A CELEBRATION OF CHRISTMAS AND THE BEATLES
COMPOSER HOWARD GOODALL
Throughout his career, world-renowned British composer Howard Goodall has learned not to be too prescriptive, allowing his collection of sacred and secular music to take on a life of its own.
“It’s not my job to tell people what to think or what to believe,” he said. “It’s my job to put pieces out there that prompt people to think about things and respond in their own way.”
Whether writing choral music, stage musicals, or film and television scores, he is not presumptuous in regards to how his work impacts others — an approach that correlates with his insistence on editorial independence as a distinguished music historian and broadcaster.
This weekend, Goodall returns to Houston to conduct the world premiere of “Christmas Cantata,” a new seven-movement work he wrote specifically for the choirs of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, as part
of its annual Christmas Festival. The approximately 35-minute piece, which ties together carols that the composer had previously written at one time or another, will be performed in the sanctuary during all three of the church’s Sunday morning traditional worship services. The concert succeeds the debut of Goodall’s “Invictus: A Passion,” his first commission for the chancel choir under the direction of Sid Davis, in March 2018.
The following evening, Goodall will share insight into the legacy and creative process of one of the world’s most popular, bestselling bands known as the “Fab Four” in his first-ever Beatles presentation in the United States. The event, a collaboration between Gow Media and St. Luke’s Friends of Music, will be held at the George Theater, home of Houston’s A.D. Players repertory company.
In 2004, Goodall presented a four-part television series surrounding influential 20th-century leaders in the music industry that included the John Lennon-Paul McCartney songwriting duo. Thirteen years later, after being approached by the surviving members of the Beatles, Goodall wrote and hosted “Sgt. Pepper’s Musical Revolution,” a documentary shown around the world to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of the band’s revolutionary eighth studio album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts
Club Band.”
His films, like his inperson presentations, speak more to the reasoning behind the music’s importance, focusing on why the musicians ultimately changed the industry, instead of their concert lineup and the intimate details of their personal lives, he explained. Objectivity is important to him, as is open-mindedness when it comes to the individual connections that listeners discover with his own music.
The new sequence of carols that forms “Christmas Cantata” includes two Spanish texts set alongside the English translations to a Latin American rhythm, a modern take on a medieval sound in a piece that he originally composed for an all-female ensemble and has reworked for full choir and orchestra, a lush version of the popular “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear,” and a setting of a 16th-century, metaphysical poem that builds into a loud, triumphant celebration.
The work also features two original texts. In “Lullaby of Winter,” Goodall presents a more modern perspective of the Nativity story and reflects a situation that is all too familiar in the world today — a fragile, vulnerable child seeking refuge far from home.
“The remarkable thing about that story is that it proves that someone who appears to be insignificant or small, someone who is not rich and powerful, can make enormous change in the world,” Goodall said, referencing the determination of young activists like Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg.
“I am Christmas Day,” on the other hand, concludes the concert with a gentle reflection on different interpretations of the meaning of the holiday, whether religious or not. The title of the piece, which was commissioned by the faithbased charity Mercy Ships UK, is a metaphor for kindness and generosity in relation to taking care of those who are less fortunate, he explained.
“Every person will take something different from it,” he said of his work. “What I have found is that it’s amazing and humbling that people can be moved and touched and respond to these pieces that often have come on quite a journey as they’ve been created themselves.”