Christmas singing at Parliament House, 26 November 2024, 2pm
This was our offering as part of the Australian Parliament House Christmas Choir Program 2024.
You can find the flyer for the event here.
You can watch video recordings of our program on our YouTube Channel
full program
Here is a list of our songs, all original music except for one (click on each title or scroll down for more information and lyrics):- Acknowledgement of Country
- Christmas Music 1914
- A Recipe for Peace
- We're Dreaming of a Green Christmas
- What Christmas Means to Me
- Christmas Music 2024
Soloists:
Jenny Sawer - soprano
Maartje Sevenster - mezzo
Instrumentalists:
John Smiles - flute
Rowan Harvey-Martin - violin
Zachary Connor - cello
Meg Rigby - guitar
Musical Direction:
Johanna McBride
Flyer:
Janet Salisbury and Chorus team
The Chorus on the day:
Adele Stevens, Barbara Moore, Barbara Sutherland, Elizabeth Cusack, Gill King, Helen Pilkinton, Honey Nelson, Chris Watson, Jackie Stepanas, Janet Salisbury, Jennifer Hanks, Jenny Sawer, Jin Teng, Johanna McBride, Kate Champion, Kirsten Anker, Maartje Sevenster, Meg Rigby, Merilyn Jenkins, Ruth Oldfield, Sarah Stitt, Sue Hoffmann, Tanya Mark, Wilma Davidson
Our thanks to the soloists and instrumentalists who have generously supported us in rehearsing the program and joining us today.
Thanks also to the ever-helpful Engagement and Public Programs team from Parliament House.
Acknowledgement of Country
This is our sung Acknowledgement of Country.
Glenda Cloughley invited Hazel Hall, a local Canberra poet, to write some words. She then added a simple melody and some beautiful harmonies. On other occasions we have taught the melody to our audiences and they were very happy to join in this act of recognition and reconciliation with First Nations People.
This land is the song of Indigenous people
All those who walked here and all their descendants
Song of the creatures and spirits of dreaming
Song of the children and culture they lost
This land holds the lines of its earliest owners
Custodians who respected the Earth
Lines of their knowledge and wisdom of Elders
We ask to walk with you in concord and peace.
Christmas Music 1914
At Christmas in 1914, there was a little-known but remarkable exchange of letters between German/Austrian and British women. These women, whose menfolk were fighting each other, were able to reach out with love and compassion to women from the other side of the war.
But communication between warring countries was illegal. Not deterred by this, German activists sent two letters to British women via the Suffrage Alliance in America, which was at that time a neutral nation. The letters were published in the journal of the Suffrage Alliance, Jus Suffragii.
In response to the German letters Emily Hobhouse organised the writing and signing of a letter from British women. She saw in the German letters an opportunity for maintaining vital international relations among women during the war. 101 women signed Emily's letter.
The Christmas Music 1914 starts with the words of the prominent Australian suffragist and peace activist Vida Goldstein, after whom the Victorian electorate of Goldstein is named. Her words were also published in Jus Suffragii.
Glenda Cloughley set these words of peace to music as part of her big community oratorio A Passion for Peace. At the core of this work is the story of the International Congress of Women in The Hague, the only peace conference during World War I, held in April 1915 at the same time as the Gallipoli landing (see our Highlights page).
Lyrics:
THE AUSTRALIAN CHORUS
(words by Australian peace activist Vida Goldstein)
Enemies and friends alike who know that life is sacred,
Let us all refuse to give our children for this slaughter!
Two thousand years of the gospel of peace
And men have again rushed to war.
We women must lead,
We must show the way to harmony and peace.
We're dreaming of peace on Earth
We're dreaming of peace on Earth
We're dreaming of peace on Earth
THE GERMAN CHORUS
(words by German peace activists Klara Zetkin,
Dr. Anita Augspurg and Lida Gustava Heymann)
We send warm and hearty greetings
To the women of all nations
in these wretched bloody times
Knowing well that
True humanity does not know
national hatred or national contempt.
War does not separate women joined in striving for peace and freedom
And the stream of blood must not divide what need and hope unite.
We're dreaming of peace on Earth ...
THE BRITISH CHORUS
(words by British peace activist Emily Hobhouse)
Solemnly we greet the enemy
and sing for peace and good-will among nations.
Ah, dear women of Germany and Austria
Anguish unites us this sad Christmas tide.
We will let no bitterness taint the sorrow of our lament
Neither will we mar with hate the sacred lifeblood of our men.
We're dreaming of peace on Earth ...
A Recipe for Peace
Wilma Davidson introduced this song as follows:
The custom of breaking and sharing bread together is one embraced by many faiths and cultures, and inspired Glenda Cloughley to write this song in 2006, during the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
As we sing these words, please join us in imagining the making of peace as indeed we make bread - a humble act, with the same love and care, and act of shared humanity.
My companions, may peace be with you.
Make by kneading to leaven with air.
Bake in fire, break and share
Partake with your neighbour the blessing of bread.
Refrain
May you never be hungry
May you never be thirsty
I wish you health and a happy home.
My companion, may peace be with you.
2. Remember the making of bread like this.
Imagine the making of peace like this.
Harmony with friends - and neighbours
And with strangers
Bridging the borders of discord and fear.
Refrain
May you never be hungry ...
3. Humble this cooking of bread and peace
Human the circle from hearth to heart.
In longing, in hope, from hand to hand
I give you the song of my dream and my prayer.
Refrain
May you never be hungry ...
Johanna McBride introduced this song as follows:
The next song 'We're Dreaming of a Green Christmas' is a light-hearted take on an old favourite, not particularly relevant for our hot continent.
In this version we sing our longings and Christmas wishes for a simpler, more sustainable Christmas where human connection is more important than 'yet more stuff'.
We're Dreaming of a Green Christmas, lyrics by Sue Hoffmann
1. We're dreaming of a green Christmas
free of the need for yet more stuff.
Where humble treasures and simple pleasures
are found to really be enough.
We're dreaming of a green Christmas
with all the people we hold dear,
Keeping earth's gifts and rhythms in mind
may our Christmas legacy be kind.
2. We're dreaming of a green Christmas
unlike the ones we've come to know.
Where love of nature and children's future
are guides to wise ways we can go.
We're dreaming of a green Christmas
one where the air and water's clean.
And we've learned to live within our means (sustainably)
so that future Christmases stay green.
Johanna McBride said, before starting to sing:
I feel a bit strange singing this song. It is a very personal song, so I suppose I have to sing it on my own. I am just glad to have Meg (Rigby) by my side.
The song sprang from my frustration with the noise and jolliness of the Christmas season. A conversation with my son helped me remember my personal meaning of this time of the year.
1. Here we go again, this time of the year:
Grinning Santas and reindeer.
Shops and other places drowing in cheer.
I should write some cards,
I should get a few gifts,
Well, at least lets get a tree!
That's what Christmas wants from me.
2. I asked my son: 'What is it all about
this time of the year?'
He thought quietly and then he said:
'A light in the dark,
The chance for something better,
A hope for something new.
That's what Christmas means to me.
3. And then I listened deep inside,
And then there came the tears.
Memories of Christmas trees,
of 'Silent nights, holy nights'
sung with loved ones gone.
Sharing stories with my loved ones here,
dreaming new beginnings together.
That's what Christmas wants from me.
That's what Christmas means to me.
Earlier in our program we sang a choral setting of words from letters exchanged by women from warring countries at Christmas 1914, expressing their common humanity in the face of the hatred and the terrible slaughter that was happening around them.
For our final song we bring you what we, as women today, at Christmas 2024, feel about the ongoing unbearable suffering of people in wars and the massive and increasing damage to Earth herself through industrial development, pollution, environmental degradation, species loss and more. The words of the song express our anguish at these threats, and also our commitment to rise above our grief to uphold all life on Earth – now and for future generations. You’ll hear the title of our Christmas presentation reflected in the chorus:
We’re dreaming of peace on Earth
We’re dreaming of peace with Earth
We’re dreaming of peace on Earth
For the final chorus we invite you to add your voice to these longings here at Parliament House. Johanna will turn around and show you when to come in – and our 2 soloists, Maartje and Jenny will also lead you in the tune. Let’s make our voices swell in harmony and maybe our elected representatives will hear us above the less harmonious noise of Question Time in the chambers.
Lyrics:
As Christmas draws nigh with its message of peace
While war's waged on people and Mother Earth
We must play our part, we must find our way
to harmony and peace.
We're dreaming of peace on Earth
We're dreaming of peace with Earth
We're dreaming of peace on Earth
To all the people caught in war:
Your endless suffering tears at our hearts!
Ah, dear people,
the fabric of our world is torn.
Anguish unites us this sad Christmas tide.
The threats to Mother Earth are dire!
We won't let our sense of dread shake the strength of our resolve.
We affirm our solemn vow to uphold the sacredness of all life.
For harmony, for humanity
with all those in warring countries
We reach beyond war to that higher law
that bids us live in peace.
We're dreaming of peace on Earth
We're dreaming of peace with Earth
We're dreaming of peace on Earth
