"Sussex Carol" for SATB Choir by Keane Southard (Te Deum)

"Sussex Carol" for SATB choir (2025) by Keane Southard.

Commissioned and premiered by Te Deum, Matthew Christopher Shepard, conductor, on at Village Presbyterian Church, Prairie Village, KS, Dec. 16, 2025.

Program notes:

"Sussex Carol" (also known as “On Christmas Night All Christians Sing” after its first line) is an English carol, so named by Ralph Vaughan Williams after capturing it from a singer in Sussex county. My setting of this carol, which is the first composition of mine as Composer-in-Residence with Te Deum (Matthew Christopher Shepard, conductor,) was begun in August 2025 and completed in October of the same year, with much of it having been composed during a brief residency at the Huber Sanctuary (Brattleboro, VT.) During its five verses, I take the tune on various wild harmonic and rhythmic adventures.

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