Richard Rodney Bennett

The Holly and the Ivy offers an enjoyable alternative to the traditional melody. The modal inflexions of Bennett’s tune lend it a folksong-like quality. There is some nice metrical ambiguity between 3/4 and 6/8; sections in 5/4 and 4/4 time, plus occasional bars in 2/4, give further interest to the metre. All the voices divide at some point, though the writing is never in eight parts...an attractive and melodious piece.