A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28

Composed in 1942 on board a ship crossing the Atlantic as Britten returned to Britain from America, the Ceremony of Carols sets eleven medieval English and Latin texts for three-part treble choir and solo harp. The work begins and ends with a plainsong processional (Hodie Christus natus est) that gives it the feeling of a medieval ceremony. Britten's genius lies in the freshness of his harmonic language — consonant enough to be accessible, dissonant enough to be arresting — and in the extraordinary variety of texture achieved from just three vocal parts and solo harp. The central harp interlude is a highlight of the solo harp repertoire in its own right.