Pictured: The Christmas Market in Tallinn, Estonia.
“Little Tommy’s Choir” is one among several secular, winter-themed Estonian carols. It celebrates the both joy of the Christmas season for children and their interaction with various animals. The music has a bouncy, polka-like rhythm. It tells a story about Tommy and his “choir” made up of household pets. As he conducts his “choir” in singing about “Christmas time so holy,” the pets aren’t very attentive. Miisu the cat prefers to simply purr, and the dog Fido sings wrong notes! Another dog, Tuks, tries to sing, but Fido is too loud. Curious “little kitty” completely ignores Tommy and just keeps on playing. Although Tommy continues trying to grandly conduct his “choir,” the pets just want to eat candy from the Christmas tree! The challenges for our Longmont Chorale members is singing this carol in the unfamiliar Estonian language and at the same time putting the words into the bouncy rhythm.
The arrangement sung by the Longmont Chorale was composed by Ken Berg, who served for 28 years as Director of Choirs and Fine Arts Chair at John Carroll Catholic High School in Birmingham, AL. Ken is often a guest clinician and adjudicator, but what he enjoys most is writing and arranging choral music. Mr. Berg is a graduate of Stamford University, where he is currently teaching Choral Arranging, in addition to his other choral activities.
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The Longmont Chorale is a nonprofit Longmont choral group, an SATB choir which performs four subscription concerts in Longmont each season in addition to other performances by our auditioned group, Viva Voce.
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