A Christmas Carol
by Sérgio Azevedo (1968)
Ref. ava070117
4'
A Christmas Carol for Strings A Christmas Carol is a very simple piece, requested by António Lourenço to begin the Christmas Concert of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Beiras. I based the work on a very beautiful English tune from the 17th-Century, The Friendly Beasts. This melody is repeated five times in a crescendo that involves the entire orchestra: it begins calmly with pizzicato in the basses; then passes to the divisi cellos (bowed, in unison); next comes a forte harmonization in three voices in violas and divisi cellos; after this, there is an exposition of the hymn, in all its greatness and splendor, in a forte, orchestral tutti. The work ends with a six-voiced canon played by soloists in the extreme upper register (an ethereal region...), accompanied by the basses from the beginning of the piece. And, after one last crescendo, everything dissolves into a diaphanous pianissimo: Christ has just been born...
© Sérgio Azevedo