On the ninth day of Christmas, the parish choir shares Gustav Holst's haunting carol "Lullay my liking." Featuring soloists Loretta Guarino Reid, Catharine Eastman, Jo Darius, and Arunima Kohli.
Born to a working-class musical family in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, the English composer Gustav Holst knew from a young age that music would be his calling. After studying at the Royal College of Music, Holst earned a living as an orchestral trombonist and music teacher while composing on the side. Best known for his orchestral suite The Planets, he also left a rich oeuvre of choral music drawing on texts as varied as the Rig Veda and Walt Whitman. The carol Lullay my liking sets a 15th-century English lyric found in a manuscript now in the British Library. A group of soloists narrates the scene of the Nativity, while the full choir sings a gently rocking lullaby to the baby Jesus.
