When Nick Chalmers is asked to name his favorite Christmas songs, he said the joke is that he has two and about 30 runners-up.
One of them is very familiar, he said, “Away in a Manger,” and the other, maybe not as much: “The Sussex Carol.” “It’s a little bit of a confusing history as to who wrote it and when,” he said. The words are believed to have been written in the 1600s, he said, but the carol didn’t become famous until the early 1900s.
Nick Chalmers
Chalmers is director of choirs at Chesterton Academy in Hopkins and director of music at Annunciation in Minneapolis. He also serves as artistic director of the Minneapolis-based Mirandola Ensemble. He recently joined “Practicing Catholic” host Patrick Conley to provide his perspective on Christmas music.
A recording of an arrangement of “Away in a Manger” by Twin Cities-based composer and conductor Matthew Culloton is played during Conley’s interview. The solo voice at the beginning and a simple melody bring “a real simplicity” to the song, Chalmers said, calling it a clever arrangement.
The song’s three verses always strike him, Chalmers said, because the first sets the scene of the nativity with the cradle and the cattle lowing, “and so it’s just sort of setting the scene of this child.” The third verse changes perspective “and we are sort of pleading, ‘be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay,’ so we’re the children … and I’m always struck by just how tender the text is and how the music supports that.”
Chalmers believes “The Sussex Carol” could be viewed as more of a performative piece than a carol that people would sing along with, but said choirs in the United States have begun to sing it more and more.
To hear the Mirandola Ensemble’s performance of “Away in a Manger” – and a bonus performance of “The Sussex Carol” by the choir of King’s College in Cambridge, and to hear the full interview, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic.” It airs at 9 p.m. Dec. 24, 1 p.m. Dec. 25 and 2 p.m. Dec. 26 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
Chalmers invited listeners to a concert Jan. 7 at 7 p.m. at St. Gabriel in Hopkins to hear “some beautiful music by really talented high school singers.” The singers are students in Chesterton Academy choirs.
To learn more about the Mirandola Ensemble, visit TheMirandolaEnsemble.org.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who describes Pope Francis’ choice of Bishop-elect Joseph Williams as the new auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and memories of family Christmas traditions from his childhood; and local musician and recording artist Luke Spehar, who describes and plays a recording of a favorite Christmas song: “O, Holy Night.”
Listen to all of the interviews after they have aired at
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