What Sweeter Music

Other Info: This setting of the well-known Christmas text by Robert Herrick was commissioned in 2017 to mark the 50th Anniversary of the University of Dundee, and was first performed in the city’s St Paul’s Cathedral. Mostly homophonic in texture, the text comes to life through Will Todd’s characteristic lush harmonies with frequent clusters and detailed dynamic markings, performed at a steady but flexible tempo to allow the music to truly glow. This carol should provide a fresh addition to the repertoire of the intermediate to advanced choir, and a very rewarding experience for both performers and audience alike.

What sweeter music can we bring
Than a carol, for to sing
The birth of this our Heavenly King?
Awake the voice! Awake the string!
Heart, ear, and eye, and everything
Awake!

We see Him come, and know Him ours,
Who with His sunshine and His showers
Turns all the patient ground to flowers.
The darling of the world is come,
And fit it is we find a room
To welcome Him.

The nobler part of all the house here is the heart,
Which we will give Him; and bequeath
This holly and this ivy wreath,
To do Him honour, who's our King,
And Lord of all this revelling.