Bednall Make we merry
for SSAA and organ, and optional brass ensemble and timpani Commissioned by Benenden School, Make We Merry is an eight-movement piece which sets texts from the 15th to 19th centuries to a variety of choral textures with a highly characterful accompaniment. A vast array of sentiments is depicted, from quiet expectance and gentle wonder to boisterous jubilation, and the different movements provide a wonderfully paced journey through these moods. The final movement brings back motifs from the opening and grows to a thrillingly climactic ending to this exciting Christmas concert work.
for SSAA and organ, and optional brass ensemble and timpani
Commissioned by Benenden School, Make We Merry is an eight-movement piece which sets texts from the 15th to 19th centuries to a variety of choral textures with a highly characterful accompaniment. A vast array of sentiments is depicted, from quiet expectance and gentle wonder to boisterous jubilation, and the different movements provide a wonderfully paced journey through these moods. The final movement brings back motifs from the opening and grows to a thrillingly climactic ending to this exciting Christmas concert work.
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<strong>Make</strong> We Merry is an eight-movement Christmas work for upper voices which sets texts from<br />
the 15th to 19th centuries to a variety of choral textures. The upbeat title movement opens<br />
the piece and the following movements provide a wonderfully paced journey through a vast<br />
array of sentiments, from quiet expectance and gentle wonder in ‘The time draws near’ and<br />
‘S<strong>we</strong>et was the song’ to boisterous jubilation in ‘All this night shrill chanticleer’. The final<br />
movement, ‘<strong>Make</strong> <strong>we</strong> joy now’, brings back motifs from the opening and grows to a thrillingly<br />
climactic finish. The highly characterful organ accompaniment may be augmented by brass<br />
and percussion in six of the movements.<br />
<strong>Make</strong> We Merry BEDNALL<br />
Born in 1979, David <strong>Bednall</strong> studied at The Queen’s College, Oxford,<br />
where he was Organ Scholar. A prize-winning organist, he has a varied<br />
freelance playing and conducting career and has performed extensively<br />
in the UK and abroad. <strong>Bednall</strong> is most prominent as a composer, and<br />
his works have been performed and recorded by leading choirs and<br />
ensembles, to critical acclaim. His music has been broadcast on radio,<br />
and his 40–part motet Lux orta est iusto closed the Bristol Proms in 2015.<br />
for online perusal only<br />
For more details about David <strong>Bednall</strong> and his music, please contact<br />
Oxford University Press, Music Department.<br />
Cover images: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd /Alamy Stock Photo; Guschenkova/Shutterstock.com<br />
1<br />
www.oup.com<br />
ISBN 978-0-19-352653-2<br />
9 780193 526532
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