Does the world need another Christmas CD? If the CD is the Elmer Iseler Singers’ “Puer Natus in Bethlehem, Alleluia!” my answer is a resounding Yes! On it the Iseler Singers perform carols by Canadian composers commissioned for the recording – four original compositions, an arrangement of the Huron Carol and eleven new arrangements of carols from the 1582 collection, “Piae Cantiones” by the Swedish monk, Theodoricus Petrus of Nyland. Published in England in 1853, its timeless melodies have permeated the church music of the English-speaking world. According to Ken Winters’ informative liner notes the only work on the program not commissioned by the Singers is Healey Willan’s miniature masterpiece, Resonet in Laudibus, also from “Piae Cantiones”.Each carol is a highly individual exploration of musical beauty. Exquisite dissonances propel Eleanor Daley’s harmonization of Ave Maris Stella; Eric Robertson astonishes with his symphonic vision of Puer Natus in Bethlehem; Derek Holman’s modal counterpoint to the syncopations of Gaudete bursts with energy; Donald Patriquin’s folk song treatment of Puer Nobis Nascitur is fresh and unexpected; Peter Togni’s arrangement of Corde Natus – Of the Father’s love begotten moves with deft assurance from two-part simplicity to a grand multiphonic concluding Amen. The Elmer Iseler Singers conducted by Lydia Adams, and the instrumentalists who join them in several pieces, are as good as the music: their flawless intonation, rhythmic vitality and great sensitivity to the expressive power of phrasing, communicate sublime religious feeling much needed in this distressed time. Allan Pulker
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