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Dominick DiOrio
Dominick DiOrio (DD3 Publications)
A Yuletide Carol
A secular, up-tempo holiday work for mixed chorus and tambourine.
SATB chorus and tambourine
“A Yuletide Carol” is a work for the holiday season born out of the ancient Yule rituals. Uplifting, celebratory, joyous, and just a bit mysterious, it is an excellent work to balance the many wondrous and slower anthems usually programmed during December. The tambourine is a welcome addition, adding rhythmic energy and an element of the dance.
Composer’s Notes
“When Dominick DiOrio agreed to write a new work for the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia’s annual A Feast of Carols concert, he turned to poet and Mendelssohn Chorus member Kyle Conner to provide a text, giving him wide latitude in subject and format. Conner explains that “immediately the concept of Yule starting racing around my brain – Yuletide carols, Yule logs, Yule feasts. Attributed to Germanic tribes, the Yule tradition is very old and precedes Christianity by several hundred years. Yule in its earliest Norse form Jolnir was one of the many names of the Norse god Odin. Yule originated as a celebration of Odin and the winter solstice. With the spread of Christianity, it was gradually subsumed into the celebration of Christmas. I knew that this would be a celebratory piece, so it had to be a dance. I constructed the poetry in 6/8 meter with two dactyls (DEE-da-da) followed by three trochees (DEE-da), a rhythm reinforced by beats of the tambourine. Otherwise, the music is sung entirely a cappella, which is likely how singing began.”
-Michael Moore
Text
(accompanied by chords of great mystery)
YULE!
Y-U-L-E ! ! !
Y—U—L—E !!!
(Verses beginning quiet & intense, slowly building in volume and intensity, and ultimately, joy. Verses are spoken-sung in chant-like fashion.)
We-sing-Yule-to-night
Watch-the-log-burn-bright
Spi-rits-walk-up-right
Sha-ding-death-with-life
Yule is the joy of the All-As-One
Stoking the revelry just begun
Offering songs to the setting sun
Calling the past into momentum
Y-U-L-E ! !
(every iteration of “YULE” should have slight upward release akin to women’s Bulgarian folk singing)
See-er-tell-us-true
Fu-tures-that-you-view
What-rid-dles-can-you
Spell-for-our-com-mune?
Seer (solo or chorus, in guttural voice, as if possessed):
Now ancestor’s spirits walk hand in hand
Sowing the air of the dormant land
Inhaling night and exhaling day
What is the magical seed?
We say:
Y-U-L-E !
Mys-t’ries-we-behold
Now-til-time-un-told
Cir-cle-round-the-fire
Lift-our-vi-sion-high’r
A sacred vigil this longest night
Clarifies vision of second sight
Holding realities side by side
This is the wonder we call Yuletide!
Y-U-L-E!
Join-us-in-this-dance
Find-our-in-ner-trance
Make-we-in-this-place
Joy-un-to-our-grace
Unblinking eye of Eternal Time
Fixes the mystery in its rime
In frozen moment revealèd all
Ten thousand mysteries in our thrall
Y-U-L-E !
Nature slumbers deep
Seasons in its sleep
We dream greenest fields
For our crops to yield
Spirits-move-about
Nat’ral-law-they-flout!
We-wield-ancient-wyrd
Come, Sun, quell our fear!
Fire the image of light divine
Sparking together in dance and wine
Joy is our answer to darkest hour
Dancing the circle we call our power:
YULE-BEING!-Thee-we-praise
For-green-shoots-to-raise!
Ma-gic-let’s-us-see
Pos-si-bi-li-ty!
Spirits now to rest
At Time’s grave request
Sunlight scatters all
Spectral caterwauls
YULE! Y-U-L-E ! !
We-take-plea-sure-now
Toast-ing-gods-and-plough
Sing-ing-praise-to-thou
Na-ture’s-green-est-bough
Yule-brings-spe-cial-sight
To-this-long-est-night
May-you-live-in-peace
Joy-and-love-in-crease!
(Calls of “Yule!” race like flickering flames among the chorus fading to whispers no less intense. Chorus raises arms in final salutation to the rising sun as the celebration ends.)
-Kyle Conner
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