{last} Christmas Carol Spotlight: Go tell it on the Mountain

There were lots of contenders to be fit into my last day of this, and my considerations were all over the place - Joseph by the Killers, Le Noel de la Rue by Edith Piaf....
But I kept coming back to Go tell it on the Mountain.
Mostly, I think, because my entire 4th grade class learned to play it on the ukelele.  And if that isn't an awesome memory, I don't know what is.

And the version by the David Crowder Band makes me think about it in deep and mellow ways that are a perfect match for the breath I am taking before we dive into pure holiday bliss/stress/abandon.  Listen, breathe, dive.

 

Christmas Carol Spotlight: Silent Night and Shaun Barrowes

IF you are going to record a Christmas Album, and include the songs that everybody else includes on their Christmas albums, please do us all the favor of making your recording sound at least a little bit unique.  It will help me to forgive you for your lazy song choices.  And maybe actually like your album. Just saying.

 

Christmas Carol Spotlight: A Cradle in Bethlehem

Because you can't have too much Nat King Cole in December.  I've tried, but it can't be done.  His was the first version of this song I ever learned to love.  So far as I can tell, it was written for Cole's 1960 album, but it's full of the influence of the folk music of the American South. It's another great lullaby carol.

 

Christmas Carol Spotlight: Wexford Carol

I'm always happy to include a bit of Irish-ness in my Holidays.  This spectacular Carol hails from Enniscorthy, and makes me smile every time. It's another treasure from the Oxford Book of Carols, without which my Christmases might become quite dim.  I'm pretty sure if the radio airways were full of the contents of the Oxford Carols, there would be far fewer people complaining about Christmas music.  But since there are not, I boycott Christmas Radio entirely, and make my own playlists with spectacular carols like this one. Doesn't it just send festive shivers down your spine?

Christmas Carol Spotlight: Bring a torch, Jeanette Isabella

I have loved this song since I was a little girl, and always perked up when I heard it.  Unfortunately, that has never been as often as I wished. (And even less often is it a version with vocals.) It's a French song (Provencal) and not originally intended to be a Christmas carol. But the English translation, with it's perpetual references to Christ is born, and to not wake a baby sleeping in a stable, it's hard to not make that correlation.  Isn't it pretty?

 

Christmas Carol Spotlight: Zither Carol

This lovely Carol is arguably of either Czech or Polish Origin.  Depends on who you ask.  It was traditionally accompanied by an actual Zither, (BIG SURPRISE) hence the name.  Though it is sometimes also called the Children's Carol.

 

Christmas Carol Spotlight: As Lately we watched

As Lately We Watched is a 19th Century translation of an Austrian Carol,   Hirten auf dem Felde.

It has sort of been relegated to being an obscure "choir carol", and that makes me sad.  It's a lovely carol, and could be arranged any which way and be a great Christmas staple.

Christmas Carol Spotlight: March of the Three Kings

This Christmas carol is an excerpt (part XIV) from a Christmas Cantata (Hodie) by Ralph Vaughan Williams (another Christmas music hero of mine.)

It serves to tell of the travels of the three kings, and introduces each of them and their gifts.

This portion of the cantata was written expressly for Williams' wife, Ursula.  I think things like that are terribly sweet and enduring, even if the music involved in this case isn't particularly romantic.

 

Christmas Carol Spotlight: Gloucestershire Wassail

I hope you are at least vaguely aware of the awesomeness of Wassails. The term refers to both the spiced cider drink, and the ceremony for which it was originated.  The ceremony involves essentially singing to the trees (and often other crops and livestock) and drinking to their health for a good harvest in the year to come.

I'm not certain how the Gloucestershire Wassail came to be considered a Christmas Carol, but as the verbiage of Wassails were usually adjusted for the needs of those singing it and their crops, it is interesting to note that the most prominent recorded version was collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams for the Oxford Book of Carols from an old man from the county of Gloucestershire who sang it to him.  So we largely have that old man's version, singing for his particular Fillpail (cow) and Cherry (horse).

It's a pretty solid piece of British folk history.  Full of salt-of-the-earth-isms.  And oh so festive and cheerful sounding, no?

Christmas Carol Spotlight: Hear the Glad Tidings

This is a surprisingly obscure Polish Carol,  Dziasiaj W Betlejem. (It's obscure to us, not to the Polish.)
It reminds me of everything I love about Eastern European Christmas traditions.  It even sounds something like a cuckoo clock.  I love the translated version that Motab included on this album.  I don't find any other recordings of the English translation, and that makes me sad.  Why aren't contemporary artists taking advantage of these opportunities instead of recording the eleventy-millionth recording of "Blue Christmas" (??!!??!!) (The fact that the recording of this by Justyna (below) sounds so very Bollywood kind of makes me smile. - Not often in my world do Bollywood and Christmas collide.)

   

Christmas Carol Spotlight: Pat-a-Pan

We Americans tend to be completely oblivious to the treasure of French Christmas Carols.  But there are a few we've likely come across a time or two, and the most prevalent of these is Pat-A-Pan. (Because of an English translation in the 18th century).  The song reminds me of a little bird, but it's supposed to remind you of a snare drum.  And I never resent being told to be merry.  I need reminders. (The version from Mindy Gledhill's new album is pretty great.)

 

Christmas Carol Spotlight: I heard the Bells (Mr Renn's favorite)

Spend 30 seconds learning about the background of this song, and you will be knee deep in tears.  Longfellow wrote it in the midst of a heavy, heavy dose of despair.  His son had been mortally wounded in the Civil War (in which he had enlisted against Longfellow's wishes), and his wife had recently died as the result of an accidental kitchen fire at home.  He wrote the poem on what must have been a very bleak Christmas Day in 1864.  It was first put to music in 1872.  Mr Renn loves singing an arrangement by Greg Hansen, that's pretty starkly different from the traditional arrangement. It's a departure from the tune written for the poem by John Baptiste Calkin.  BUT I can't find any recordings of it.  If you know of one, hook us up.

 

Christmas Carol Spotlight: Rocking Carol (Little Jesu sweetly sleep)

I had a devil of a time finding our much about this carol.  I know it has a Czech origin, and I believe it was translated into an English version sometime in the early 19th century, But since I don't have unlimited time for researching, don't quote me on that.  It's, to me, the best of the lullaby carols.

Christmas Carol Spotlight: King Jesus hath a garden

This little known carol came into the spotlight when John Rutter (who is essentially the official composer of Great Britain) pulled it out of the archives and composed a choral arrangement of it in 1981.  The original Dutch text was written in 1633 and it was originally put to music by George Woodward in Songs of Syon in 1908.  There is so much symbolism in this hymn it boggles my mind - on scale with the 12 days of Christmas.  So many layers.

Christmas Carol Spotlight: In Dulci Jubilo (Good Christian Men Rejoice)

Good Christian Men Rejoice, as we know it, is J.M. Neale's 1853 English translation and arrangement of the Latin Carol In Dulci Jubilo.  The tune dates to the middle ages, and was used as a theme for both a prelude and a postlude by Bach.  J.M. Neale also contributed Good King Wenceslas and the English translation of Oh Come oh Come Emmanuel to our Christmas cannon.    (He's kind of my Christmas Carol hero.)

Christmas Carol Spotlight: Torches

This little ditty was written by John Joubert in 1951, for his wife and her music students.  It was published in Carols for Choirs that same year, specifically intended for the Choir of King's College (my absolute favorite.)  Despite being relatively new, it sounds ancient, and so vigilant.

 

Christmas Carol Spotlight: Coventry Carol

The Coventry Carol is perhaps the most depressing Christmas Song ever. Truly.  So why do I love it?  I guess I just love anything that makes me take a long hard look at the entirety of the Nativity.  When you reduce it to a baby born in a barn, you've removed some of the most holy parts of it.  This song is essentially about all the doomed babies that King Herod ordered slain.  It is sad and haunting and incredibly reverent.  You'll see.

 

Christmas Carol Spotlight: In the Bleak MidWinter

In the Bleak Midwinter isn't nearly as old as some of my favorite Carols, but it has the advantage of having been written by a remarkable female poet, Christina Rosetti, in 1872.  The poem became a Christmas Carol in 1906 and is one of the world's favorite Christmas hymns for choirs, as it is full of opportunities for dramatic pauses and individual expression.  The song just feels so wise to me, it calms me down and reminds me to think outside of myself.

Christmas Carol Spotlight: Christ was born on Christmas Day

Christ was Born on Christmas Day is a Hymn based on the Latin Text "Resonet in Laudibus"  although it was never set to music until after it was translated. The Carol is dated to the 14th century.  As far as I'm concerned for anything to date to the 14th century is mind boggling.  I love the lulling rhythm in it, it makes me feel all cozy and sleepy and Christmasy.  I wonder if it's been doing that for young mothers for 700 years?

Christmas Carol Spotlight: A Great and Mighty Wonder (aka Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming)

The actual name of this Christmas Hymn is "Es ist ein Ros entsprungen" which translates into one English version known as "Lo, How a Rose e'er blooming".  There are at least 3 known English versions of this hymn, all of which are considered Christmas carols. The "Great and Mighty Wonder" version is a translation of a St. Germanus Greek Text, while the "Lo, How a Rose e'er blooming" version comes from a 16th century German text.  I love them both.