The drummers have drummed, the maids have milked, the swans have swum and even the partridge has flown the pear tree. What now?
All the holiday hoopla leading up to Christmas Day can have you singing the post-holiday blues. But for more than 40 years, the annual Twelfth Night concert of The Early Interval, Columbus’ resident early music ensemble, has reminded us that Christmas is really the beginning of the traditional season of holiday merriment.
“The Christmas season extends past Christmas Day, and even past New Year’s. Twelfth Night is the twelfth day after Christmas. In the Church calendar year, this is known as Epiphany, and in the Christmas holiday season, it’s kind of the endpoint,” said Jim Bates, creative director of The Early Interval. “In olden times, people in those dark days of winter wanted the merriment, they wanted the bowl of wassail, they wanted to sing songs, get together and enjoy the good company of their friends and families and neighbors.”
This year, The Early Interval’s Twelfth Night festivities will take on a French accent in Joyeux Noël: A French Twelfth Night Celebration, Saturday, Jan. 4 at 7:30 p.m. in St. Joseph Cathedral, Downtown Columbus. The program will feature selections from the rich repertoires of French traditional Christmas carols, instrumental noëls and cantatas from the Middle Ages through the Baroque era.
Members of The Early Interval came to the WOSU Headquarters recently for a preview of their upcoming French Twelfth Night Celebration. Here, Early Interval soprano Emily Noel, baritone Austin Piper, recorder player David Stefano, violinist Guillermo Salas, and Baroque guitarist Sean Ferguson perform the traditional French carol Noël Nouvelet (“Sing We Now of Christmas”) with Bates on viola da gamba.
This year’s Twelfth Night concert will feature a larger-than-usual group of performers, including what Bates describes as a “bevy” of string players, and a new organ in a splashy solo piece.
“This year it’s the largest incarnation of The Early Interval that I can remember,” said Bates, who has performed with The Early Interval for at least 20 years. “There will be an expanded string section, three singers, percussion and recorder. And we’re featuring Early Music in Columbus’ brand-new portative organ throughout the program.”
Earlier this year, Early Music in Columbus purchased a portative organ built by Netherlands-based Klop Organs and Harpsichords. The instrument was built for early music performance and is small enough to be transported from one performance venue to another.
“You think of organs, and you think of the massive installed organs in churches. This one is smaller than a refrigerator,” Bates said. “There is a solo organ piece on the concert, and we’ve arranged that also to incorporate other instruments, so I think (the organ is) going to get a very nice feature in the concert.”
The Early Interval’s Twelfth Night programming has traditionally featured music from a specific European country each year, and in recent years has also explored early holiday repertoires from North and South America. As in all of the group’s previous Twelfth Night concerts, The Early Interval’s musical tour of France this year will end in England for the concert’s grand finale – a festive sing-along to the Gloucestershire Wassail.
“No matter where we are, we always come back to that tradition for the audience sing-along,” Bates said.
The Early Interval performs Joyeux Noël: A French Twelfth Night Celebration on Saturday, Jan. 4 at 7:30 p.m. in St. Joseph Cathedral.
