MY DANCING DAY

Windsor's Royal Chapel of St George parallels English cathedrals in its musical resources: boys and men singing the daily offices. Occasionally a CD is released, always providing a good spread of known and unknown music.

Their recent Christmas CD duly follows a pattern, from, say, Harold Darke's In the bleak midwinter to more recent carols, which include a winsome conception of Dormi Jesu by Clive Watkiss, an unusually textured Rosamundi by Malcolm Hawkins composing both words and music [listen to 'Rosamundi'] and Denys Darlow with Houseman's poem The Maker of Sun and Moon. Choir cupboards everywhere must be bulging with carols, the output of a tireless industry that appears to be endlessly searching for gold.

Oddly enough, a Polish carol that George Thalben-Ball discovered and harmonised years back is included here, the first time I have spotted it on a record. I had a hand in its publishing convinced that it would yield a bright future. Maybe its time has come? [Listen to 'A Polish Lullaby'].

When all is said and done, the Feast of the Nativity without music seems diminished and drab but a lot depends on choice from a mountain of carols. St George's Chapel at Windsor has been judicious and therefore successful.

To listen to the aural illustrations in this review, you may need to download RealNetworks' realplayer G2.