In December 2020, Choros the Oxford-based semi-professional chamber choir conducted by Janet Lincé, launched their new CD: A Sense of Advent. It includes Janet’s carol The Christmas Life. Like many other carols on the CD, this had been a commission from Choros, a choir which deserves praise for championing new music so actively. The Christmas Life is Janet’s setting of a poem by Wendy Cope, describing the excitement of welcoming Christmas into our homes. From ‘a young Norwegian spruce’ to ‘hope and love and light’, the poem enumerates what we should bring into the house at Christmastime. The music sets out to capture the excitement through energetic dance-like rhythms, contrasted with a more reflective middle section at ‘bring in your memories of Christmas past, / Bring in your tears for all that you have lost.’ Choros have recorded the carol a cappella, but it can also be performed with its optional independent piano part.
A Sense of Advent is available from the CHOROS Chamber Choir website.