Join Choir of the Earth for a short festive course with a difference as we learn, sing and record Paul Ayres’s brilliantly inventive How Many Carols?
What we will learn
How many Christmas carols can you fit over the bass line from Pachelbel’s famous Canon in D? Quite a lot, as it turns out!
© paulayres.co.uk
Paul Ayres’s How Many Carols? takes familiar seasonal melodies and ingeniously layers, combines and adapts them over Pachelbel’s instantly recognisable eight-note sequence. We will be learning Version II, which packs 25 different carols into less than four minutes of music.
It is clever, fast-moving and enormous fun to sing, with familiar tunes appearing, overlapping and disappearing almost as quickly as you can recognise them.
Over three days, Ben England will guide us through this festive musical puzzle and help us bring all of its different layers together for our own global Choir of the Earth recording.
About the composer
© paulayres.co.uk
Paul Ayres is a British composer, arranger, organist and choral director whose music ranges from original compositions to imaginative arrangements and reworkings of familiar repertoire.
His writing often combines musical craftsmanship with a playful sense of humour, and How Many Carols? is a perfect example: a musical challenge built from some of the best-known Christmas tunes around.
Our teaching and resources
The course will be directed by Choir of the Earth Musical Director Ben England, who teaches the music note by note and voice part by voice part through a programme of online rehearsals. Rehearsals are usually around an hour long and, if you cannot attend live, every session is recorded, so you can catch up when it suits you best.
You will also have access to high-quality voice part louder rehearsal tracks recorded by Ben and Katie England. Separate tracks are provided for each voice part, with your part louder than the other voices so that you can hear it clearly while you learn. These are the same tracks used during our rehearsals, so as Ben teaches the music you can hear exactly what you need to replicate - not only the notes and rhythms, but also the phrasing, dynamics, pronunciation and other musical details that bring the piece to life.
You can attend as many rehearsals as you like, learn more than one voice part if you wish, and take the course at your own pace. There is no requirement to record: some singers simply enjoy the teaching, while others submit their voice from home to become part of our final performance.
How Many Carols? is under copyright, so a licensed score is required for this course at a small additional charge. We will provide full information on how to purchase your copy before the course begins.
Join us!
Everyone is welcome to join Choir of the Earth. There are no auditions - just sign up as a member and you’re already in!
Sign up now to become a member of Choir of the Earth. Access ongoing courses, recording opportunities, superb teaching, a thriving international community of choral singers, plus lots of other exclusive resources, content and benefits, including access to our new choral resources library! Yearly members save 12% (that's 6 weeks of singing absolutely free!).
Hear us in action
Here is Choir of the Earth singing another fun Paul Ayres arrangement, plus a beautiful Christmas piece. Will you be part of our next recording? 🎶