Orana to Christmas Dystopia

In the September issue of Quadrant Music, R.J. Stove alluded to William G. James, the now neglected yet inspirational composer who, during his tenure as the first music director of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), established Australia’s six state orchestras. If Clio does remember James, she smiles favourably upon his Australian Christmas Carols. James wrote three sets of five carols, all of which set lyrics by John Wheeler, with the first published in time for the Christmas of 1948 and the following two released in the mid-1950s. The carols were, and still are, well received by Australians and international listeners. David Tunley, James’s biographer, has observed the composer’s “real gift” for miniatures, “particularly song writing”. Of the fifteen carols—and there may have been a now-lost fourth set, according to one Philip O’Brien writing for the December 1999 issue of Panorama, Ansett Australia’s inflight magazine—I am particularly fond of…