A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28, is a choral piece by Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

, scored for three-part treble

Boy soprano

A boy soprano is a young male singer with an unchanged voice in the soprano range. Although a treble, or choirboy, may also be considered to be a boy soprano, the more colloquial term boy soprano is generally only used for boys who sing, perform, or record as soloists, and who may not necessarily...

 chorus, solo voices, and harp

Harp

The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...

. Written for Christmas

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

, it consists of eleven movements, with text from The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems, by Gerald Bullett

Gerald Bullett

Gerald William Bullett was a British man of letters. He was known as a novelist, essayist, short story writer, critic and poet. He wrote both supernatural fiction and some children's literature....

; it is in Middle English

Middle English

Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....

. A number of the texts were subsequently used by other composers, notably Adam lay ybounden

Adam Lay Ybounden

"Adam lay ybounden", originally titled Adam lay i-bowndyn is a 15th century macaronic English text of unknown authorship. The manuscript on which the poem is found, , is held by the British Library, who date the work to c.1400 and speculate that the lyrics may have belonged to a wandering minstrel;...

by Boris Ord

Boris Ord

Boris Ord , born Bernhard Ord, was an English organist, composer and musical director best known as the choir master of King's College, Cambridge....

. The piece was written in 1942 while Britten was at sea, going from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It was written at the same time as his Hymn to St. Cecilia

Hymn to St. Cecilia

Hymn to St Cecilia, Op. 27 is a choral piece by Benjamin Britten , a setting of a poem by W. H. Auden written between 1940 and 1942. Auden's original title was "Three Songs for St. Cecilia's Day", and he later published the poem as "Anthem for St...

and is stylistically very similar. Originally conceived as a series of unrelated songs, it was later unified into one piece with the framing processional

Processional hymn

A processional hymn is a chant, hymn or other music sung during the Procession, usually at the start of a Christian service although occasionally during the service itself. The procession usually contains members of the clergy and the choir walking behind the processional cross...

 and recessional

Recessional hymn

A recessional hymn is a hymn placed at the end of a service to close it. It is used commonly in the Catholic Church and Anglican Church, an equivalent to the concluding voluntary, which is called a Recessional Voluntary, for example a Wedding Recessional....

.

Movements

1. "Procession" ("Hodie Christus natus est", Gregorian

Gregorian chant

Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...

 antiphon

Antiphon

An antiphon in Christian music and ritual, is a "responsory" by a choir or congregation, usually in Gregorian chant, to a psalm or other text in a religious service or musical work....

 to the Magnificat

Magnificat

The Magnificat — also known as the Song of Mary or the Canticle of Mary — is a canticle frequently sung liturgically in Christian church services. It is one of the eight most ancient Christian hymns and perhaps the earliest Marian hymn...

 at Second Vespers of Christmas)

2. "Wolcum Yole!"

3. "There is no Rose" (Trinity College

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

 MS 0.3.58, early 15c)

4a. "That yonge child"

4b. "Balulalow" (The brothers Wedderburn, fl. 1548)

5. "As dew in Aprille

I syng of a mayden

"I syng of a mayden" is a Middle English lyric poem or carol of the 15th century celebrating the Annunciation and the Virgin Birth of Jesus...

" (Sloane 2593, first quarter 15c)

6. "This little Babe" (from Robert Southwell's "Newe Heaven, Newe Warre", 1595)

7. "Interlude" (harp solo)

8. "In Freezing Winter Night" (Southwell)

9. "Spring Carol" (16c., also set by William Cornysh

William Cornysh

William Cornysh the Younger was an English composer, dramatist, actor, and poet.-Life:...

)

10. "Deo Gracias

Adam Lay Ybounden

"Adam lay ybounden", originally titled Adam lay i-bowndyn is a 15th century macaronic English text of unknown authorship. The manuscript on which the poem is found, , is held by the British Library, who date the work to c.1400 and speculate that the lyrics may have belonged to a wandering minstrel;...

" (Sloane 2593)

11. "Recession" ("Hodie")