Notes

A Summer Carol:  From A Singing Faith. This won the Auckland RSCM Carol Competition in 1993, and has subsequently been sung by choirs throughout the country. Christopher was the Mozart Fellow in Composition at Otago University, Dunedin for 1994 and 95, and was awarded the Philip Neill Memorial Prize for Composition in 1995. It was a special moment for me when, at an Artist Doctors' concert in 1994, our youngest son, Dr Andrew Marshall, conducted this carol with a Waikato Hospital choir he had formed.

Setting by Christopher Marshall. It is sung here by the Hamilton Civic Choir under Julie Jackson.

Please press the red title to hear a MIDI recording of this tune, and then re-open this window to read the poem while listening.

If you would prefer to follow the tune and text on paper you may download a PDF file of this carol.

For permission to perform or reproduce this carol, or for enquiries regarding the purchase of 'Hymns For All Seasons', please contact Jocelyn.

 

A Summer Carol

Holy day, holiday,
Christ's birth we celebrate;
golden the sunshine and silver the seas,
star flowers of clematis crowning the bushland,
crimson of rata and green of the trees.

Act of divinity,
earthly nativity,
let us remember the reason he came;
seeking the wanderer, freeing the prisoner;
may we who serve him, his gospel proclaim

  Born to be one of us,
Child of the universe,
bringing a message of healing and joy,
hope to the desolate, faith to the waverer,
love to all people which none can destroy.

Welcome our new-born King!
Joyfully now we sing;
may he be with us the rest of our days
guiding, inspiring with patience untiring,
hearts filled with thankfulness, voices with praise.


Copyright © Jocelyn Marshall