H14 Fall 2014 March of the Three Kings

The fourteenth piece in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Hodie. If you haven’t heard this piece performed, do so. It rocks; it will blow you away.

If you were a little boy growing up in the fifties, your peers tried to persuade you that singing was for sissies. But then came Christmas, and in churches all around town, the men in the church choirs took the lead. These large men, who looked down at you from a great height, who smelled of after shave, hair oil, and tobacco, stood before the congregation and sang with a volume seldom heard the rest of the year. The songs they sang were always about the Magi: their gold and spices, their camels and their star. Who would think that Williams, with his ethereal angels and angelic trebles, could capture this spirit? He does, by golly, and we better do right by him!

There are individual and “your part louder” versions for soprano, alto, tenors 1 and 2, baritone and bass.  There are only a few divisions, and many sections of the piece are in unison or two parts.

• The versions for the men begin at rehearsal 3, on page 72.
• The versions for the women begin at the second system, on page 73.

Williams calls for a majestic tempo, 96 quarter notes per minute, and the Guildford Chorus recorded it at very close to that. The La-la choir’s tempo is ten beats/minute less. I didn’t include a metronome in these pieces, but you’ll need to count. As always, Williams tries to throw you off with backbeats and so forth.

Ensemble:

Sopranos alone: 

1st Soprano louder:

Altos alone:

1st Tenors alone:

1st Tenors louder:

2nd Tenors alone:

2nd Tenors louder:

Baritones alone:

Baritones louder:

Basses alone:

Basses louder: