HAWES – WHAT CHILD IS THIS? SATB A CAPPELLA

A simple, but beautiful, strophic Christmas carol setting the words of the poem by William Chatterton-Dix. The tempo is fairly flexible and there are no set dynamic markings. However, care should be taken to mirror the text’s juxtaposition of question and answer as well as the contrasting moods of each verse. It may be interesting to note that the premiere performance asked the questions at a quieter dynamic than the ensuing answers, and the last verse began with a confident forte.