From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli

SACRED Christmas music has played an important part in my life. I was about ten when first I encountered Adestes Fideles — sung in the Latin and Italian. It made a lasting impression.

Music has the capacity to take you instantly to a time-and-place in your life. I have listened to O Come All Ye Faithful sung by some of the finest choirs in the greatest cathedrals, but none has moved me as deeply as the Italian women’s Midnight Mass in Gwalia’s galvanised iron church of St. Francis of Assisi. After weeks of rehearsal the immigrant women’s choir sang, in Italian, Venite Adoriamo, the same carol they sang in their village churches back in the old-country. It was an important link to their homeland and all they had left behind; an opportunity to remember their families, some of whom they never saw again. They loved Australia, but even the stars were different…

The origins of Oh Come All Ye Faithful can be traced to a 1640 Latin version — possibly earlier. There is a range of candidates to whom the lyrics could be attributed, including Portugal’s musical 17th-century King John 1V, Cistercian monks, and English composers. The standard version we sing is by the Jacobite, John Francis Wade (1711–86), who was supporter of the exiled Stuart Pretender, Bonnie Prince Charles. There is a fallacious theory the lyrics are a subversive, hidden message rallying support for the royal family.

Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans banned Christmas and carols as being pagan. The publication, 1871, of Christmas Carols, New and Old, by Henry Ramsden Bramley and Sir John Stainer contributed to their revival in Britain

My boarding school had a comprehensive music programme and a well-rehearsed choir. The repertoire included the anthems of Caleb Simper and Handel; an eclectic list of traditional Shakespearean settings; an English concert platform selection; and popular songs. Much of the third term was dedicated to carol singing, including Australian works which still are not widely known.

In St. Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne, I shall join the Melbourne Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Andrew Wailes, for ‘Carols in the Cathedral’. This will mark my 15th-year as a reader. There is something inspirational about massed voices raised in song. The enduring popularity of carols written by 14th-century Franciscan friars, or a mysterious American in the late 19th-century, manage, still, to capture our communal imaginations. They are a glorious link between the past and the present. Of all, It Came Upon The Midnight Clear, with a tune by Sir Arthur Sulivan, is the favourite.

Melbourne’s premier Christmas concerts — Carols in the Cathedral — are a traditional programme of readings, and Nativity music performed by massed choirs, superb soloists, and majestic brass and percussion. This year’s programme features a selection of beloved carols, including, O Come All Ye Faithful, Once in Royal David’s City, and, Joy to the World; and works by the internationally acclaimed composers William G. James, John Rutter, Eric Whitacre, and Dan Forrest. The angelic, treble voices of the National Boys Choir of Australia, soprano Jesse Link, reader Julie Haughton, organist Andrew Bainbridge, Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir, Melbourne University Choral Society, RMP Orchestra soloists, RMP Brass and Percussion Consort, and the skirl of City of Melbourne Highland Pipe Band, collectively create a Christmas music line-up not to be missed!

St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne: Friday 20 December at 8.30 p.m; Saturday 21 at 2 and 7p.m.

Tickets from Trybooking on the RMP website: rmp.org.au. Contact: [email protected]