Nurture Harps: Jill Weaver, Kristen Moncayo, Lindsay Nielson and Justine Turcotte
We attended a fantastic celebration of music last night! The Mellodaires and Melody Men of St. Anthony, ID presented their annual Christmas performance. The choir sang “Let It Snow”, “What Child Is This?”, A Holly Jolly Christmas”, “I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day”, “Jingle Bells”, “Mary’s Little Boy Chile” (Harry Belafonte helped make famous years ago), “Coventry Carol”, and “For Unto Us a Child is Born”. The choir also sang a non-Christmas song titled, “Even When He is Silent”, which was dedicated by one of the directors to the Holocaust victims of WWII. The “Nurture Harps” from the Rexburg area, played beautiful arrangements of “Carol of the Bells”, “Still, Still, Still”, and Angels We Have Heard on High”. The program included an incredible flute solo of “I Wonder as I wonder” and a children’s choir singing, a medley from “Toyland”, “Candy Cane Lane”, and a piece from Michael McLean’s, The Forgotten Carols” called “The Shepherd”. It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday evening with my husband and watching our youngest grandson so his momma could play with the harp ensemble.
I’d like to give a little history to one of the songs we hear frequently this time of year and one that was performed last night, “Coventry Carol”. (Free piano sheet below)
https://www.8notes.com/scores/1560.asp
file:///Users/karenweaver/Downloads/[Free-scores.com]_traditional-the-coventry-carol-114564.pdf
Coventry Carol is an old English carol dating back to the 16th century. The song was written for a mystery play called “The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors”, and refers to the “Massacre of the Innocents”. The play tells the story from Chapter two in the Gospel of Matthew when King Herod ordered all male babies under the age of two in Bethlehem to be killed. The form is a lullaby sung by mothers of the doomed children. The tune is very melancholy, almost haunting, but the end gives us a musical element called a “Picardy Third”. A Picardy Third is also known as a Picardy cadence. It is a major chord of the tonic at the end of a musical section that is either modal (Modal music uses diatonic scales that are not necessarily major or minor and does not use functional harmony as we understand it within tonality. The term modal is most often associated with the eight church modes), or in a minor key. This happens when you raise the third of the expected minor triad by a semitone or half step to create a major triad to accomplish a resolution. The traditional Coventry Carol does end with the Picardy third. However, I have heard different arrangements where the Picardy third is somewhere in the music, but ends with the minor sound. It’s typically written in the key of G Minor which has that somewhat unexpected but lovely F#. It really is a gorgeous piece of music.
Here’s an acapella recording from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-x-zS9ex58
Teaching Corner: G Minor – Relative Minor of Bb Major.
Natural minor scales begins on G and includes Bb and Eb only.
Harmonic minor scale includes F# with Bb and Eb.
Melodic minor scale cancels the Eb ascending, but includes the F#; descending it cancels the F# but includes the Eb.
One last addition: I’m including a link of President Nelson and Claire Crosby performing Silent Night. Who knew he could play the piano. What an extraordinary and talented man of God!
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