By ERIN MORRISON
erin@newsroom.byu.edu
Fifty women will be singing in Middle English dialect as part of the 20th anniversary of the Christmas Chorus on Dec. 18 and 19 in the Utah State Hospital Chapel in Provo.
The choir will be performing for patients of the hospital and the public in a free concert each night at 7:30.
Martha Sargent has conducted the choir since its beginning 20 years ago. Each year, the group of women sing, 'Ceremony of Carols,' a song by Benjamin Britten.
The words in the song are a collection of Old English poems and the carolers pronounce the words with the original pronunciation making the rendition unique, Sargent said.
'It just gives it a really charming quality,' Sargent said.
'Ceremony of Carols' was first sung on December 5, 1942, according to www.handelandhaydn.org. The song includes Gregorian Chants and other medieval English carols. Britten was born in England in 1913 and died in 1976, according to the Web site.
In addition to 'Ceremony of Carols,' other Christmas songs will be sung, Sargent said.
'We sing 'praise the Lord' kind of music,' she said.
The Christmas Chorus, a local choir comprised of about 50 women, starts practicing on a weekly basis each October, Sargent said. Many of the women are wives of BYU professors, she said.
'There are a lot of BYU-connected people in it, but we're not limited to that,' Sargent said.
The size of Christmas Chorus is determined by the size of the room they perform in.
Except once, the concerts have always been held in the chapel of the Utah State Hospital, Sargent said.
'Three or four years ago, the furnace broke 24 hours before the performance,' she said. Fortunately, the Madsen Recital Hall in the Harris Fine Arts Center was open, so the choir moved its production there.
Sister Julie Maher, the Chaplain of the State Hospital Chapel, said she is proud of the spectacular building.
'The organist decorates it beautifully with flowers, and the outside is just beautiful,' she said.
To audition for Christmas Chorus, contact Martha Sargent at 489-6161.