Borrowed from the General Prologue to Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, ‘Truth, Honour, Freedom and Courtesy’ is the motto of Prendergast School in south-east London; and when the school commissioned a new carol from the composer (at the premiere of which his daughter Frankie sang the opening solo), it was a strikingly imaginative touch to link these virtues with the Christmas story: truth with God, honour with Mary, and freedom with Christ. Limpid ‘old world’ pentatonic melody in the verses contr...