Programme Note
I wrote these two carols in 1981 in response to a commission from the Cardiff Festival, revising them in 1983 and again in 1992. They are settings of anonymous mediaeval texts (printed below). In the first I have tried to express the contrast between the simplicity and serenity of the new born child and the violent act of birth into a hostile world. In the second I was attracted to the narrative structure with its retelling of the story of the passion using surreal imagery and ambivalent social comment.
i) A little child there is y-born (2′)
Eia susanni
A little child there is y-born
Alleluya
And he sprang out of Jesse’s thorn
To save us all that were forlorn
Now Jesus is the child-es name
And Mary mild she is his dame
And so our sorrow is turned to game
It fell upon the high midnight
The stars they shone both fair and bright
The angels sang with all their might
Alleluya
ii) All under the leaves of life (6′)
All under the leaves of life
I met with virgins seven
And one of them was Mary mild
Our Lord’s mother from heaven
“O what are you seeking you fair maids
All under the leaves of life?
Come tell me what seek you
All under the leaves of life?”
“We’re seeking for no leaves, Thomas
But for a friend of thine”
“We’re seeking for sweet Jesus Christ
to be our guide and thine”
“Go you down to yonder town
and sit in the gallery
There you’ll find sweet Jesus Christ
Nailed to a big yew tree”
So down they went to yonder town
As far as foot could fall
and many a grievous bitter tear
From the virgins’ eyes did fall
“O Peace, mother
Your weeping doth me grieve
O I must suffer this” he said
“For Adam and for Eve”
“O how can I my weeping leave,
or my sorrows undergo
Whilst I do see my own son die
When sons I have no mo’ ”
Then he laid his head on his right shoulder
seeing death it struck him nigh
“The holy ghost be with your soul,
I die, mother dear, I die”
O the rose, the gentle rose
and the fennel that grows so green
God give us grace in every place
to pray for our king and queen
Furthermore for our enemies
all our prayers they should be strong
Amen! Good Lord! Your charity is
the ending of my song