Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home Singing Christmas Tree will present “The Wonder of Christmas” this week.
Most of the Christmas choir’s songs are based on the first Christmas, around the Nativity, said Sue Olson, president of the group. The choir is digging into its deep history for music that expresses the wonder of the birth of Jesus Christ, she said.
“Longtime fans of the Singing Christmas Tree will enjoy coming to hear songs from the past,” Olson said. The choir will feature solos in “Breath of Heaven” and “Mary, Did You Know?”
During the second half of the performance, a Nativity scene will surround the choir, she said. The choir may still need volunteers, and anyone interested should contact Olson.
Founding director Paul Rowton returns to lead the production again this year. All of the musicians began practicing in September, and Rowton said the choir has a good sound.
The choir is smaller than usual, with 23 members, but it features the most accompaniment it’s ever had, Olson said. The instrumentalists will perform a number together without the choir.
Local contractor and longtime tree veteran Bill Langdon returns as piano accompanist. Keith Scofield will play the cello, along with flutist Lori Currey. Also performing will be soprano Laura Barret on violin on one number, Ed Knox on percussion for the second time and his brother Wayne Knox, who will play the guitar prior to the Singing Christmas Tree performance.
“It’s wonderful,” Olson said. “Percussion is wonderful to begin with. The cello adds such a welcome tone. The flute as well, and they all just blend together.”
The accompaniment adds depth, Rowton said. “Quite often the flute follows the melody line, which kind of helps guide the choir.”
The percussion helps keep the singers together, he said.
Scofield has been playing with the choir off and on for 13 years and with Langdon in other projects over that same period.
“It adds a lot of warmth, I’m told,” Scofield said. “I try to create fills that just add to the overall harmonics. Sometimes, I’m doubling parts with one of the voices.”
In one of George Frideric Handel’s numbers, “Glory of the Lord,” he doubles with the basses or the tenors and sometimes with the altos.
“That’s how Handel wrote it originally,” Scofield said.
“He joins in with that cello, and it’s just beautiful,” Rowton said.
“I enjoy playing with the other people,” Scofield said.
Langdon has been playing with the choir for more than 20 years.
“The people appreciate me, and I enjoy playing,” he said. “It gives me an outlet to play.”
He appreciates the addition of other instruments in recent years, he said. “It definitely adds to it. It definitely adds to the ambiance.”
Currey said she heard about the Christmas tree choir from her church’s worship leader, Ed Knox, and asked if she could be part of it. Her daughters were in the children’s choir at one point, and she played with them years ago. She was most interested in the instrumental part of the production.
“I thought it would be fun, and I can’t sing,” she said. It turned out to be a challenge.
Currey said she comes from a marching band background in the Los Angeles Unified School District during high school, she said. She has had to work on her timing and such, and she’s been learning a lot from Langdon and Scofield.
Knox joined the group when Rowton asked him to. Both are involved in the Lebanon Community Choir and the Willamette Festival Choir.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Knox said. “I hope people really come and support it.”
Like other instruments, percussion – the chimes, triangles and drums – adds to the performance, he said. “It adds effects and feeling. It adds a character to the music that speaks to some of the other items.”
The idea is that it helps make the music talk, communicating feelings and emotion in a different way from other instruments, Knox said. That helps make the lyrical content go further, and it helps create the atmosphere.