The ancient and familiar carol 'O come, O come Emmanuel' expresses the longing of the people of God to be freed from darkness by the coming of the promised Messiah. In Becky McGlade’s setting, that yearning is expressed by the use of a descending motif for the words ‘O come’, almost like a sigh, at the start of each verse and through the soft dissonances which colour the text. In the final verse the music breaks into five parts with the first soprano almost like a descant. Here the music intensi...

• McGlade: O come, O come, Emmanuel