This Little Babe - Benjamin Britten | Capella Regalis Boys Choir

Check out our new CD release! The full live performance of Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, performed by the boys of Capella Regalis and harpist Lori Gemmell is now available for streaming on all major platforms, and for purchase through our website: https://capellaregalis.com/audio-reco....

Tune in to our online video broadcast of A Chorister's Christmas 2023 to hear more great Christmas music from Halifax! (Pay-what-you-can tickets available at https://bit.ly/onlinebroadcast2023).

Excerpt from Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols performed live by the boys of Capella Regalis in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on December 20th, 2019. Directed by Nick Halley and accompanied by harpist Lori Gemmell.

The full video recording of the entire piece is also on our channel here:    • A Ceremony of Carols - Benjamin Britten - ...  .

A Ceremony of Carols (Op. 28) by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Texts excerpted from The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems, ed. Gerald Bullett, first published in 1933.

Excerpt: Movement VII - This Little Babe

1 This little Babe so few days old
is come to rifle Satan's fold;
all hell doth at his presence quake
though he himself for cold do shake;
for in this weak unarmèd wise
the gates of hell he will surprise.

2 With tears he fights and wins the field,
his naked breast stands for a shield;
his battering shot are babish cries,
his arrows looks of weeping eyes,
his martial ensigns Cold and Need
and feeble Flesh his warrior's steed.

3 His camp is pitchèd in a stall,
his bulwark but a broken wall;
the crib his trench, haystalks his stakes;
of shepherds he his muster makes;
and thus, as sure his foe to wound,
the angels' trump alarum sound.

4 My soul, with Christ join thou in fight,
stick to the tents that he hath pight.
Within his crib is surest ward,
this little Babe will be thy guard.
If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy,
then flit not from this heavenly Boy.

Source: Robert Southwell (1561?-1595)