Author: bachelgar

Today, we have more Chorister favourites to suggest: this time, MOVIES! Snuggle up with those closest to you (only within your household of course), grab some eggnog and popcorn and pop on one of these holiday movies! Jane Savage and her family love National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, a classic holiday film starring Chevy Chase. It’s available to rent on iTunes. They also suggest Love Actually, starring… well, EVERYONE! Available on Amazon Prime, Crave and Starz and to rent on iTunes. Cheryl Oudyk and her family can’t let a season go by without the Polar Express (available on Crave and to rent on iTunes)!  Jeffery Holk and his family second the Oudyk family with their love for the  Polar Express. They also recommend A Christmas Story – another holiday classic – filmed in St. Catharines and available on iTunes! Lisa Beattie and her family love Home Alone (available on Disney+ as well as iTunes), Scrooged with Bill Murray (iTunes). Arthur Christmas is a must-see each year for her brood of kids (available on Netflix)! Susan Arena and her loved ones snuggle up to the ultimate Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s available for free on the CTV app, Crave and to rent on iTunes.  Like this content? Please spread the love and share on your Facebook page. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Happy Holidays and see you at the movies!!! Check in tomorrow for another post. Please consider donating to the Bach Elgar Choir and help support one of the country’s oldest arts organizations.

1. When and where was Handel’s Messiah first performed?
   • The Messiah was first performed in Dublin at the New Music Hall in Fishamble Street on April 13, 1742.
2. In 1750, Handel began presenting annual performances of the Messiah at what London location?
   • The year after Messiah’s premiere in Dublin, Handel offered it in London at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. However, it wasn’t really embraced by the public until he began presenting annual performances of the Messiah for a London charity at the local Foundling Hospital.
3. The “O Antiphons” are the basis of what popular Christmas hymn?
   • The O Antiphons (sung December 17–23 in Roman Catholic and Anglican religious communities) are the source of the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Around 1100 AD, an unknown author turned them into a metrical Latin poem. Shortly after 1700, an unknown editor printed this metrical version in the collection Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum. About 150 years later, the poem came to the attention of Anglican priest and hymnwriter John Mason Neale (1818–66).
4. “Wolcum Yole!” The text of Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols (1942) is written in what language?
   • The text of A Ceremony of Carols is from The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems, edited by Gerald Bullett. Most of the text is in Middle English, with some Latin and Early Modern English. 
5. Who commissioned Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and when and where was it first performed?
   • In 1965, the Very Reverend Dr. Walter Hussey, the Dean of Chichester Cathedral, commissioned Bernstein to compose a work based on the Psalms. It was commissioned for that summer’s Southern Cathedrals Festival. The Cathedral of Chichester has collaborated with the cathedrals in Winchester and Salisbury in a summer music festival since 1960. However, the world premiere took place in the Philharmonic Hall, New York, on 15 July 1965 with the composer conducting. This was followed by the performance at Chichester on 31 July 1965, conducted by John Birch, the cathedral’s Organist and Master of the Choristers.

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Hope you had fun playing Name That Carol yesterday!
As promised, here are the answers:

1. Break Forth, O Beauteous, Heavenly Light
2. Frosty the Snowman
3. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
4. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
5. Here Comes Santa Claus
6. The Holly and the Ivy
7. The Huron Carol/T’was in the Moon of Wintertime
8. Jingle Bell Rock
9. Jingle Bells (Dashing through the snow…)
10. Let it Snow (Oh the weather outside is frightful)

BUT WAIT…we’re not done! It’s time for some classical music trivia. How many of these questions can you answer without resorting to Google!?

1. When and where was Handel’s Messiah first performed?
2. In 1750, Handel began presenting annual performances of the Messiah at what London location?
3. The “O Antiphons” are the basis of what popular Christmas hymn?
4. “Wolcum Yole!” The text of Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols (1942) is written in what language?
5. Who commissioned Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and when and where was it first performed?

Be sure to check our post tomorrow for the answers…and for movie suggestions from BEC choristers and board members!

Please consider donating to the Bach Elgar Choir and help support one of the country’s oldest arts organizations.

Day 1: Messiah Singalong. Day 2: Holiday Treats. Day 3: Name that Carol!

Think you know your carols? Yes, this is a test. But you can snack on those gingerbread cookies if you need energy and inspiration.

Thanks to Pamela Collins for today’s quiz! We’ll post the answers tomorrow.

Please consider donating to the Bach Elgar Choir and help support one of the country’s oldest arts organizations!

Well, what a start to our Holiday Countdown yesterday! Hope you enjoyed our Messiah Singalong on Saturday night. And if you missed it … well, stay tuned. We have some other treats to share with you as we enter the holiday season.

Warm up your home on Day 2 of our Bach Elgar Choir Holiday Countdown with these BEC Favourite Holiday Treats!

FINNISH GINGERBREAD (Maija Saari, alto, board member)

Ingredients:

• 2 blocks (14 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup dark syrup (sweet baking syrup made of sugar beets)
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp ground cloves
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp salt
• 6 cups all purpose flour, plus additional for rolling out cookies

For decorating:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp milk

Instructions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add egg, dark syrup and cream – mix well. Add cinnamon, cloves, ginger, baking soda and salt. Add flour, 2 cups at a time, until completely incorporated.

Divide dough in half, wrap each piece in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. (Note: you can also freeze half the dough and save for a later date.)

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes. (A scalloped edge round cookie cutter is traditional.) Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet or covered in parchment paper for 5-7 minutes until set. Be careful not to allow the edges to burn. Cookies will crisp as they cool.

If you want to decorate the cookies, combine powdered sugar and milk and spoon into a piping bag fitted with a narrow tip. Decorate as desired.

Makes about 10 dozen cookies.

Source: https://finlandiacheese.com/cheese-recipes/finnish-gingerbread-cookies-piparkakut/

CHERRY SNOWBALLS (Susan Arena, alto):

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup butter
• 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup almonds, chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 lb candied cherries (red & green mixed)

Instructions:

Cream the butter with the sugar until fluffy.
Add remaining ingredients except cherries, mixing well with your hands.
Flatten a small amount of dough in the palm of your hand.
Place one cherry in the centre of dough and cover by pinching dough up and around it.
Roll until smooth. Place on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 325 F for 30-35 minutes (slightly brown on bottom).
While still warm, roll in granulated sugar.
Makes 3 dozen.

SKOR BARS (from community Board member, Lisa Beattie):

A recipe stolen from her mother, best served with coffee…or tea…or cocoa…or Irish coffee…or…OK, best served with absolutely ANYTHING!

Ingredients:
35 salted soda crackers
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1.5 cups chocolate chips

Directions:
Line a cookie sheet with foil and grease.
Lay crackers salted side up to cover the whole sheet.
Melt brown sugar and butter and boil for 3 mins.
Remove from the heat and add vanilla.
Pour over crackers and bake at 350 for 5 mins or until bubbly.
Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top and either spread when melted or pop back in the over for 1–2 mins then spread when melted.
Chill in the fridge until hardened before cutting into squares.

Happy Holidays and Happy Holiday baking from our BEC kitchens to yours!

Please spread the love and share on your Facebook page. 

Be sure to check out tomorrow’s posts!

Please consider donating to the Bach Elgar Choir and help support one of the country’s oldest arts organizations!