The Sixteen’s Harry Christophers on programming for the festive season

At the beginning of January each year, with the festive season still ever present, I devise The Sixteen’s Christmas programming for the year ahead. It starts with a blank piece of paper and a vague idea of the musical path that the repertoire will take us on. There are so many stories at the heart of the festive season, and our programmes always aim to tell a story. I like to have two traditional carols, one in each half, so I start with them. I find that they can be the most powerful storyteller; a beautifully sung carol with no descant or arrangement really showcases the narrative behind the concert. When people talk of traditional Christmas carols, we immediately think of O Little Town of Bethlehem or O come all ye faithful, but there are stacks of carols we simply don’t hear much of today – most of these are collated by the likes of Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw in my Christmas ‘bible’: The Oxford Book of Carols.

One thing to consider from the outset in the programme is the number of pieces and their length. There is a vast amount written for the Christmas season but the majority only last about three minutes each so it becomes a challenge to find longer works that I can use as a hinge. The lengthier works could often be a movement from a Mass or a Magnificat or some of the more substantial works by the likes of Howells or Bob Chilcott.

'One can make almost anything work with sensitive timing and judicious spacing.' © Ami Creates

With these two factors in mind, I begin to create programmes, with a slight accent on relatively unknown 16^th century works – the sort of repertoire which our audiences associate with The Sixteen. I return to the blank piece of paper, with new ideas, thinking of any works that might be pertinent to the Christmas season – a Magnificat or the Gloria of a mass, maybe one where the composer has done a parody on a motet. Palestrina’s Hodie Christus natus est jumps to mind immediately; or even one of those wonderfully sonorous Christmas responds by John Sheppard. A theme will begin to unravel - The Christ Child, The Three Kings, The Virgin Mother and Child, The Angel Gabriel for example. I will make up trios of the shorter pieces, some of them might share similarities in either words, theme or era; in the middle maybe a mediaeval carol or a simple folk carol to vary the texture. These little musical bites come together to create something incredibly atmospheric, and each tell a story of their own. The jigsaw is reaching its completion.

Audiences are always transported by plainsong. That single line is so beautiful, so atmospheric and I will use it to link into a motet; old to old or even old to new. I experiment sometimes with a unison song like that magical Appalachian tune I wonder as I wander, or John Gardner’s upbeat When Christ was born of Mary free – it’s all about how the journey from A to B can work. One can make almost anything work with sensitive timing and judicious spacing. A Christmas programme doesn’t have to be all carols. I hope each year we’ve managed to create something unique, segueing from different musical realms by using each piece as a tool to delve into the stories that shape the festive season. Often a person reading the programme might look at it and wonder how we manage to skip centuries from piece to piece. Each programme is a path of music, with one piece leading into the next.

'Nothing about the programme is random and each piece brings a new facet to the story we aim to tell.' ©Firedog

For our Christmas programming, I am particularly mindful of the works that begin and end our performances – our musical bookends. Nothing about the programme is random (even if it looks that way on paper!) and each piece brings a new facet to the story we aim to tell. This year’s programme, A Child is Born, looks at the nativity and it is one of my classic bookend sequences. Each half opens with the gorgeous unison lines of Hildegard of Bingen, in the first O Virtus Sapientiae and in the second O quam magnum miraculum. Our first half will then close with Tomorrow shall be my dancing day, the traditional song arranged by David Willcocks, the end of the second half will see the same work in a new setting by Gareth Treseder.

When curating these programmes, I like to include new and contemporary works. I consider new Christmas compositions (kindly sent to me by publishers) to see how they might fit in. These might include pieces written specifically for Advent, Epiphany, settings of seasonal poetry, or those that take their inspiration from the nativity itself. There are so many new and exciting gems to include.

Of course, there are a few works that will probably never make it into the programme for one reason or another, whether that be length or number of singers required, or in the case of the Gloucestershire Wassail, the memory of a rather chaotic recording session. A number of years ago, The Sixteen recorded an album of traditional carols – the sessions were going brilliantly until the Gloucestershire Wassail appeared. It took a rather long time to record. It is eight verses long and each verse alternated between the upper and lower voices. The ladies were fabulous; the men were… not – rather verbally challenged on this occasion constantly getting the words muddled up. It really was very funny, and we were all weeping with laughter. I just looked at the guys and said, ‘How come the sopranos can get it perfect every time’ to which soprano Julie Cooper, absolutely on cue, said, ‘simple, Harry, we can multitask!’. As you might expect, it’s never yet made it into a programme since. Thankfully, we are lucky enough to have such a broad range of works to choose from so the odd piece can be avoided. There’s so much more to Christmas music than meets the eye.

The Sixteen at Christmas, The Sixteen’s annual Christmas concert tours this year to The Anvil, Basingstoke (29 November), Uppingham School Chapel, Uppingham (2 December), St David’s Hall, Cardiff (3 December), St John the Evangelist, Oxford (9 December), Cadogan Hall, London (14 &15 December) and de Doelen, Rotterdam (20 December).