Performed by the MPR Carolers:
Laura Betinis Healy (alto solo), Carrie Henneman Shaw, Nicholas Chalmers, Timothy C Takach

Hear Abbie's interview on Minnesota Public Radio.

In 1922, Rev. Bates G. Burt, my great-grandfather and a self-taught musician, began composing Christmas carols and sending them as seasonal greeting cards to his friends, family, and parishioners. In 1942, he passed the job of composing the music to his son, Alfred Burt, a jazz trumpeter and young composer. The father-son team produced five carols together before Bates's death, and Alfred Burt went on to write a total of fifteen Christmas carols, including the popular "Caroling, Caroling," and "Some Children See Him," made famous originally by the Voices of Jimmy Joyce and now recorded by artists all over the world.

Since 2001, I've been been continuing this family tradition begun so long ago. "Touch Hands" is meant to be a flexible and fun round to sing before a meal, with friends and family, or even in a concert setting. It was important to me to have something very familiar about this song - so if you're sitting down to eat and want to sing a grace together, no one feels left out. When I was young, we'd often sing the round "For health and strength and daily bread" before meals, and that old tune turned out to be the perfect partner song for this new canon. In fact, it occurs to me now that that's really what long family traditions are: a delicate blend of old and new.

In a very special continuing of our family tradition, my mom - a visual artist - designed the Christmas card that we sent to family and friends with the carol inside. And the folky melody, composed with my sister's voice in mind, was premiered on Minnesota Public Radio with her singing the opening solo.

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Recommended programming: Alfred Burt's Come, Dear Children (1952).
Learn more about the Burt Family Carols.

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