13. A virgin most pure
From the album 'Christmas Night'
Arranger Charles Wood
Conductor John Rutter
Choir The Cambridge Singers
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A virgin most pure
One of the most delightful of English folk-carols, 'A virgin most pure' tells the Christmas story with affecting simplicity. Charles Wood (whose settings of many carols including this one have come to be regarded as definitive) was a lecturer and later the Professor of Music at Cambridge University. He is remembered now mainly for his fluent and craftsman-like choral writing.
A virgin most pure, as the prophets do tell,
Hath brought forth a baby, as it hath befell;
To be our Redeemer from death, hell, and sin,
Which Adam’s transgression had wrapped us in.
Aye, and therefore be merry,
Rejoice, and be you merry;
Set sorrow aside;
Christ Jesus our Saviour
Was born at this tide.
In Bethlehem Jewry a city there was,
Where Joseph and Mary together did pass,
And there to be taxed with many one mo,
For Caesar commanded the same should be so.
But when they had entered the city so fair,
A number of people so mighty was there,
That Joseph and Mary, whose substance was small,
Could find in the inn there no lodging at all.
Then they were constrained in a stable to lie,
Where horses and asses they used for to tie;
Their lodging so simple they took it no scorn,
But against the next morning our Saviour was born.
Christmas Night
The theme of the album - Christmas Night - is the birth of Christ, reflected in the words and music of twenty-two carols spanning more than six centuries. Some of these carols have long been widely known and loved; others have become so thanks to the annual Christmas Eve Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge. But all of them focus on the central event of the Christmas story – the birth at Bethlehem – and on the characters in that story: the angels, the shepherds, the wise men, and the mother with her child.
John Rutter, English composer and conductor, is associated with choral music throughout the world. His recordings with the Cambridge Singers (the professional chamber choir he set up in 1983) have reached a wide global audience, many of them featuring his own music in definitive versions. Among John’s best-known choral works are Gloria, Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, and Visions, together with many church anthems, choral songs and Christmas carols.
Contact
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