Q: Christopher, what were the challenges of setting this carol to music?

Christopher: As a musician specialising in medieval music, I’m used to performing music written long ago, in unfamiliar notations, for people who didn’t necessarily use written music in the same way that we do. But the task I faced in bringing this carol to life was altogether greater: I was presented with a text obviously intended for singing but with no musical indications to guide the performer.

So I had a long and fascinating interpretative journey as I gradually became familiar with the carol and searched for indications as to how it might be performed.

Q: How did you make a start?

Christopher: The observation that this was music for a festive occasion, in an elite and probably quite formal context, was a key starting point for me. Then I studied the text for further clues.

The carol has six verses of four lines each, with a two-line burden sung at the beginning and after each verse. This pattern is typical of medieval carols, but a distinctive feature of this one is that the final burden has slightly different words. Although the carol was copied into the manuscript in the early 16th century, it’s likely that it was originally written somewhat earlier. So I chose to imagine a performance date towards the end of the 15th century.

The kind of music required was therefore clear. It should be joyful or celebratory in tone, written in a fairly elaborate 15th-century style, but retaining the directness of expression typical of carols.

Given new words to set to music, a medieval musician would have had two choices: to compose new music, or to adapt an existing composition to fit. For me, the advantages of the second option were obvious. It would be much more likely to result in a convincingly medieval sound than anything I might compose from scratch, to which I would undoubtedly bring unconscious stylistic influences of my own.