Candlelight Carols: Music for Chorus and Harp

by Seraphic Fire, Jacqueline Kerrod, Patrick Dupre Quigley

Overview

This small Florida-based choir (13 voices here) has performed some mainstream classical repertory over its decade of existence, but it is at its most distinctive when trying to create an American small-group sound, a field in which it has very little competition. This Christmas release for chorus and harp presents the group in a favorable light, in an intimate atmosphere that for the most part they meet the challenge of maintaining. Many of the pieces are arranged for harp, and they're picked effectively. Director Patrick Dupre Quigley lets traditional tunes like the Huron Carol (sung in English) bounce off Poulenc, Britten, Holst, and the contemporary giants: John Rutter and Morten Lauridsen. The music never cloys, and there are some nice finds, like the old Norman Luboff arrangement of the Austrian carol Still, Still, Still. Ultimately the group does very well with these traditional pieces; they do not sound amateurish, but they don't try to meet the English cathedral choirs in their rarefied vaults; the sound is direct, has some texture, and is coordinated with a real sense of singers working together. Probably an investment in a higher-powered engineering team would benefit the recordings of this group, but even as it stands they're doing well because they offer something unusual. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	11/11/2014
Label:	SERAPHIC FIRE MEDIA
UPC:	0614325784721

Tracks

1. Watching the Wheat
2. What Sweeter Music?
3. O Magnum Mysterium
4. In the Bleak Midwinter
5. Angels We Have Heard on High
6. A Ceremony of Carols~1. Deo Gracias
7. A Ceremony of Carols~2. There is No Rose
8. A Ceremony of Carols~3. Balulalow
9. A Ceremony of Carols~4. This Little Babe
10. Sleep, Little Baby, Sleep
11. Still, Still, Still
12. Lux Aeterna~O Nata Lux
13. Quittez Pasteurs
14. Huron Carol
15. The Joy of Children: Patapan
16. Candlelight Carol

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Seraphic Fire   Primary Artist,Vocal Ensemble
Jacqueline Kerrod   Primary Artist,Harp
Patrick Dupre Quigley   Primary Artist,Conductor
Kathryn Mueller   Soprano (Vocal)
Amanda Crider   Soprano (Vocal)

Technical Credits

John Rutter   Arranger,Composer
Benjamin Britten   Composer
Norman Luboff   Arranger
Kirke Mechem   Arranger
D. James Tagg   Engineer
Jesse Edgar Middleton   Composer
Morten Lauridsen   Composer
Abbie Betinis   Arranger
Christmas Traditional   Composer
French Traditional   Composer
Australian Traditional   Composer
Elles Gianocostas   Booklet Design
Unspecified   Composer
Jake Runestad   Composer
Joey Quigley   Producer
Susan LaBarr   Arranger
Ross Chuchla   Project Manager
Patrick Dupre Quigley   Arranger,Producer,Artistic Director
John Polito   Mastering
John Thomas   Composer
Gustav Holst   Composer
Francis Poulenc   Composer