Peter Cornelius
Peter Cornelius is best known for The Three Kings, the Christmas song in which a solo voice moves against the chorale How brightly shines the morning star. It comes from his 1856 cycle Weihnachtslieder and remains a staple of carol programmes.
A German composer, poet and translator, Cornelius also wrote chamber and church music, secular songs, and operas including Der Barbier von Bagdad. His vocal writing favours clear lines set against carefully chosen harmonic colour, a quality that makes the Christmas song travel so well in choral arrangement. The Atkins version for solo voice and choir is the form in which many listeners still meet the piece.
Compositions by Peter Cornelius appear on
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
The Choir of Ormond College, directed by Douglas Lawrence, presents a varied selection of twenty-eight Christmas carols. Familiar favourites sit beside Bach and Pachelbel organ pieces and twentieth-century settings.
Songwriter