And now for something different

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Never mind your Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Gisborne Choral Society conductor Gavin Maclean has herded up a programme of carols with a difference.

The meditative, uplifting and humorous carols provide easy listening, he says. They are also a change from the familiar style of carol favourites and are far from the unauthentic, jingly musak of chain stores.

“There are echoes of earlier centuries, from seventh-century plainchant, songs that gradually become more rhythmical and dance-based up to the catchy, upbeat pulses of Heinrich Schutz.”

From there, tunes sled through cheerful secular English numbers to some modern settings of classics.

Items will be a capella (unaccompanied) or accompanied by Coralie Hunter on piano and harpsichord. Hunter will occasionally be joined by Robert de Kock on bass, and Harnie Jo in piano duo for J.S. Bach’s chorale Sleepers Wake.

“The concert is sprinkled with solos and duets,” says Maclean.

“Soprano Madeleine Jones, new to Gisborne — but already a hit with musical-theatre-goers — sings a song from Shakespearean times and the romantic Lullaby by Max Reger.”

Among a sprinkling of other solos and duets is the French traditional Whence is that Goodly Fragrance, sung by Marlene Nuttall.

Modern arrangements include a joke setting of Twelve Days of Christmas, and a sumptuous nativity piece, O Magnum Mysterium, by popular choral composer Morten Lauridsen.

Sing We with Mirth, lesser known carols of humour and beauty, performed by the Gisborne Choral Society, St Andrew’s Church. Sunday, 7pm. Free admission. Optional koha.