Christmas music: Post-Christmas postscript

[resonant]

Old Christmas is past.
Twelfth Night is the last.
And we bid you adieu;
great joy to the new.



The whole batch in a .zip file, 41 MB.

For the rest of the Twelve Days:

Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band, The World Is Turned Upside Down, from "Hang Up Sorrow and Care." Soloist with band. Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas in 1657; Charles II reinstated it in 1660. This song comes from the period in between. Command is given and we must obey, and quite forget old Christmas day. Kill a thousand men, or a town regain, we will give thanks and praise, amen.

Baltimore Consort, Hey for Christmas, from "Bright Day Star." Female soloist with Renaissance-flavored band. A rout from the seventeenth century; it starts out as a Christmas party and ends with weapons, bankruptcy, and mud.

For St. Stephen's Day (December 26):

Christmas Revels, Please To See the King, from "Christmas Day in the Morning." Mixed choir. The serious approach to the hunting of the wren.

June Tabor, Hunting the Cutty Wren, from "Always." Acoustic folk. The lighter side. Thanks to theamusedone.

Elvis Costello and the Chieftains, The St. Stephen's Day Murders, from "The Bells of Dublin." There's nobody like Elvis for making people look like meat and meat look like poison.

For Holy Innocents Day (December 28):

The Voice Squad, The Coventry Carol, from "Hollywood." Male choir, a capella. You don't often hear this one done by men. Thanks to emelerin.

James Taylor, Home By Another Way, from "Never Die Young." Laid-back white-guy folk-rock. Not strictly seasonal, of course, but heavily Herod-related.

For New Year's Day:

Revels, The Old Year Now Away Is Fled, from "Rose and Thistle." Duet with band. Most of the versions of this I've heard have used "Greensleeves." This is a slightly different tune.

Anonymous 4, New Year Carol, from "Wolcom Yule." Female choir, a capella. A Benjamin Britten setting of an anonymous poem. I'd like it better if it had a more ballad-style tune, instead of one so obviously modern, but the lyrics are beautiful. Sing reign of fair maid with gold upon her chin. Open you the east door and let the new year in. Thanks to ceceliaregent.

For Epiphany:

Kathy Mattea, Brightest and Best from "Christmas Compilation" and given to me by qe2. I gave you a more classical version of this song a while back; this is a country version, and very lovely.

Robert Shaw Chorale, March of the Kings from "Songs of Angels." Traditional mixed choir. You probably already know the tune. In our house the traditional lyrics are: Mew, mew, mew. The cats are coming through.

Jethro Tull, We Five Kings from "Christmas Album." Instrumental. They already proved to us that they could do five-four time (with "Living in the Past") but this proves it again. Thanks to barcley.

That's it for this year. Hope you enjoyed them!

Comments

[apetslife.livejournal.com]

Oh man, thank you so much. Downloading the whole kit and caboodle.

I'll miss your music posts terribly! They're such wonderful things. :) Happy holidays and thank you again!

[miss-pryss.livejournal.com]

Yoink! Thank you.

[cluegirl.livejournal.com]

*Snags the lot*

This is like a wonderful, musical sushi plate -- a bit of everything lovely. Thank you!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inzilbeth_/]

Thank you! There are several that are new to me I can not wait to hear.

Thank you for sharing!!

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Nice Cutty Wren. I wonder if you need to know the original to appreciate this version. I was really laughing.

[wychwood]

Thank you for these! I've really enjoyed snaffling some of the music you've posted, and getting a taster of some different seasonal music. I've always loved carols, particularly some of the less usual ones, so it's great listening to these :) And it's definitely given me some pointers on where to look for new music...

[fairestcat]

Oooh, thank you again, I've really appreciated all the great music.

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

Thank you for all the great music this year.

[kiezh.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for all your music posts. You've introduced me to a lot of artists and songs I'd never encountered before.

[vass]

Thank you!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! I'm sure I'll have some non-holiday stuff to upload at some point. Uploading music is a lot easier than writing fiction.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Hee -- it is, isn't it?

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Hope you enjoy them!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Huh -- until you posted this, I didn't know there was another version; I figured it was just a parody of the whole wren-hunting genre. So I'd say the answer is no!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Good! I'm glad to have the chance to share some of my favorites.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's excellent -- that's just what I was hoping would happen!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Here I am, one month later, and my husband has fallen in love with June Tabor's version of the Cutty Wren. Now I need to know, do you have the box set of Always with the four cds or did you get Hunting the Cutty Wren somewhere else? He is not keen on spending $60 to get four cds and wishes it were only one cd (for $20, presumably).

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

My copy of that song came from Always, but I myself got it from theamusedone, who's the source for, I'm guessing, about 15% of all the music I own.

Sorry I can't save you $40!

If it's any help, there's a lot I like in those CDs; if you like that song, you'll like a lot of the rest.

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Actually, this is quite helpful. Plus, we need some low alto in our music collection.

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

I found it through ebay for 45 (including shipping), so I impulse bought it:) DH was commenting that the only group he owns four albums of is Jethro Tull. We definitely need to change that balance!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Well, cool! I've had good luck with folk music on eBay -- it seems that there isn't a lot of competition for it.

I have four albums each from Elvis Costello, the Waverly Consort and the Revels, which makes me look suspiciously highbrow, but would probably be counterbalanced by having six from Jackson Browne to show what a dork I really am.