Two Warlock Carols, Plus More from the English Singers

Several years ago I presented a few carols as performed by the pioneering English Singers, including "Corpus Christi" by the remarkable English composer Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine).

Today we have another version of "Corpus Christi," performed by the BBC Chorus, along with a second Warlock song, "A Cornish Christmas Carol."

At the same time, I've done a new transfer of the English Singers' 78. The coupling for "Corpus Christi" is a setting of "The Holly and the Ivy" by Rutland Boughton. Also there are three new seasonal songs from the English Singers, also dating from the late 1920s:

• "In Dulci Jubilo" in a setting by R.L. Pearsall
• William Byrd's "O Christ Who Art the Light"
• "The Wassail Song" in the Ralph Vaughan Williams arrangement

Leslie Woodgate

See my 2013 English Singers post for more on this important group.

The BBC Chorus recordings, which come from 1936, are conducted by BBC choral director Leslie Woodgate. The soloists in "Corpus Christi" are contralto Ann Wood and the young tenor Peter Pears, making what may be his first recording.

"A Cornish Christmas Carol" is a setting of a text is by Henry Jenner in a translation by Trelawny Dayrell Reed. Warlock makes use of "Nowell, Nowell" in his setting.

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