Messe de Minuit pour Noel

Messe de Minuit pour Noel
Midnight Mass for Christmas based on French Carols

Marc-Antoine Charpentier was a prolific composer of both secular and sacred music and quite well known in late 17th century France. He very likely wrote this piece when he served as maître de musique (music director) of the Jesuit church of St. Louis in Paris. It was commonplace to hear secular carols both played and sung in church. Charpentier’s innovation was to compose an entire mass based on these familiar tunes.

Link to program notes by James Baldwin

Link to Charpentier bio article

Link to text and translation (scroll to bottom of page)


The latin text and attractive, singable character of this work makes it one of my favorites. I am especially looking forward to Craig Hansen’s delightful baroque organ accompaniment. This is a special convergence of both Craig’s forte with our baroque Nowak instrument. Enjoy!

I wish I could post links to recordings, but this would violate copyright laws. Here are some links to recordings you can download or purchase:

William Christie, Les Arts Florissants, Erato (2000)

David Willcocks, Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, EMI Classics (1967)

Aradia Ensemble, Kevin Mallon
Available for streaming or download on Rhapsody (free for Comcast users)
www.rhapsody.com (free trial available)

Several different performances available for download on itunes (.99 per track)

A wonderful plug-in, Scorch, makes it possible for you to follow the music on your screen while you hear and see your part. This feature works best using Internet Explorer. Click on the links in the sidebar to the right. You’ll be prompted and guided how to download Scorch. I think you’ll find these practice files especially useful.

The rehearsal schedule and general choir calendar also appear on a sidebar. Enjoy singing!

Great start!

It has been great fun to be with you for two rehearsals so far. I'm excited about our year and our new identity as the New Choir.

Here's what I've learned so far:

• Having your own folder, music and cubby makes everyone happy.
• You can never post the schedule in enough places. It will be on the white board tomorrow!
• Ray is awesome...and we need more tenors!
• You all have a wonderful choral sound.
• Everyone has a slightly different idea of what's fun to sing. Even me :)
• We are going to be exciting and awesome for our debut on Sunday!

I have a challenge for all of you: The most successful choir recruiting I've been involved with has been when members are excited and reach out. Can you think of someone to whom you can say "Our choir at FUMC is __________ (adjective), our community is __________ (adjective), and our conductor is _________ (adjective) ! I think you would really enjoy it!"

I am very happy to make follow up contact to these people. (Hi! I'm the __________ (adjective) conductor of the FUMC choir!) Just let me know who and how to contact them.

Thanks for your musicianship and loyalty. I'll see you tomorrow night!