The Counterpint/Polyphony Down the Pub Singers will be singing Christmas motets and chorales by Victoria, Palestrina, Bodenschatz, Gumpelzhaimer, Schröter, Praetorius, Calvisius & Bach at Trafalgar Square on Sunday December 18th.
Interspersed among these Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces, the programme will include traditional English carols for audience participation.
Please sing along with the choir and please also place a donation in the collection buckets to support our charity partners The Choir With No Name, a wonderful organisation that supports homeless people and other marginalised members of society through singing, and Alzheimer’s Society, a charity supporting people with dementia and their families and carers.
Carols texts:
Joy to the World
1. Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing. (x 3)
2. Joy to the earth, the Saviour reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields & floods, rocks, hills & plains
Repeat the sounding joy. (x 3)
3. He rules the world with truth & grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love. (x 3)
Once in Royal David’s City
1. Once in royal David’s city,
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her baby
In a manger for his bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ her little child.
2. He came down to earth from heaven,
Who is God and lord of all,
And his shelter was a stable,
And his cradle was a stall;
With the poor and meek and lowly,
Lived on earth our saviour holy.
3. And our eyes at last shall see Him,
Through His own redeeming love;
For that Child so dear and gentle
Is our Lord in heaven above,
And He leads His children on
To the place where He is gone.
4. Not in that poor lowly stable,
With the oxen standing by,
We shall see him, but in heaven,
Set at God’s right hand on high;
When like stars his children crowned,
All in white shall wait around.
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night
1. While shepherds watched their flocks by night,
All seated on the ground;
The angel of the Lord came down,
And glory shone around.
2. “Fear not!” said he, for mighty dread
Had seized their troubled mind.
“Glad tidings of great joy I bring
To you and all mankind.”
3. To you, in David’s town, this day
Is born of David’s line
A Saviour, who is Christ the Lord,
And this shall be the sign:”
4. “The heavenly babe you there shall find
To human view displayed,
All meanly wrapped in swathing bands,
And in a manger laid.”
5. Thus spake the seraph and forthwith
Appeared a shining throng
Of angels praising God on high,
Who thus addressed their song:
6. “All glory be to God on high,
And to the earth be peace;
Good will henceforth from heav’n to men
Begin and never cease!”
Silent Night
1. Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace. (x 2)
2. Silent night, holy night,
Shepherds quake at the sight,
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing alleluia
Christ, the Saviour, is born! (x 2)
3. Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth (x 2)
Ding Dong! Merrily on High
1. Ding dong! Merrily on high
In heav’n the bells are ringing:
Ding dong! verily the sky
Is riv’n with angel-singing.
Gloria! Hosanna in excelsis! (x 2)
2. E’en so here below, below,
Let steeple bells be swungen,
And io, io, io,
By priest and people sungen:
Gloria! Hosanna in excelsis! (x 2)
3. Pray you, dutifully prime
Your matin chime, ye ringers;
May you beautifully rhyme
Your e’entime song, ye singers.
Gloria! Hosanna in excelsis! (x 2)
See, Amid the Winter’s Snow
1. See, amid the winter’s snow,
born for us on earth below,
see the tender Lamb appears,
promised from eternal years.
Hail! Thou ever-blessed morn!
Hail, redemption’s happy dawn!
Sing through all Jerusalem,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem.”
2. Lo, within a manger lies
He who built the starry skies;
He, who throned in height sublime,
sits amid the cherubim!
Hail! Thou ever-blessed morn!
Hail, redemption’s happy dawn!
Sing through all Jerusalem,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem.”
3. Sacred Infant, all divine,
what a tender love was Thine;
thus to come from highest bliss
down to such a world as this!
Hail! Thou ever-blessed morn!
Hail, redemption’s happy dawn!
Sing through all Jerusalem,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem.”
4. Teach, O teach us, Holy Child,
by Thy face so meek and mild,
teach us to resemble Thee
in Thy sweet humility!
Hail! Thou ever-blessed morn!
Hail, redemption’s happy dawn!
Sing through all Jerusalem,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem.”
Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly
1. Deck the halls with boughs of holly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
‘Tis the season to be jolly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Don we now our gay apparel,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
Troll the ancient Yuletide carol,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
2. See the blazing Yule before us,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Strike the harp & join the chorus,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Follow me in merry measure,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la,
While I tell of Yuletide treasure,
Fa la la la la la, la la la.
3. Fast away the old year passes,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Hail the new, ye lads and lasses,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Sing we joyous, all together,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Heedless of the wind and weather,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
O Little Town of Bethlehem
1. O little town of Bethlehem,
how still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
the silent stars go by;
yet in thy dark streets shineth
the everlasting light.
The hopes and fears of all the years
are met in thee tonight.
2. O morning stars, together
proclaim the holy birth,
and praises sing to God the King
and peace to all the earth.
For Christ is born of Mary,
and, gathered all above
while mortals sleep, the angels keep
their watch of wond’ring love.
3. How silently, how silently,
the wondrous gift is giv’n!
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of his heav’n.
No ear may hear his coming,
but in this world of sin,
where meek souls will receive him, still
the dear Christ enters in.
4. O holy Child of Bethlehem,
descend to us, we pray,
cast out our sin and enter in,
be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
our Lord Immanuel!
In the Bleak Midwinter
1. In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.
2. Our God, heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven & earth shall flee away when he comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.
3. Angels & archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But his mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.
4. What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give him: give my heart.
Sans Day Carol
1. Now the holly bears a berry as white as the milk,
And Mary bore Jesus who was wrapped up in silk.
Chorus: And Mary bore Jesus Christ, our saviour for to be,
And the first tree in the greenwood it was the holly.
Holly, holly,
And the first tree in the greenwood it was the holly.
2. Now the holly bears a berry as red as the blood,
And Mary bore Jesus who died on the rood.
Chorus: And Mary bore Jesus Christ, our saviour for to be,
And the first tree in the greenwood it was the holly.
Holly, holly,
And the first tree in the greenwood it was the holly.
3. Now the holly bears a berry as black as the coal,
And Mary bore Jesus who died for us all.
Chorus: And Mary bore Jesus Christ, our saviour for to be,
And the first tree in the greenwood it was the holly.
Holly, holly,
And the first tree in the greenwood it was the holly.
O Come, All Ye Faithful
1. O come, all ye faithful,
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him,
Born the king of angels;
O come, let us adore him, (x 3)
Christ the lord.
2. God of God,
Light of light,
Lo! he abhors not the Virgin’s womb:
Very God,
Begotten, not created;
O come, let us adore him, (x 3)
Christ the lord.
3. See how the shepherds,
Summoned to his cradle,
Leaving their flocks draw nigh with lowly fear;
We too will thither
Bend our joyful footsteps;
O come, let us adore him, (x 3)
Christ the lord.
4. Sing, choirs of angels,
Sing in exultation,
Sing, all ye citizens of heav’n above;
Glory to God
In the highest;
O come, let us adore him, (x 3)
Christ the lord.
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
1. It came upon the midnight clear,
that glorious song of old,
from angels bending near the earth,
to touch their harps of gold;
“Peace on the earth, good will to men,
From Heaven’s all gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay,
to hear the angels sing.
2. Still through the cloven skies they come
with peaceful wings unfurled,
and still their heavenly music floats
o’er all the weary world;
above its sad and lowly plains,
they bend on hovering wing,
and ever over its Babel sounds
the blesséd angels sing.
3. Yet with the woes of sin and strife
the world has suffered long;
beneath the angel strain have rolled
two thousand years of wrong;
and man, at war with man, hears not
the love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife
and hear the angels sing.
4. For lo! the days are hastening on,
by prophet-bards foretold,
when with the ever circling years
comes round the age of gold;
when peace shall over all the earth
its ancient splendours fling,
and the whole world send back the song
which now the angels sing.
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
1. Hark! The herald angels sing:
“Glory to the newborn king!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled”
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
“Christ is born in Bethlehem”
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn king!”
2. Christ by highest heav’n adored,
Christ the everlasting lord!
Late in time behold him come
Offspring of a virgin’s womb
Veiled in flesh the godhead see,
Hail th’ incarnate deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn king!”
3. Hail the heav’n-born prince of peace!
Hail the son of righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings
Ris’n with healing in his wings
Mild he lays his glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn king!”
Polyphony Down the Pub 