En De Ru Pt

James Knox

About the composer

Thou Little Tiny Child - Choral score

SM-000523794
Thou Little Tiny Child - Choral score
Composer
James Knox
Publisher
James Knox
Genre
Classical / Choral music
Instrumentation
Piano, Mixed choir
Scored for
Choir
Type of score
Piano-vocal score
Key
A minor
Duration
4'20"
Language
English
Difficulty
Advanced
Year of composition
2021

Description
The Coventry Carol is an English Christmas carol dating from the 16th century. The carol was
traditionally performed in Coventry in England as part of a mystery play called The Pageant of the
Shearmen and Tailors. The play depicts the Christmas story from chapter two in the Gospel of Matthew:
the carol itself refers to the Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod ordered all male infants under the
age of two in Bethlehem to be killed, and takes the form of a lullaby sung by mothers of the doomed
children.
The exact date of the text is unknown, though there are references to the Coventry guild pageants from
1392 onwards. The iteration of the song that we know today was likely composed in the 1530s and copied
down by Robert Croo, an organizer of that era’s pageants. The play covered the events from the
prophecies of Jesus’s birth, the Annunciation (the announcement from the Archangel Gabriel to the
Virgin Mary that she would give birth to the son of God), and finally the Massacre of the Innocents.
Though it still certainly is not among the most well-known of Christmas songs, “Coventry Carol” became
more widely known in 1940, after Coventry was bombed by the German Air Force during World War II.
On Christmas Day, the BBC broadcast the provost of the Coventry Cathedral giving a speech in which he
attempted to forgive those who had carried out the attack. Afterward, the choir sang “Coventry Carol” in
the cathedral’s ruins, with the song’s melancholy subject matter taking on new meaning.

Upload date
07.05.2021
Total downloads
25

Sheet music file
PDF, 1.11 Mb (23 p.)

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