Choirworks.com Music

Category: Christmas

  • Mary’s Boy Child

    Mary’s Boy Child • SATB Mixed Choir & Piano • Christmas • Jester Hairston, arr. M. Ryan Taylor

    Jester Hairston’s beloved Christmas spiritual “Mary’s Boy Child” receives a fresh, energetic setting for SATB mixed choir and piano by M. Ryan Taylor. With its infectious Caribbean rhythmic character, memorable melody, and joyful celebration of Christ’s birth, this arrangement brings the warmth and vitality of the spiritual into the modern concert choir.

    The arrangement opens with a clear presentation of the familiar melody before building into increasingly full choral textures. The piano accompaniment provides a strong rhythmic foundation while the voices move between unison and harmonized passages, allowing the character of the original song to remain front and center. The result is a setting that is both immediately recognizable and satisfying to perform.

    At approximately two minutes, Mary’s Boy Child is an excellent choice for a Christmas concert, holiday program, or encore—especially when a choir needs something joyful, rhythmic, and accessible to balance more contemplative seasonal repertoire.

    Jester Hairston was one of the most influential arrangers and champions of African American spirituals and choral music in the twentieth century. His original composition Mary’s Boy Child has become a Christmas favorite, and this new arrangement seeks to preserve its distinctive character while giving mixed choirs a fresh concert setting.

    Instrumentation: SATB Mixed Choir with Piano Accompaniment
    Difficulty: Moderate
    Duration: Approximately 2:10
    Language: English
    Genre: Christmas / Spiritual
    Composer: Jester Hairston
    Arranger: M. Ryan Taylor
    Copyright: © 2025 NILS-GEORGS MUSIKFÖRLAGS AB

    Performance Recordings Welcome

    Has your choir performed Mary’s Boy Child? I would love to hear it! Performers are invited to share recordings, photos, concert programs, and performance links. With your permission, selected material may be used to help promote both your ensemble and this arrangement. Send files or links to ryan@choirworks.com.

  • This Little Babe

    More video previews for This Little Babe

    This Little Babe is Available on …

    This Little Babe • Christmas • Intermediate

    A fiery new setting of Robert Southwell’s beloved Christmas poem, This Little Babe captures the startling paradox at the heart of the text: the infant Christ comes to conquer not with earthly weapons, but through weakness, tears, and the vulnerability of a newborn child. Driving rhythms, energetic piano writing, and vivid choral textures bring Southwell’s military imagery to life—the battlefield, the shield, the arrows, the trumpet’s alarm—all set against the fragile image of the Christ child in the manger. The result is a Christmas piece that is urgent, dramatic, and powerful. This piece is well suited to Christmas concerts, worship services, and festival programs, especially for choirs looking for a fresh alternative to more familiar Christmas repertoire. Its compact length, rhythmic energy, and strong dramatic arc make it effective as an opener, closer, or high-impact centerpiece.

    FEATURES

    • SATB and TTBB choral settings, plus Low, Medium, and High solo voice settings
    • Choral settings may be performed with piano or a cappella
    • Intermediate difficulty with mixed meter
    • Energetic, rhythmically driven setting suitable for Christmas concerts, worship, and festival performance
    • Approximately 2:06

    COMPOSER’S NOTE

    When I was a young choral singer, I was deeply moved by Benjamin Britten’s famous setting of This Little Babe from A Ceremony of Carols. I was particularly touched by the closing couplet: “If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy, Then flit not from this heavenly boy!” I understood these words to mean that we best “foil our foes” not by joyfully defeating them, but by showing them the joy that Christ offers to all, so that those who were once our foes might become our friends.

    For years, I wanted to sing this text as a soloist, but I was unaware of any solo settings, so I eventually wrote one myself. Once the solo setting was complete, it seemed natural to expand the music for male chorus—a kind of musical counterpart to the treble setting by Britten that had first inspired me. From there, I adapted the work once more for mixed SATB forces, and I was delighted with the result.

    I am pleased to offer This Little Babe in settings for low, medium, and high solo voice, as well as TTBB and SATB chorus, with the choral settings available either accompanied or a cappella. In homage to Britten’s extraordinary and inspiring setting—a work I would never wish to supplant—I have deliberately not created an SSA version. I hope you enjoy this new musical interpretation of Southwell’s remarkable Christmas poem.

    SHARE YOUR PERFORMANCE

    I would love to hear your choir perform This Little Babe! If you perform this piece, please consider sending me a recording, photos, a copy of your program, or a link to your performance at ryan@choirworks.com. With your permission, I may share selected recordings, photos, or performance information through Choirworks’ website and social media to help introduce your ensemble to other singers and conductors—and to help other choirs discover this piece. Thank you for giving This Little Babe a life beyond the page!