Merry Christmas from Tom Morgan

Posted December 24, 2024

Throughout Ars Nova Singers’ history, I’ve created new arrangements of Christmas carols or other holiday songs for us to perform on our December concerts. Most years, we auctioned this off at our annual Gala fundraiser, so the titles were chosen by our patrons. Once the arrangement was completed, we’d perform and record it on our December programs. Then, in the days before Christmas, the recording was delivered to the winner along with the printed score which included a personal dedication, creating a truly unique holiday gift.

“What Child is This?” was selected in 2013 by our longtime patrons Jim and Kathy Snow, and was commissioned in honor of their granddaughter Evelyn Estelle Fleetwood. That year we collaborated with our ‘usual’ professional harpist, Kathryn Harms; so I created a nice harp part to go with the new 6-voice choral scoring.

The video below was assembled during the first holiday season of the pandemic in 2020. As I was creating it, I was thinking about the line in Alfred Burt’s famous carol “Some Children See Him” (text by Wilha Hutson):
        The children in each different place will see the baby Jesus’ face
        like theirs, but bright with heavenly grace, and filled with holy light.
This led directly to the idea of including images from around the world to accompany the music, lending a universality to the presentation that reaches beyond the traditional English carol.

Enjoy! And Merry Christmas,
Tom

Ars Nova Singers – Custom Holiday Arrangements by Tom Morgan
Winter Song (2024)
Silver Bells (2023)
Un Flambeau, Jeanette, Isabella (2022)
Still, still, still (2019)
In Dulci Jubilo (2018)
Gaudete! (2017)
Balulalow (2016)
Rocking (2015)
The Holly and the Ivy (2014)
What Child is This? (2013)
Gesu Bambino (2012)
Once in Royal David’s City (2011)
A Boulder Wassail (2009)
Angels We Have Heard on High (2008)
O Little Town of Bethlehem (2007)
The Truth from Above (2004)
Christmastime is Here (2004)
The Little Drummer Boy (2003)
O Holy Night (2001)
The Boar’s Head Carol (2000)
All My Heart This Night Rejoices (1997)
A Stable Lamp is Lighted (1995)