WELCOME YULE - Ars Choralis

Welcome Yule Love Came Down At Christmas Quiet Place Lo, How a Rose E're Blooming Go Tell It On the Mountain Feliz Navidad While Shepherds Watched If Angels Sung a Savior's Birth In Time of Softest Snow O Magnum Mysterium Cherry Tree Carol Thou Child Divine Hosanna Caroling Caroling It Came Upon A Midnight Clear Wind Through the Olive Trees Judah's Land

WELCOME YULE:  AMERICAN CHRISTMAS CAMEOS ARS CHORALIS Barbara Pickhardt, conductor Barbara Zimet, pianist Produced by John Hall

WELCOME YULE: AMERICAN CHRISTMAS CAMEOS is a musical quilt of Americana, a holiday celebration sewn with threads from many cultures and beliefs. Each year Ars Choralis director, Barbara Pickhardt, fashions an entirely new Welcome Yule concert drawn from the world-wide feast of Christmas music through the ages. She created 1998's concert by immersing herself in three centuries of American Christmases as expressed in music and literature, stitching together an American heritage sampler. What emerged was a striking realization that over centuries and cultures, people expressed the same feeling and hopes. A season of warmth, brotherhood, and triumph over adversity was portrayed, from Salvation Army street corner styles (Feliz Navidad, Lo How A Rose) and Songs from the Sacred Harp (Milford, Sherburne) to 20th century classical and pop. In war and peace, Americans have drawn closer at this time of year. Many things have changed, but this season of love endures.

INCLUDED ON THIS CD:

WELCOME YULE Barbara Pickhardt 1998
LOVE CAME DOWN AT CHRISTMAS Leo Sowerby 1935
QUIET PLACE John Hall, Jonell Mosser 1992
    Matthew Ulrich, soloist; John Hall and Gregory Dinger, guitars;
    Erica Pickhardt, cello
LO, HOW A ROSE E'RE BLOOMING Washington Irving "Sketchbook"
    Overlook Mountain Brass; Elizabeth Askue, reader
GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN Traditional spiritual 
    arr. Howard Helvey 1993, Stephen Kitsakos, piano
FELIZ NAVIDAD Jose Feliciano 1970
    Doris Blatter, Sue Ulrich, Edward Peters, Jim Ulrich: 
    Overlook Mountain Brass
WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCHED (SHERBURNE) Daniel Read 1757-1836
    small ensemble
IF ANGELS SUNG A SAVIOR'S BIRTH (MILFORD) Joseph Stephenson 1760
IN TIME OF SOFTEST SNOW John Carter, M.K. Beall 1985
O MAGNUM MYSTERIUM Alden Ashforth 1980
    Cecelia Keehn, soloist
CHERRY TREE CAROL Appalachian folk song adapted from a Western 
    Wind arrangement
    Arthur Fama, Wendy Lowe, Matthew Ulrich and Jim Ulrich, soloists
THOU CHILD DIVINE J. Schulz 1747-1800
    Cecelia Keehn and Thomas Keehn, soloists
HOSANNA C. Gregor 1723-1892
CAROLING CAROLING Alfred Burt 1920-1954
    Hudson Valley Youth Chorale with
ITCAME UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR Richard Willis 1851
"Yes Virginia" Virginia O'Hanlan-Francis Church (1897)
    Overlook Mountain Brass; Walter Kortrey, Christina Dolamore, readers
WIND THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES Traditional
    Hudson Valley Youth Chorale
JUDAH'S LAND Traditional Appalachian arr. D. Johnson, B. Pickhardt
    Cecelia Keehn, soloist; Erica Pickhardt, cello 

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