Par TEMPERLEY N.. Both a dedicated carol singer and an authority on the history of English music, Nicholas Temperley here offers a unique book of 37 carols dating from the fifteenth century to the present. For over fifty years he has sung, edited and composed carols each Christmas, and in Christmas is Coming the fruit of his enthusiasm is combined with his wealth of knowledge to produce an outstanding and original new collection. As John Rutter observes in his Foreword, the book does not pointlessly duplicate what can be found in many other carol books, but has a personality and purpose of its own. Twenty-two fresh and practical arrangements include carols from Austria, France, Germany, Mexico, Poland and the USA, alongside music both rare and familiar from the rich heritage of the English carol tradition. As well as eight of his personal favourites, from J. S. Bach to Charles Ives, the author includes seven new compositions of his own, settings of medieval and traditional texts that reveal his skill as a choral composer whose command of style ranges from the humorous to the profound. In addition to sample programmes and translations, there are invaluable notes on the performance and history of individual items, plus an historical summary of the genre as a whole: everything in fact to make Christmas is Coming an indispensable companion for singers who wish to enrich the seasonal repertoire for concerts, churches and traditional Yuletide carolling./ Recueil / Chorale

Par DARKE HAROLD. Love came down at Christmas (SATB) Cradle Hymn (Solo or unison and piano) A Christmas Carmen (SATB) The three carols in this new collection date from the early years of the twentieth century, but they have a perennial freshness that is typical of Darke's other enduring choral works, such as the much-loved carol In the bleak midwinter. They may be sung equally effectively as individual items, or together as a short anthology of seasonal music. A solo voice or unison singing would be equally effective in Cradle Hymn, which offers a refreshingly unfamiliar tune to time-honoured words. A Christmas Carmen makes for a rousing conclusion with a seasonalmessage of goodwill./ Feuillet / Chorale