Daily Classical Music Post
John Joubert: “Welcome Yule!”
The decorations are up, the holiday music is blaring in the shops; there is no mistaking what time of year it is. This December, the Daily Classical Music Post will introduce you to music composed for or inspired by holidays that occur in the month of December. There will be a little something for everyone (I hope)!
The South African–British composer John Joubert (1927–2019) was particularly well known for his choral works. He once said, “I’ve always wanted to write anything I was asked to do or wanted to write, never wanting to specialise, although I have to a certain extent been pigeon-holed.”
Joubert composed many Christmas carols, some based on or inspired by medieval carols. “Welcome Yule!,” written in 1956 for a cappella SATB choir, is his setting of a 15th-century carol, “Welcum, Yole,” which welcomes each of the 12 days of Christmas. This carol also serves as an introduction to all of the feast-days that come in the Christian calendar after Christmas: Stephen, John, the Holy Innocents, Thomas Becket, and the Circumcision of Christ. Joubert’s “Welcome Yule!” is a joyful and exuberant work, displaying what he called his mastery of “the idiom of Anglican church music generally. Parry and Stanford, and all the usual blokes.”
My classical music post for today is John Joubert’s “Welcome Yule!”