Letters to Santa Claus SATB
An original Australian Christmas song, from the perspective of a farming family, celebrating a land of drought and flooding rains. Scored for intermediate, mixed, unaccompanied voices.
Words and music by Kirsten Duncan.
Price is for a single printable PDF of the complete sheet music score marked FOR PERUSAL ONLY (no copies or distribution permitted). Download after checkout or from email.
TO PURCHASE A LICENCE FOR MULTIPLE COPIES, add the number of copies during checkout to request an invoice.
An original Australian Christmas song, from the perspective of a farming family, celebrating a land of drought and flooding rains. Scored for intermediate, mixed, unaccompanied voices.
Words and music by Kirsten Duncan.
Price is for a single printable PDF of the complete sheet music score marked FOR PERUSAL ONLY (no copies or distribution permitted). Download after checkout or from email.
TO PURCHASE A LICENCE FOR MULTIPLE COPIES, add the number of copies during checkout to request an invoice.
An original Australian Christmas song, from the perspective of a farming family, celebrating a land of drought and flooding rains. Scored for intermediate, mixed, unaccompanied voices.
Words and music by Kirsten Duncan.
Price is for a single printable PDF of the complete sheet music score marked FOR PERUSAL ONLY (no copies or distribution permitted). Download after checkout or from email.
TO PURCHASE A LICENCE FOR MULTIPLE COPIES, add the number of copies during checkout to request an invoice.
Voicing: SATB, a cappella
Item: 2025.02
ISMN: 9790900969941
Duration: 3:15 min
PDF file: 12 pages to print at size A4, includes front cover, information about the work and composer, music pages, back cover
Composer’s note
This choral work by Kirsten Duncan is an original Australian Christmas song, written as a tribute to Aussie farming families who endure the extremes of our often harsh climate to put food on our tables.
I set out to write a warm and fuzzy Christmas song relevant to our summer season, celebrating all the meaningful moments of a Chrissy gathering: the people, the food, the tree, the decorations and lights, the gifts and so on. Then I came across a humourous little word-play poem titled ‘Rain deer’ by Walter de Jong ... and this is what came out! There’s no dashing through the snow or hot chocolate by the fireplace. For Australian farming families, budgets are often tight and everyone pitches in to keep stock and crops alive. But there is magic in their vulnerability, resilience and love of country.
Structured as a series of letters to Santa Claus from a child on a farm, the narrative describes the family’s struggle to manage their land through drought, the child’s plea for Santa to bring relief instead of gifts, then the delight and revitalisation of the land when Christmas Eve brings a very welcome surprise. Stylistically, the piece draws inspiration from William James Kirkpatrick’s Away in a Manger (1895) (listen for the lowing cattle!), and the beloved Australian Carol of the Birds (Orana for Christmas Day) (1948) by William Garnet James with lyrics by James Wheeler.
Why choose this Christmas song? It is composed for intermediate mixed adult choirs (SATB) without any accompaniment. The voices alternate between layered harmonies and poignant moments of unison, building to the Christmas Eve surprise of body percussion ‘rain’ and the joyful cascading cries of ‘rain, dear’ with a fittingly Christmassy conclusion. If you “love a sunburnt country ... a land of ... droughts and flooding rains”, this Christmas song is for you!