Those with a good memory might recall that we had a Mary’s Lullaby last year and think that this might be a repeated track – but no! That one was by Nigel Springthorpe and this one is by John Rutter. But we hope you’ll agree that both are lovely pieces.
Dave

This charming carol combines a lullaby as sung in the first person by Mary to baby Jesus, with a brief depiction of the images we know of the nativity scene; cattle surrounding the mother and baby and the visitations of the shepherds and the wise men.

Rutter’s own website describes this carol as ‘gentle and dreamy’ and notes that it was written in 1978 for the SATB choir of his old college, Clare College at Cambridge. A Hyperion recording of the choral work gives us this information:

 “It owes its inspiration to the panic of a television producer who calculated, following a camera rehearsal for a recording of Christmas music featuring the Clare chapel choir, that his programme was going to come in around three minutes short: ‘He asked whether I could by any chance write him something for the choir to sing the following morning!’ Rutter recalls.”

We also learn that it is dedicated to Rutter’s wife, Joanne. You might recognise a common feature in Rutter’s writing here; when in slow, dreamy mode, he tends to compose in 3/4 time and this piece is archetypically no exception.

Although originally envisaged with organ accompaniment, like others of Rutter’s carols, he has made other arrangements for high voices only (SSAA) with piano accompaniment and a flute, oboe, harp and strings  accompaniment is also available.  There are a number of videos and recordings of this carol available to watch on YouTube and it is also available on the John Rutter Christmas Album with Rutter’s own choir, the Cambridge Singers and the City of London Sinfonia.
Danielle