Jonathan Rathbone is a prolific choral composer. Last year, Ballad of Reading Gaol was given its premiere in St Alban's Cathedral. He is the 'composer in association' of the Cambridge-based choir The Larks Ascending, and he conducts and composes for three choirs in north London. His string quartet, More fools than wise, written for the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, has been performed all over the world. He was musicial director of the Swingle Singers for eight years, working with Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio and Stephane Grappelli.

Born on the same day in the same year as Jonathan Rathbone, Graeme Curry has written scripts for Doctor Who, EastEnders and The Bill. He was a regular writer on the BBC soap opera Citizens and has written three afternoon plays for Radio 4. He has also worked as a musician, a stage manager and an editor.

Christmas Truce

Music by Jonathan Rathbone, words by Graeme Curry
(with poetry by Edward Thomas)

for choir, baritone narrator and orchestra

World premiere:
Mark Williams (Baritone), London Forest Choir, Sylvan Orchestra, conducted by Jonathan Rathbone

Tuesday 22 December, 2009, 7.30pm
St Mary's Church, Church Hill, Walthamstow, London E17

This piece tells the story of the truce which occurred spontaneously on Christmas Eve 1914 in the trenches of the First World War. After some initial mood-setting with settings for choir and baritone of some Edward Thomas poetry, the piece takes the form of a narrative, spoken over orchestral accompaniment by a soldier who was there, called Tom. It tells how carols were sung by troops in each of the trenches on Christmas Eve 1914. It is well documented which carols were sung, and it is an opportunity to revive some beautiful, but long-forgotten carols, which are sung by the choir in the course of the narrative. There is also a setting of the 23rd Psalm ("The Lord is my Shepherd: I shall not want") sung in both English and German.

The narrative concludes with Tom finding a war memorial and looking through the list to find his brother's name. As he does so, the choir sing a setting of Edward Thomas' poem "No one Cares Less then I". The names continue to be read as the music fades and the lights go down in the church to leave a single spot-light on the war memorial(s) in the church.

View the vocal score by clicking on the image below

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Christmas Truce

“I could talk some German and one of the German officers some English. He was about my age. Our conversation was no different from that of meeting a friendly opponent at a football match.”
Ian Stewart, 19-year-old subaltern, Armentières

In the year of the deaths of Henry Allingham and Harry Patch, our last links with the First World War, it's more important than ever that we don't forget the experience and sacrifice of 1914-18.

Christmas Truce, an oratorio by the composer Jonathan Rathbone and the writer Graeme Curry, explores one of the most remarkable and poignant stories of the war – the spontaneous ceasefire at the front line in France on Christmas Eve 1914.

Christmas Truce draws on the writing of the soldiers who were there – from details of the gifts they exchanged to accounts of joint burial services in no man's land.

It includes settings of poems by Edward Thomas, who was killed in action at Arras in 1917, arrangements of the carols sung by the German and allied soldiers to each other from their trenches, and a new version of the 23rd psalm, sung in both English and German.