The prodigious English composer is a true master who deserves to be known for more than his much-loved carols, says Clare Stevens
ILLUSTRATION: MATT HERRING
For millions of people around the world, Christmas begins with that ethereal treble voice floating into a darkened chapel in the opening solo verse of Once in Royal David’s City. But for many, the essence of the festive season is distilled in something altogether jollier: the dancing arpeggios of an orchestral flute introducing John Rutter’s Shepherd’s Pipe Carol, a vivid story told through text and music, both by Rutter, bringing a touch of whimsical enchantment to a programme of seasonal favourites in a metropolitan concert hall.
The composer’s name is closely associated with Christmas carols, and Rutter grew up in North London. His father, a scientist, enjoyed music and could play the piano a little by ear; his mother was more interested in literature and theatre. At Highgate School he came under the inspiring influences of Martindale Sidwell, organist of Hampstead Parish Church, and the school’s director of music, Edward Chapman, whose chapel choir Rutter soon joined. Chapman had been a pupil of the Irish composer Charles Wood, renowned for his church music, and Rutter sees a clear line of music descent. ‘Wood was what would be called a very conservative composer, I suppose,’ he admitted in Giving Voice to my Music,
Rutter’s music brings whimsical enchantment to seasonal favourites in the concert hall
in particular with the Carols for Choirs anthologies published by Oxford University Press (OUP). The original volume – the familiar ‘green carol book’ – was edited by David Willcocks, then director of music at King’s College, Cambridge, in collaboration with Reginald Jacques; but the latter was in poor health and John Rutter, then a postgraduate student at King’s, was brought in to assist with Volume 2, published in 1970. The ‘orange book’ is full of his arrangements and original pieces, including the Shepherd’s Pipe Carol, written when he was just 18 and one of the manuscripts he had produced some years prior to that volume’s publication when Willcocks had asked to see some of his compositions. Willcocks was so impressed that he passed them on to colleagues at OUP with a recommendation that they should be published. David Wordsworth’s recently published book of conversations with choral composers; ‘but the music is always so beautifully crafted and well-heard. He was a great devotee of counterpoint and fugue, which I am too, really; it’s a way of learning how to make the notes do what you want them to do, and not let them run away.’
