20th December, 2023
Candlelight Carol
by John Rutter (b.1945)
Arranged and performed by Tim Kipling (flute) & Danielle Perrett (harp)
This SATB Carol was written in 1984 at the request of John Romeri, who was Director of Music at the Church of the Assumption in Bellevue, Pennsylvania. Because Romeri wanted the carol to celebrate the Virgin Mary, this carol focuses on the intimacy of the mother and child at the nativity.
Rutter was apparently inspired by a late 15th century painting from the Netherlands called Nativity at Night by an artist called Geertgen Tot Sint which is found in the National Gallery in London. This painting, in turn, a version of an earlier painting of the Nativity by the artist Van Der Goes, was inspired by the writing of Saint Bridget, a visionary which I think may be the real explanation for the title of the carol:
“…in a moment she gave birth to her son, from whom radiated such an ineffable light and splendour, that the sun was not comparable to it, nor did the candle that St. Joseph had put there, give any light at all, the divine light totally annihilating the material light of the candle … I saw the glorious infant lying on the ground naked and shining. His body was pure from any kind of soil and impurity. Then I heard also the singing of the angels, which was of miraculous sweetness and great beauty…
How do you capture the wind on the water?
How do you count all the stars in the sky?
How can you measure the love of a mother
Or how can you write down a baby’s first cry?
Candlelight, angel light, firelight and star-glow
Shine on his cradle till breaking of dawn
Silent night, holy night, all is calm and all is bright
Angels are singing; the Christ child is born
Shepherds and wise men will kneel and adore him
Seraphim round him their vigil will keep
Nations proclaim him their Lord and their Saviour
But Mary will hold him and sing him to sleep
Candlelight, angel light, firelight and star-glow
Shine on his cradle till breaking of dawn
Silent night, holy night, all is calm and all is bright
Angels are singing; the Christ child is born
Find him at Bethlehem laid in a manger
Christ our Redeemer asleep in the hay
Godhead incarnate and hope of salvation
A child with his mother that first Christmas Day
Candlelight, angel light, firelight and star-glow
Shine on his cradle till breaking of dawn
Silent night, holy night, all is calm and all is bright
Angels are singing; the Christ child is born.
It was a joy to be able to record this together with my dear long standing friend and colleague Tim, especially as due to our flooding, the possibility of being able to achieve this was up in the air until the very last moment. In fact, Tim had to help carry the harp downstairs in our house to enable me to be able to play the instrument again!
Various solo artists have recorded this carol including Neil Diamond, Aled Jones and Bryn Terfel but the first recording was by Rutter conducting his own choir called the Cambridge Singers in 1987. That version has a chamber accompaniment and the version we have played today is compiled by us from the vocal parts which are heard mostly in the flute line here and from the original SATB organ accompaniment, together with the harp part from the chamber orchestrated version for flute, oboe, harp and strings which I have performed in the past. This carol also exists in a version for SSAA.
Performed on Danielle’s ‘David Opera model concert harp’, 2000
Tim’s concert flute is ‘Brannen-Cooper with a 14K gold Nagahara headjoint’