“CHANTICLEER SINGS CHRISTMAS” has been nominated for a 2022 GRAMMY Award!

Chanticleer’s Christmas concerts have become an institution in America. As the San Francisco Chronicle has written, “It’s impossible to resist the voices of Chanticleer.” Over the 42 years since Chanticleer was established in San Francisco, the 12-man group has become a fixture of the festive season, notably clocking up more than 300 broadcasts each December on America’s National Public Radio. Meanwhile, international tours and recordings have made the name of Chanticleer – derived from a clarion-voiced cockerel in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales – familiar to audiences all over the world.

 Chanticleer’s former Music Director, William Fred Scott, says that: “Christmas for Chanticleer has always been a season of song, an exciting flurry of travel, reconnecting with old friends, and thinking how best to present this timeless story to countless listeners.”    

 In the words of Gramophone magazine, “Chanticleer, it seems, can sing just about anything”. The characteristically rich and varied program of Chanticleer Sings Christmas, Chanticleer’s 8th Christmas album, embraces traditional carols and gospel numbers, plainsong, European and Mexican music of the 16th and 17th centuries, and composers and arrangers of the present day. The featured carols have their roots in the USA, Quebec, German, Spain and South America, and among the composers are Praetorius, Victoria, Hassler, Byrd, Manchicourt and the contemporary Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Steven Sametz and Rosephanye Powell.

TRACKLIST – Chanticleer sings Christmas

 1. Plainsong  Quem terra, pontus æthera

2. Jakob Handl (known as “Gallus”)  Canite tuba in Sion

3. Tomás Luis de Victoria  Ne timeas Maria 

4. Hans Leo Hassler  Dixit Maria ad Angelum

5. Peter Philips  Gaudens gaudebo

6. Carol, Trad. American, arr. Robert Shaw and Alice Parker  Away in a Manger                                     

7. William Byrd  Ecce virgo concipiet

8. Jacob Regnart  Ave Regina Caelorum

9. Arr. Lewis Redner/William Fred Scott/Ralph Vaughan Williams  O Little Town of Bethlehem

10. Trad. Canadian, arr. Mark Sirrett  D’où viens-tu, bergère?

11. Trad. Spanish, arr. Robert Shaw and Alice Parker  Hacía Belén va un burrico

12. Trad. Spanish, arr. Robert Shaw and Alice Parker  La Virgen lava pañales

13. Nicolas Saboly, arr. Robert Shaw and Alice Parker  Touro-louro-louro!

14. Michael Praetorius, arr. Harry Christophers  Quem pastores laudavere        

15. Pierre de Manchicourt  Reges terrae

16. Carol, Trad. German, arr. Robert Shaw and Alice Parker  Susanni, Susanni

17. Jaakko Mäntyjärvi  Staffan var en stalledräng

18. Trond Kverno  Corpus Christi Carol

19. Steven Sametz  Gaudete, from “Two Medieval Lyrics”

20. Rosephanye Powell  A Christmas Medley

21. Anonymous, arr. Piotr Nawrot  Dulce Jesús Mío