“Infant Holy, Infant Lowly”—Christmas anthem for SATB voices, alto solo, piano, and clarinet; words trans. by Edith M. G. Reed; Polish carol, arranged by Evelyn R. Larter.

            Evelyn R. Larter has gifted us with a delightful bluesy arrangement of the traditional carol, “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly.”  Choirs and congregations alike will enjoy the newness of the blend of traditional tune and text with interesting rhythms and harmonies.

            Opening with an alto solo, the choir underscores the solo with lovely harmonies sung on “oo/ah.”  Spend time in rehearsal working on the jazz harmonization and encourage them to sing in pure vowel sounds. The men and women share in singing stanza 2, moving back to the solo on stanza 3 and building to a full choir ending. Another option is to ask the female teens in your youth choir to sing the solos. The vocal range is comfortable for the four vocal parts. Pianists will want to spend some time practicing so the relax style of the blues is achieved. The clarinet part will be a challenge for many clarinetists; you will want to give them time to learn their part. The anthem works equally well with or without the clarinet.

            Performance options include singing the anthem as the response to a prayer in worship. With minimal adaptation the anthem could be sing as a solo, or unison choir anthem, with keyboard or keyboard and clarinet.