Ode for Christmas Day

A  new carol for SATB choir (with divisi) and piano

by Ian Wright

This carol, first performed by Wigton Choral Society in 2022, sets a poem by Wigton poet Ewan Clark (1734-1811) to a traditional Ukrainian folk song melody collected by the Ukrainian composer Vasyl Barvinsky (1888-1963) and published under the title of 'Oh What a wonder!' in 1912.

The poem 'Ode for Christmas Day' first appeared in Ewan Clark's 'Miscellaneous Poems', published in Whitehaven, Cumbria in 1779.  The poem speaks about the necessity for us of joining in with the singing of the angels and archangels on Christmas day, 'to aid Heav'n's concert in the sky'.  In this joyful setting, the words 'In excelsis Gloria'  represent the choirs of heaven praising God, with the intensity increasing as the choirs on earth join in, and all reach a climactic unison together at the end.

You can read the text of the poem HERE.

Listen to a live recording by Wigton Choral Society HERE.

You can see a perusal copy of the music HERE.

To order copies @ £1.25, please contact me via the CONTACT page HERE

Ewan Clark (1734-1811) was born in Standingstone, Wigton, and kept a schoolhouse in the town.  His brother, Revd. Wilfrid Clark, was the Vicar of St.Mary's Church, Wigton, where the choir gave the first performance of this carol.

Vasyl Barvinsky (1888-1963) was Director of the Lysenko Institute of Music Education in Lviv, and was one of the first Ukrainian composers to gain worldwide recognition.  In 1912 he published arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs including this melody, entitled 'Oh, what a wonder'.  In 1948 he was denounced and sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet authorities, and his works were suppressed.  After his release in 1958 he tried to reconstruct his works which had been destroyed by  the NKVD, but many were not discovered until after his death in 1963.