Hewitt Jones may well be part elf. He admits being ‘such a Christmas junkie’, he writes festive pieces all year round! Admittedly, publishing deadlines mean a carol often needs to be completed by June or July (baby, it’s hot outside). But beyond the practical, the spirit of a festive piece informs every note he writes throughout the year: ‘I’m inspired by the idea of being around people in an unconditionally loving environment, but also by the idea of the Nativity; it tells us about rebirth and hope, that there is light in darkness.’

• Inside the Christmas Carol: Part Two with Bob Chilcott
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His own label, Vivum Music, has recently released a raft of festive recordings. Some are new and others newly arranged, including an orchestrated version of his popular ‘Camel Carol’. It was borne out of a spontaneous partnership of composer and clergy. ‘We moved to Rochester four years ago,’ Tommy shares, ‘and quickly I met Canon Gordon Giles of Rochester Cathedral. I write my own lyrics quite often – especially at Christmas – but hit it off with Gordon when I realised he was a lyricist too and intensely musical. I went round to his place one night and over pasta, we thought about new ideas; he suggested a carol from the perspective of a camel. That’s why I made the music in 7/8, because he’s got the hump! He’s angry about a long journey ahead.’

Both in this piece and the idea of Christmas itself, there’s an interesting balance of serious and light: serious theology addressed here in a musically playful way. Hewitt Jones admits he’s not a huge fan of deliberately funny music, despite being the composer of ‘Funny Song’, which went viral on TikTok in 2022 and was streamed nine billion times (he has a gold disc to prove it). ‘Look at “Funny Song”: it might be a funny voice, but when I wrote it I was conscious it’s actually quite sad in the sense that it could be a little animal stuck in its own world and can’t get out, while we’re laughing at it. In “Camel Carol”, the music is depicting how the camel is feeling, but there are dark moments – when we’re “crossing the veil of death”, for example – and we were very careful that the words are theologically sound. None of the playfulness we had interferes with the story or theology itself. I was reassured by having a collaborator who was an expert in this; I wouldn’t have done it on my own!!’

Does Christmas music allow you to be more playful, or bring out something different in you? ‘I think so. I have a wide bandwidth of emotion and have written many quiet, sombre carols as well. But as a composer you are thinking about where the marketplace is and where your new carol will fit; there’s so much of that very sweet, loving, nostalgic, classic Christmas work, and I think if you’re going to do that kind of world you need to find a different take on it. That’s hopefully where “Camel Carol” works, as it’s slightly left field even in concept.’

There’s a playfulness in several of the new recordings. Spot the Nutcracker allusions in ‘The Night Before Christmas’, which features a jazz trio plus flute alongside SATB choir to match a ‘glistening, glittery story.’ It was commissioned by New York’s Sacred School of Music for a secular concert and they wanted something to make people smile. It follows a line of contemporary Christmas pieces in a jazzy vein. Says Hewitt Jones: ‘this setup spoke to me for orchestration purposes. I was voicing the bass guitar to take the bottom notes, freeing up the piano for some rich chords in the left hand and melodic work in the right. The percussion could provide all the Christmassy effects. So, you get a glittering, transparent sound. But the jazz aspect also speaks to an American Christmas; when the harmony is very diatonic it gives more of a Cathedral vibe, but for the concert hall I wanted to give a nod to the American Songbook. It’s where so many festive gems have come from.’

For all that work’s jazzy harmonic adventures, Hewitt Jones is equally adept at writing carols for children: sample ‘Homeward Light’. The very roots of the carol go back to everyday people singing and dancing in pubs and town squares; the essence of the carol is accessibility. We ponder how a composer builds a piece so that it is open to the widest audience.

‘Often, the most successful children’s music is diatonic and within one octave; it’s doesn’t have a huge range. But what goes on underneath has to be musically satisfying and sustain the interest; that’s why the jazz trio was important in “The Night Before Christmas”; it’s about interesting harmony interacting with a simple, singable melody.’

There are, he suggests, clear building blocks to a good festive tune. ‘I always think writing a melody is like a great first date. You’ve got to have the frisson, the push and the pull, the ups and the downs, this beautiful balance; it must maintain a sense of journey and excitement. It’s harder, in a way, with a festive piece: the stakes are higher because it must be deeply and consistently memorable, and you have just two minutes to impress your choir and take them on a journey. Look at how John Rutter goes over his work repeatedly; like with Burt Bacharach or Musical Theatre, it’s the five hundred tiny tweaks that make a piece. I’ve seen this in many composers who write truly popular work. They go back to change the voicing of a single chord, but it makes a huge difference.’

It turns out his hot selling ‘A Christmas Lullaby’ cost Tommy the most tweaks and strain. But what is his definition of a long slog? ‘A week!... I’ve been found out! “Funny Song” literally took ten minutes and proves that it’s a lottery. But time is very important within a carol; the emotion has to hit straight away and you get into the melody quickly. I think a good Christmas carol is like a calling card, or even a well-written library track. This is as pernickety as a good carol because nothing is chosen for TV by accident; they’re chosen because they work, and they work because they’re designed to do so for people who aren’t musicians who can edit it to picture, with no money, and make it work for the programme. People look down on both these idioms, but both are a highly intellectual challenge to get spot on; there’s complexity in seeming simplicity.’

Indeed, it was the simplicity of Elizabeth Poston’s ‘Jesus Christ The Apple Tree’ that has always spoken to Hewitt Jones. ‘Every note matters,’ he says. ‘It’s incredibly atmospheric in a very short space of time. That’s the essence of a carol: every note counts.’

It’s a piece, he shares, that he sang as a boy in junior school. They had an uncompromising schoolteacher who had them singing Bach Passions when Hewitt Jones was eleven. ‘He showed us how music has an instant impact and doesn’t need to be dumbed down. It’s always the worry with a Christmas piece that it becomes trite, when you’re searching for the sublime. As I’m getting older – I turned 40 this year – I think more about the finite aspect of life. We are searching for integrity and truth, and Christmas can get to the heart of that.’

That’s why he loves Home Alone and the Oscar-nominated ‘Somewhere In My Memory’. ‘It brings back the warm feelings of the ‘90s, and it’s essentially a carol; any carol takes you back to your childhood. But there’s something specific to the music; there’s always optimism in John Williams orchestrations, with the celeste and flutes on top. Ultimately, all this stuff is just Bach chorales; it’s all in the voicing.’

Speaking of which… locals of Rochester, listen out for a singing composer! Hewitt Jones has a family tradition that stretches back 120 years, where they write a four, six or eight-part vocal round to festive words on their Christmas cards. The family pen a new round every year, so there’s now a whole book of them.

They’ve certainly ditched any of the compositional guidelines he’s just shared, though… ‘Sometimes it’s atonal, with huge leaps of sevenths and ninths. This way, we can annoy the neighbours with it!’

The true spirit of Christmas.