecessary complications was sung, the children sang beautifully and lifted the spirits.

On the general quality of Radio 3 management’s philosophy, I notice I’ve been blocked on their Facebook page.

[Beresford]

A good find I would say, Beresford. I liked the words, the singing and the chorus with just a little twist to distinguish it. I'm not sure what a Gallery Carol is.

I'm not sure what Gallery Carols are either. I think it's when all the voices sing the same tune, which makes the harmonies strange, so they need a punchy rhythm. Think of "While shepherds watched..." sung to the tune of " On Ilkley Moor Bar T'hat". They are still sung throughout December in many of the pubs just North of Sheffield.

[french frank]

I'm not sure what Gallery Carols are either. .

I wondered whether it was to do with the 'gallery' in a church where the local band performed (think Thomas Hardy) and found:

"A Gallery Carol, also known as Rejoice and Be Merry, is a playful tune celebrating the “birthday of Jesus, Our King.” The song belongs to the tradition associated with the choirs and bands sited in the west galleries of churches before the advent of organs in the mid-19th century."

[Pulcinella]

I'm not sure what Gallery Carols are either. I think it's when all the voices sing the same tune, which makes the harmonies strange, so they need a punchy rhythm. Think of "While shepherds watched..." sung to the tune of " On Ilkley Moor Bar T'hat". They are still sung throughout December in many of the pubs just North of Sheffield.

I'd rather not.



We ended our concert last night with it, and I'm afraid it jars as the stresses are all in the wrong place.

WHILE shepherds watched their flocks by night....

THE (pronounced THEE) angel of the Lord.

And in some verses the basses also have to sing nonsense in the repeated phrase at the end, because the number of beats doesn't match the number of syllables in the words, and it means some ugly breaks have to be made!

[Ein Heldenleben]

I wondered whether it was to do with the 'gallery' in a church where the local band performed (think Thomas Hardy) and found:

"A Gallery Carol, also known as Rejoice and Be Merry, is a playful tune celebrating the “birthday of Jesus, Our King.” The song belongs to the tradition associated with the choirs and bands sited in the west galleries of churches before the advent of organs in the mid-19th century."

From the Hyperion cd of Christmas at St Georges Windsor

“The words and tune of A gallery carol come from an old church gallery book found in Dorset, and published in 1919. West gallery bands and choirs were common before their replacement by organs and robed choirs in the mid-nineteenth century (as recounted in Thomas Hardy’s Under the Greenwood Tree). The conductor and arranger Reginald Jacques (1894–1969) collaborated with David Willcocks on the first volume of Carols for Choirs (1961), from which this arrangement is taken.”

Good time to read Under The Greenwood Tree - a near perfect evocation of this lost tradition. The vicar at the church (a portrait of the church at Stinsford) replaces the gallery band who play traditional carols with strung instruments with an organ. All highly symbolic (imposition of an alien mechanical Victorian tradition on trad rural ways ) and beautifully done.
I think there is a contemporary band who recreate the sound.

[Padraig]

I wondered whether it was to do with the 'gallery' in a church where the local band performed (think Thomas Hardy)

That rang a bell, f f, but I was too slow to respond. I was trying to think of the poem(s) which referred to Hardy's band - never found one yet - but in the course of . . . found this, among other things:


West Gallery music | Bristol Harmony