A Christmas Cantata: The Hope of the Season

“Tell me, how may I join in this holy feast

With all the kneeling world, and I of all the least?

Fear not, O faithful heart, but bring what most is meet:

Bring love alone, true love alone, and lay it at his feet.”

Something I’ve tried to do these past few years is write one major composition per year, beginning with my Missa Sancti Bartholomaeus in 2021, followed by Good Night: A Requiem in 2022, my Wellington Canticles and Wellington Responses in 2023, and Precious Stones in 2024. I find that my greatest passion in music is composition, and with a full-time schedule and now a baby, it has become rather difficult to sit down at the piano and write! However, I managed to persevere and motivate myself to get the final notes on the page for a new 2025 work, A Christmas Cantata, which I’ve dedicated to our son, Casey, on his first Christmas.

I set out to write a Christmas work that, similar to my requiem, uses poetry to capture the beauty, wonder, and hope that the season offers. My original idea was to find one long-form text to adapt to music, but then I came across a book, American Christmas: 48 Poems That Celebrate the Beauty of Christmas, that gave me a beautiful assortment of ideas to pull from and create the skeleton of my piece. Five captivating poems, in addition to three traditional Christmas carol texts, are surrounded by the Christmas story from the various Gospels, taking the listener on a very personal experience through the Christmas story.

The cantata is set for choir, piano, string orchestra, and soloists, and the St. Bart’s Parish Choir has been diligently preparing the work for the premiere on December 21 at 4:00 p.m. I will be leading the work at the piano, accompanied by the Poway Symphonette Orchestra, with our very own Hannah Arevalo and Sean McCormac as the featured soloists and Bob Himlin as narrator. I hope you will all come to the premiere and open your heart to the joy of Christmas and celebrate the hope that the Messiah brings us.

Blessings,

Dr. John-Luke Addison