NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Manawatu Guardian

Sing along to Carols for Christmas with the Renaissance Singers

By Merania Karauria
Manawatu Guardian·
8 Dec, 2020 02:57 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Principals Guy Donaldson, Christine Archer-Lockwwod and Roy Tankersley with the Renaissance Singers at Carols for Christmas rehearsal.

Principals Guy Donaldson, Christine Archer-Lockwwod and Roy Tankersley with the Renaissance Singers at Carols for Christmas rehearsal.

Carols are an integral part of Christmas.

The Renaissance Singers have been rehearsing for their Carols for Christmas concert at St Peter's Church on December 13.

Guy Donaldson, Roy Tankersley and Christine Archer-Lockwood are the principals.

Archer-Lockwood will be conducting, Donaldson accompanying on piano, and Tankersley on organ.

Music director Archer-Lockwood has researched for the programme of old and new carols with some that naturally set themselves to a sing-along, while others are chosen for the audience to just sit back and enjoy accompanists Donaldson and Tankersley and the well-rehearsed Renaissance Singers in full flight - a concert of carolling.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Older Palmerstonians will remember Christmas carols being sung on Christmas morning by Salvation Army choristers with the Salvation Army band members on the back of a large flat-deck truck as they drove around city streets - a different section of the city each year.

They might also remember families gathered around a piano singing carols after a midday dinner, or after the presents had been opened.

Award-winning American composer John Corigliano had visited the Metropolitan Museum in New York, where there is a large display of medieval art. Much of it centres around Bible stories, most notably the Christmas story.

Massive artworks of chubby cherubs and chin-rubbing wise men were often reduced, reprinted and inserted in Bibles.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The museum has cloisters, open hallways running alongside the building which inspired Corigliano to write a carol about Christmas in New York.

The result is Christmas in the Cloisters, a contemporary-sounding composition that uses the same devices that captured movie-goers listening to Corigliano's award-winning soundtracks.

Donaldson on piano will provide a melodic underlay, while the choir sings of the New
York setting for Christmas.

From the modern, the Renaissance Singers will dip back to the 15th century via another modern composer, Cecelia McDowall.

McDowall uses old dance rhythms and hints of Gregorian chants to provide a lilting reminder of the carol singing of 500 years ago.

Berlioz - of Symphonie Fantastique fame - wrote the Shepherds' Farewell to Joseph, Mary and Jesus as they ventured to Egypt.

This carol will move even cynics with its gentle, soft reverence, and it is a favourite of those who have heard it before.

The audience will have the opportunity to join the choir in carols and choruses with a number of old favourites.

Among them will be Ding Dong Merrily on High.

While the audience will want to join in the chorus, this lustily-sung carol has sections where some of the choir sing verses while other choir members deliver the syncopated dings and dongs, Tankersley on the organ providing a stirring accompaniment with shimmering scales.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Silent Night and Good King Wenceslas will be well known to most -= with the moral of the Wenceslas story made clear via the choir, as the king and page, despite being in heavy snow, seek to provide for someone with less. Surely a pivotal part of the Christmas message.

The choir in the main are in classic voice for this concert but they do take a turn when singing The Earthly Choir to sound a little more like Manhattan Transfer with "doo-waa" and "bai-dup" stylings.

Christopher Norton is an ex-pat Kiwi living in the UK. He has developed a music teaching programme that has become one of the most popular in the world.

Norton has an obvious link to jazz, and the choir will be letting their hair down a
bit to make sure the carol swings as it should.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Manawatu Guardian

Manawatu Guardian

White-tailed spider bite leaves man in hospital for a month with deadly infection

02 Jan 04:00 PM
Manawatu Guardian

Police appeal after woman shot in Palmerston North

16 Dec 08:35 PM
Manawatu Guardian

All Black's legacy lives on at Romney Lane Homestead

13 Dec 04:00 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Manawatu Guardian

White-tailed spider bite leaves man in hospital for a month with deadly infection

White-tailed spider bite leaves man in hospital for a month with deadly infection

02 Jan 04:00 PM

Andy Stewart pushed on with his motorbike trek despite his growing pain.

Police appeal after woman shot in Palmerston North

Police appeal after woman shot in Palmerston North

16 Dec 08:35 PM
All Black's legacy lives on at Romney Lane Homestead

All Black's legacy lives on at Romney Lane Homestead

13 Dec 04:00 PM
Three men to appear in Palmerston North court on drugs and firearms-related charges

Three men to appear in Palmerston North court on drugs and firearms-related charges

11 Dec 04:27 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Manawatu Guardian e-edition
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP