Jon says, “I’m quite drawn to these hymnal, rather fusty carols. There’s nothing Christmassy about this one really, but part of the tradition nonetheless.” I must confess to having drawn a complete blank on this one and can offer nothing, so over to you. Perhaps it’s the title, but I’ve tried using some of the other lines as well and still turned up nowt. If you can add to this song’s story please do.
You can buy the December digital album now from all good download stores.
True to Jon’s word he introduces this saying, “Shepherds variation two and the only version with an interpolated chorus. It’s very popular this one.” Let’s just call this (ahem!) the exception that proves the rule of my assertion yesterday that the lyrics to this remain constant. In fairness Jon has it about right as the extra chorus seems to have landed out of nowhere, having little to do with the rest of the text, but adding a jolly little refrain that works beautifully in this chorus setting. Two down and no socks have been washed as yet!
You can buy the December digital album now from all good download stores.
Another from the chorus (the same line up listed for Hark Hark), that Jon introduces by informing us that “There are something like fourteen different versions of While Shepherds Watched sung around Sheffield. We’ll not be doing them all but maybe a few. It is a great lyric – so familiar that you don’t really notice it, but kind of perfect as a Christmas lyric.” I found this in my searches
The carol While Shepherds Watched dates back to 1703. The words for While shepherds watched were written by Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brody. Only the Psalms Of David were sung in the Anglican Church prior to that time. The familiar melody used for While Shepherds Watched was taken from Siroe, an opera by George Frederick Handel.
Wiki expands on that and perhaps casts doubts as to the date claimed, but only by a year or three. As Jon has indicated there are many different versions of the tune for this, but I believe the lyrics remain fairly constant and for that Tate, the Poet Laureate in the reign of Queen Anne, takes the credit. Unusually I’ve also found a copy of the score, which I link to as it seems to suggest Pentonville was written by William Marsh (c1780-1805.) You might also care to have a look at this giving a very brief overview of hymns in general.
You can buy the December digital album now from all good download stores.
Here’s another more recent composition and Jon says, “From the pen of John Tams and one of only a few, truly great secular winter songs (of those that I have come across anyway.) It’s got a really lovely cord structure too, but works just as well unaccompanied.” I like this a lot and it fits neatly with those songs of rebirth and renewal and is more anchored to Midwinter and a hope for the rebirth and the future. Mainly Norfolk has further detail of this being written for the play and subsequent Albion Band album of Lark Rise To Candleford.
You can buy the December digital album now from all good download stores.
It’s that time of month again when we ask you to vote for your favourite track of the past month, the winner of which we will then leave up on this site as a representation for November.
We’ve selected the seven most popular songs for you to listen to again and vote on below (based on page views, comments and Likes), however if you think there’s an obvious contender for Top November Song that we’ve missed out then let us know in the comments.
[poll id=”6″]
The vote is now closed and the winner is If You Want To See The General (read full post here).
[audio:http://www.afolksongaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/10-11-11-If-You-Want-To-See-the-General.mp3|titles=If You Want To See The General]
You can buy the November digital album now from all good download stores.
