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In the deepness of the night before Christmas, children dream of exciting and wondrous things: so do adults, but they are also fraught with arrangements and planning for the big day. a call for simplicity and remembering the loving and gifting nature of Christmas. This piece is performed “in the round” i.e. the adult choir encircles the audience and the children stand up the central aisle. The adult choir gradually moves around the audience and sings at times in smaller groupings. The audience does not know where the sound will come from next. The children need to be able to hold 3 simple parts. Finger cymbals are used to indicate stars and nocturnal animals create an interesting opening. It is depicts a New Zealand Christmas experience.

• Russell: A Wellington Christmas or Christmas Eve Reflections; computer set 

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• Russell: A Wellington Christmas or Christmas Eve Reflections; computer set 

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• Bray: Carol for a Dark Night; computer set 

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This cycle of pieces was written for South Auckland Choral Society’s end of year concert which I was invited to conduct in 2007. The original request was for a concert of New Zealand music, but beyond a number of short Christmas pieces there is little in the way to extended seasonal music by New Zealand composers. I offered to write something new for the concert, to complement Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols.

Having already written a Christmas cycle for a similar choir the same year, I was keen to move away from texts about the trappings of the Christmas story. I finally found a number of texts about children and their relationship to Christmas. Surrounding these texts are some more traditionally focussed texts. Inevitably it was hard to avoid poetry with images of snow, bells and stars.

The first poem is a traditional Afro-American spiritual text and sets the scene by telling of Mary and her baby. In order to give the men of the choir something worthwhile to do in the rehearsal (white the women worked on the Britten), I decided to feature them in several pieces. The second text, “Children’s Song of the Nativity”, is really a series of questions such as a young child might ask: “What will we see? Can we go in?” The third text, for unaccompanied men’s voices, is the despairing pleas of a young man who desperately wants to be something significant in the nativity play this year. The fourth text sets Eleanor Farjeon’s “Advice to a Child” – some suggestions as to ways in which Christmas might be prepared for.

• Hamilton: Christmas Crackers; computer-set 

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This short Christmas piece was written for my choir at St. Mary’s College, St. Mary’s Schola. Each year the school has a Christmas concert, and this piece was written for the 2009 concert. The music is in a simple reflective tonal style.

• Hamilton: Embrace the Night; computer-set  Year: 2009 

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Arrangements of traditional Polish carols contrasting in mood. Available either in SATB with 2 french horns accompaniment, or SATB with piano accompaniment. They are of moderate difficulty, tuneful and accessible to all singers and audiences.

• Caskie: Five Polish Christmas Carols; computer-set 

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• Caskie: Five Polish Christmas Carols; computer-set 

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• Caskie: Five Polish Christmas Carols; computer-set 

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• Lauder: Fruit of our Folly; computer-set 

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• Lauder: Fruit of our Folly 

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• McLeod: Godsongs No. 13: 17 Christmas Carols; computer-set 

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• Bray: Look Toward Christmas; Computer set 

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• Crehan: O Holy Night!; computer-set 

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