The Composer Who Owns Christmas<br />“By the standards of Mendelssohn, I was hardly a prodigy,” Mr. Rutter said, “but I’d made the transition from aspiring composer to functioning one.”<br />He continued: “And all thanks to David Willcocks, who was a great enabler.<br />“I used to think that was a problem,” Mr. Rutter said, surveying from his kitchen window the absurdly perfect village<br />he calls “idyllic, if a bit Miss Marple.” He worried that people wouldn’t take his other music seriously.<br />So when people come up and say, ‘You’re the guy who wrote “What Sweeter Music” or the “Shepherd’s<br />Pipe Carol,” ’ that’s fine,” he continued, referring to two of his Christmas standards.<br />So it’s no great surprise that it is also where you can find John Rutter, a composer so identified with Christmas<br />that he has all but earned a place with the kings and shepherds by the manger.<br />The Highgate School choir sang on illustrious recordings like the original Benjamin Britten “War Requiem,”<br />from 1963, which features the young Mr. Rutter as an alto, though you wouldn’t notice him.<br />Especially in the Christmas music, which is for an inclusive festival where you<br />leave your fancy good taste at the door if you want to get anything out of it.”<br />Another common criticism of Mr. Rutter’s work is that it is derivative, declaring without<br />shame its sources — mostly Britten, Walton, Fauré, but with a touch of Broadway.
