Christmas Carols

Foreword

This collection was inspired by Advent carol singing among colleagues. For a bagpipe and gemshorn player, it was tempting to transpose the beautiful melodies, which manage with the range of a ninth, and bring them into a two-part form for singing and playing. At the same time, the songs are easy to play with recorders or other instruments and thus form a fund for making music at school. For Hümmelchen, Gemshorns, recorders, Cornamuses and Krummhorns, the pitch of the instruments is noted at the top left of each song: S for soprano in C, A for alto in F or T for tenor in C.

Most of the songs are about the Christmas story as we know it from the Gospels and as it is also alive in the continental tradition.

‘Child in the Manger’: This chorale melody is named after the town of Bunessan in Scotland. The text was originally in Gaelic and known as “Leanabh An Aigh”. It was translated into English by Lachlan Macbean (who gave the tune its name ‘Bunessan’). In 1931, Eleanor Farjeon wrote the lyrics ‘Morning has Broken’ to the melody, which was popularized by the singer Cat Stevens.

Holy Christmas on the Living’ stems from an early Christian culture in the north-west of Scotland, traces of which have survived to the present day. The origin of this song is unclear. But in Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, there is a reference to a similar song: “These carols were sung by a band of men who went about from house to house in the townland. The band selected a leader for their singing and for their actions throughout the night. This leader was called fear-duan (song man), and the others were called fir-fuinn (chorusmen). When they had sung their carols at a house, two or three bannocks were handed out to them through a window. The song-man got half of every bannock so received, and the other half went to the chorus-men.”

A rich tradition in the folklore of the British Isles is still alive today at Christmas time. Origins from pre-Christian times continue to be cultivated and in some cases combined with Christian customs. ‘Wassailing’, ‘Mummers Plays’ and ‘Morris Dance’, ‘Hunting the Wren’ and ‘The Boar’s Head’ should be mentioned here. One difficulty with British customs is that people expect to be shown a clear path from our modern to prehistoric times, and in almost all cases there is no such path. So people invent various theories about origins and meanings – most of which are meaningless! Against this background, it becomes understandable that individual practices are lost and, at the same time, others emerge or traditions that were initially unconnected enter into a new liaison. Some of the customs are described in more detail below.

Wassailing is one of the oldest English traditions and has various forms.

One is the ‘House-to-House Christmas Wassail’. Young people went around knocking on doors and singing songs wishing good luck and blessings to everyone they met. In return, they expected a small gift or hospitality. Today, the tradition has become a popular festival in some places and is no longer reserved for the young (e.g. ‘Stroud Wassail’). Another variety is the ‘Orchard Wassail’, which is still cultivated today in apple-growing areas (e.g. Somerset). However, this ceremony does not belong to Christmas, but to the rest of January.

Mari Lwyd’ is the Welsh version of Wassail. The Wassail group visits houses in the neighborhood with a ‘horse’ (consisting of one or two people in a horse costume). People sing outside the front door and sing poems (including a traditional poem from tausch
with the homeowner) asked to enter the house. The house is then blessed for the coming year. As a thank you, visitors receive drinks and
Tidbit.

Morris dancing is a tradition that has survived in a few Gloucestershire villages and was discovered there by the English folklorist Cecil Sharp in 1899. He then collected and notated the dances with the accompanying music – and ensured their wider distribution. In Gloucestershire, the main time for Morris Dancing is at Whitsun. But in the border region of Wales and England, it’s the time for Morris Dancing at Christmas (‘Border Morris’).

Mummers Plays’ have been handed down for centuries. Texts have been preserved, and there are groups of players, some of whom work very traditionally, but also those who play new pieces or incorporate current themes into old pieces.

The presentation of the ‘Boar’s Head’ is an academic ceremony, especially in English colleges. Queen’s College in Oxford is particularly well known for this. The festival around the boar’s head probably goes back to Anglo-Saxon influences, which brought a connection between Freya cults and St. Stephen’s to the British Isles.

‘Hunting the Wren’ is a custom that is particularly popular in Ireland and Wales. It is about the wren, the king of birds, who is hunted and passed around as a lucky charm. The ‘Wren Boys’ are often dressed up in straw, and there are parties in the streets and pubs.

Cutty Wren’: Recorded by the group Steeleye Span on the album ‘Time’. On the cover it says: “The wren is known as the King of the Birds, because there is a fable in which a competition takes place to decide which bird is supreme. It is decided that he that flies highest is the monarch. The wren craftily hitches a ride on the back of the eagle and wins. Also the wren was sacred to the Druids and the custom of catching and killing wrens at Christmas time would not be incompatible with this history of reverence. It would be protected all year and then ritually slain as a sacrifice at the appropriate time. As with all possible remnants of ancient religions, their meaning becomes obscured and their enactment trivialized, and so this song until recently was attached to the Christmas tradition of wassailing and the demanding of monies.”

Holly and Ivy’ are the plants that take center stage in England for Christmas decorations. There is also (according to Bord) the “ubiquitous Christmas tree”, decorated and lit by candles, without which no British child’s Christmas would be complete – a custom that dates back to the late 19th century. was imported from Germany.

My special thanks go to Elke and Achim for patiently trying out the songs, Georg Bildstein for the lovingly painted illustrations and Vincent Eising-Boyny for correcting the sentences. I received valuable tips from Fiona Morrison from Scotland, Gwilym Davis from England and Terry Osborn from Wales – and the logo for ‘Stroud Wassail’ from Steve Rowley, thank you very much. I wish you happy music-making and enjoyment of the old traditions of the British Isles.

Hermann Rieth in summer 2015