Brightest and Best

Program Notes

Every Christmas, I get in the mood to write some Christmas music. This is somewhat unfortunate, in that I generally have to wait at least a year before I can hear the music performed. Brightest and Best was one of those projects over Christmas vacation. (Yes, Brightest and Best is an Epiphany carol, not a Christmas carol, but I fell in love with it anyway.)

I have a collection of 100-year-old hymnals, and in The American Hymnal, published in 1913 by The Century Co. (last century, obviously), I found this little gem. The tune is named “St. Ninian” and was composed by John Bacchus Dykes (1823–1876). I was unfamiliar with it, but it certainly seemed worthy of being remembered.

I usually create an arrangement of such pieces. That is, I re-shape them from a hymn into an anthem or motet (see, for example, Let Us Be Merry or Let All Mortal Flesh).

My first task, then, was to simply improve upon the existing setting, especially with an eye out for improving the counterpoint within the piece. A few tweaks to the melody, some to make it flow better, some to better work with similar tweaks to the harmony, and many refinements to the individual lines… I liked the result, and even though I had intended to expand it into an anthem, the tweaked carol just seemed so… whole. I liked the carol so much I didn’t (yet) create a full arrangement of it.

Performance Notes

Comfortable ranges, diatonic harmony with brief secondary-dominant chromaticism, and a simple strophic hymn structure place Brightest and Best at Level 2 (Easy). The straightforward hymn-style writing suits church choirs and community ensembles.

Notes for Directors

• The piece is a strophic hymn setting: 16 measures repeated for five verses, with standard 4-measure phrase structure throughout.
• All vocal ranges are comfortable (Soprano D4–D5, Alto A3–A4, Tenor F#3–E4, Bass G2–B3) with tessituras sitting in the middle of each voice.
• Brief secondary-dominant chromaticism (C#, G#, D#) appears in 4 of 16 measures, requiring intonation attention at those points.
• No dynamics are notated in the score—directors should shape the five verses to create an arc.
• The soprano ornament in m. 12 (dotted quarter + two sixteenths) is the only rhythmic challenge beyond quarters and halves.
• Inner voices have brief eighth-note passing-tone figures that add melodic interest beyond a basic hymn harmonization.

The Text

About This Recording

During the summer of 2016, I embarked with the Byrd Ensemble on a recording of (most of) my a cappella choral works (released in March 2017 as “Stories”). In one of the recording sessions we had a few spare minutes, so I asked them to also record Brightest and Best.

The beauty and clarity of their singing was inspiring—that experience stayed with me, and as I thought about what carol I wanted to do a setting of this year, I kept coming back to Brightest and Best. But I wanted a visual for the carol. I’ve always loved animation (Bugs Bunny, Disney, Rocky & Bullwinkle), and had wanted to try my hand at it for as long as I can remember. Why not for Brightest and Best?

At that first thought, the project captured my imagination. I very much wanted to give the world a Christmas present that would honor Jesus, and it sure was a blast and a joy working so hard on this project. I hope you enjoy it, and are inspired by it. ”…richer by far is the heart’s adoration…”

The Brightest and Best video can also be found on YouTube.

Related Works

Christmas Carols

Let All Mortal Flesh · Let Us Be Merry · Lully Lullay · Of the Father’s love begotten · On this day earth shall ring