Christmas music: Wassail songs
Dec. 17th, 2005 10:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
resonantHaha! You thought I was done, didn't you? I'm not done! Because everyone needs five thousand wassail songs, right?
I gather that wassailing was sort of like a cross between Christmas caroling and trick-or-treating. I love the combination of begging and veiled threats: Here's good master and good mistress sitting down by the fire, while we poor wassailers do wait in the mire. And if we're alive for another new year, perhaps we may call and see who do live here.
One year we actually did an apple tree wassail, where you go out and offer a toast to the apple tree to encourage it to bear well the following year. Well, except that we don't have an apple tree, so we wassailed the strawberry patch instead. I didn't notice that it bore any more strawberries the following summer. Maybe we should have used strawberry juice instead of mulled cider. (Or maybe in addition to being wassailed, it would have liked to be weeded too.)
The whole collection, a 40 MB .zip file.
Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band, Wassail! from "Carols and Capers." Solo female voice with band. Same song as the Gloucestershire Wassail I posted a couple of weeks ago, but a more contemporary arrangement.
Revels, Wassail Carol from "The Christmas Revels." Same as above, with a choir and lots of brass.
Alfred Deller, Wassail Song from "Vaughan Williams: Folk Songs." And here it is again, in a different choral arrangement with lots of interesting counterpoint.
Deller Consort, Wassail Song from "The Holly and the Ivy." This is the "Love and joy come to you" wassail, in a countertenor solo.
Christmas Revels, The Gower Wassail from "Christmas Day in the Morning." Choir with orchestra. A minor-key tune. I love the last verse: We know by the moon that we are not too soon, and we know by the stars that we are not too far.
Christmas Revels, The Somerset Wassail from "Sing We Now of Christmas." Mixed choir. This is the wassail tune that starts out like "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," only in a major key.
Magical Strings and Family, Somerset Wassail from "Good People All." The same one, acoustic instrumental.
Robert Shaw Chamber Singers, Wassail Song from "Songs of Angels." And this is the one that starts out like "God Rest Ye Merry" in a minor key, a.k.a. "We've Been A While A-Wandering." Traditional a capella choir arrangement.
Christmastide Musicians, Wassail Song from Leeds from "New England Christmastide." The same piece, acoustic instrumental.
Christmas Revels, Kentucky Wassail from "Wassail! Wassail! Early American Christmas Music." Yet another unfamiliar one. Choir and band. Our cup is made of the old oak tree, and our ale is made in Ken-tuck-ee!
Anonymous 4, Can Wassel from "Wolcom Yule." Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ceciliaregent. Female choir, a capella. I like this very much.
I gather that wassailing was sort of like a cross between Christmas caroling and trick-or-treating. I love the combination of begging and veiled threats: Here's good master and good mistress sitting down by the fire, while we poor wassailers do wait in the mire. And if we're alive for another new year, perhaps we may call and see who do live here.
One year we actually did an apple tree wassail, where you go out and offer a toast to the apple tree to encourage it to bear well the following year. Well, except that we don't have an apple tree, so we wassailed the strawberry patch instead. I didn't notice that it bore any more strawberries the following summer. Maybe we should have used strawberry juice instead of mulled cider. (Or maybe in addition to being wassailed, it would have liked to be weeded too.)
The whole collection, a 40 MB .zip file.
Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band, Wassail! from "Carols and Capers." Solo female voice with band. Same song as the Gloucestershire Wassail I posted a couple of weeks ago, but a more contemporary arrangement.
Revels, Wassail Carol from "The Christmas Revels." Same as above, with a choir and lots of brass.
Alfred Deller, Wassail Song from "Vaughan Williams: Folk Songs." And here it is again, in a different choral arrangement with lots of interesting counterpoint.
Deller Consort, Wassail Song from "The Holly and the Ivy." This is the "Love and joy come to you" wassail, in a countertenor solo.
Christmas Revels, The Gower Wassail from "Christmas Day in the Morning." Choir with orchestra. A minor-key tune. I love the last verse: We know by the moon that we are not too soon, and we know by the stars that we are not too far.
Christmas Revels, The Somerset Wassail from "Sing We Now of Christmas." Mixed choir. This is the wassail tune that starts out like "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," only in a major key.
Magical Strings and Family, Somerset Wassail from "Good People All." The same one, acoustic instrumental.
Robert Shaw Chamber Singers, Wassail Song from "Songs of Angels." And this is the one that starts out like "God Rest Ye Merry" in a minor key, a.k.a. "We've Been A While A-Wandering." Traditional a capella choir arrangement.
Christmastide Musicians, Wassail Song from Leeds from "New England Christmastide." The same piece, acoustic instrumental.
Christmas Revels, Kentucky Wassail from "Wassail! Wassail! Early American Christmas Music." Yet another unfamiliar one. Choir and band. Our cup is made of the old oak tree, and our ale is made in Ken-tuck-ee!
Anonymous 4, Can Wassel from "Wolcom Yule." Thanks to
ceciliaregent. Female choir, a capella. I like this very much.