How well do you know Carol?
Some facts you might not have known about Christmas Carols:-
- Originally a Carol was not a religious song, but a secular dance, often in triple time.
- The carol ‘In Dulci Jubilo’, when the words are sung as a mixture of English (from the German), and Latin, is an example of a ‘macaronic carol’. The melody can be found in a 14th century manuscript in Leipzig University.
- The wonderful combination of Charles Wesley and Felix Mendelssohn gave us ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’.
- The tune of the French carol ‘Whence is that Goodly Fragrance’ later appeared as the rousing drinking song ‘Fill ev’ry glass, for wine inspires us’ in John Gay’s ‘The Beggars Opera’ in the 18th Century. I remember well singing it with the Kirkie Players some 16 years ago!
- ‘Good King Wenceslas’ originally appeared in Piae Cantiones in 1582, as a Spring carol. It was only about 150 years ago that the 10th Century story of Saint Wenceslas of Bohemia was told. After his father died, he encouraged Christianity in Bohemia, against the wishes of his mother, and was murdered by his brother Buleslav.
- The Romans used Holly to decorate their houses at the feast of Saturnalia, which occurred in the winter season. Ivy was dedicated by them, to Bacchus from the idea that it warded-off drunken-ness!
- The Coventry Carol (‘Lul-ly, lul-lay’) is one of the oldest English Carols. The original tune comes from 1591 and was sung in the Coventry Plays of that era.
- There are several Wassailling Songs. The word Wassail means ‘Keep You Well’.
- Czechoslovakia has provided a number of lovely quiet carols including the ‘Rocking Carol’, ‘The Birds’, and ‘The Zither Carol’. ‘Infant Holy’ is from Poland.
- ‘We Three Kings of Orient Are’ was written in 1857 by Dr J.H.Hopkins of Pennsylvania, one of very few well-known carols from the USA.
So give a thought, when next singing over Christmas, that the words and music may have had a very strange history!
Dancing in the Cathedral?….Surely not!
NO, Strictly Come Dancing has not come to St Mary’s Cathedral!
Sunday was a very busy day! Morning Service, celebrating Christ the King (and a baptism) was followed by the swiftly-handled AGM. Then, home for a quick bite of lunch and snooze, before going out again for Choral Evensong.
This was a special Service for Bishop Idris and which was introduced by Handel’s ‘Zadok the Priest’ (no doubt to celebrate the his 40 year anniversary of being priested, and 10 year anniversary of taking up the mitre). The Cathedral was completely full, including the old Choir Stalls being full of clergy.
The Versicles and Responses were by Rose, and the Choir and Provost did them proud. The Mag and Nunc were Stanford in E Flat, and the Charles Wood Anthem ‘O Thou, the Central Orb’, Both of these pieces are not easy to do, so require a lot of practice. The work-load on the Cathedral Choir is very heavy, so this may have explained the occasional lapses. However this was made up for by the wonderful Hymns, and the young organist who belied his years with his understanding of the registration of the organ.
The solemnity and gentleness of Evensong was followed by a very jolly time when we joined in a ceilidh with the Jiggers Band. Cake, biscuits, drinks, ice-cream all were in appearance and it was actually quite fun watching Bishops dancing the light fantastic, where the Altar would normally be…….shades of David in the temple?….perhaps not!
So, music filled this great space for a whole day…..now, if only the old stones could speak!
A big sing!
In the middle of last year, we drove north, with some good friends, to join the Churches in the Pitlochry area, to meet at the Festival Theatre Garden, and sing some well-kent melodies and harmonies with other members of local churches.
For those of us who love to exercise our lungs in public, what is it that makes joining in a large choir so wonderful? Is it the comradeship, the mutual mistakes, the thrill of well-sung harmony, or some strange primitive sensation bringing us together in a common purpose, where no-one is more important than others, and equality is all? Or is it the anonimity which assures us that a mistake made by us is not going to destry the overall effect?
About the same time, I joined over 500 other choristers in the Glasgow City Hall to practise and then perform the Brahms German Requiem, all on one day! Some feat…..and (besides several Austrian holidays) one of the few occasions when I was able to justify the time spent as a youth learning the gutteral formation of awkward long words!
However it was a wonderful event and the sheer numbers of those singing the same part as I was, carried me forward to the right notes (well, at least, mostly!).
But the answer still eludes me….why do we like to sing in large numbers?
Leaflet
The following is a leaflet in jpeg format. Sorry about the quality but the technical expert (me) is hard at work to get a better image. We also have it on Publisher 2003, and can send it by e-mail if you wish to use it to inform others about us.
A new record?…no, actually quite old!
At the weekend we decided to do a lot of clearing out of photographs. This detail is not important, but it gave us the chance to do something useful, and, at the same time, take the opportunity to listen to a lot of music. Normally we would put on a CD, but this time I decided that we would listen to some of our old records (remember them?). Yes real vinyl! The oldest real one we had bought was Mozart’s 40th and 41st Symphonies. I bought it whilst we were courting in the early 60’s and listened to it until it became scratched….but we still have it.
Our first purchased one, as a couple, was one of Christmas carols, bought at Heathrow Airport in Dec 1967, not long after our wedding. Beautiful singing with a photo of an angelic choirboy on the front (he’ll be in his fifties now!) with dirty fingernails!
I also found small 45s which I had recorded in a studio on Sauchiehall Street, One was of a choir I had at Strathaven, and featured, ‘The Lord’s My Shepherd’, and ‘All in the April Evening’. Even after all these years i can still note some individual voices! The other was of me playing two piano pieces, one of which I had written myself.
The oldest records which I have acquired must be early recordings of the Orpheous Choir under H.S.Roberton, with many of his own compositions.
A great afternoon of memories…and we haven’t started on the tapes yet!
A tale of two composers
We attended an art exhibition and musical sing-along at Glasgow’s St Mary’s Cathedral on Saturday night, which is celebrating All Saints’ Tide. The Cathedral serves as a perfect gallery, and the pictures which were by local artists were certainly eclectic.
However, we were there specifically to see two of Scotland’s most prominent composers who had been involved in the planning and execution of the evening which was called ‘Celebrating Three Loves’.
Neither John Bell, nor James MacMillan, can say that they enjoy universal appeal. In this they are no more fortunate than any other composer or writer. In many ways they are different……
- John (on the left of the above photo) is a Church of Scotland Minister, extrovert in nature, has a somewhat outrageous dress-sense, achieves an instant rapport with an audience, often writes both words and tunes in his hymns, draws on many traditional secular Scottish tunes, which he then adapts. His great association with Wild Goose Publications and the Iona Community shows the historical background of Scottish religion which he utilises. He also likes a lot of Third-world music and words, and much of this appeared in the programme. We have a fair experience of his music at the Cathedral and the vast majority is easy to sing. It appears to grow out of nature and relates to contemporary problems of life.
- James comes from a Catholic background (he and his wife are lay Dominicans), and like John Bell, his faith is very important to him in his personal and musical life. St Anne’s Mass and the Galloway Mass are relatively simple and are suitable for congregational singing. His Mass of 2000 was written for Westminster Cathedral much of it only suitable for liturgical use. He seems to be a much more reserved and introverted person, but perhaps that is not the experience of those who work with him. His music seem to me to be very inward-looking, and comes from deep within his own psyche.
Quite a bit of the evening’s music was written by one or the other. Of course you can’t compare chalk and cheese, and any comments must be made on the merits of any piece to which one is listening. I listened intently to each piece, and whilst not everything was to my particular liking, I had to admit that the whole evening gave us a rare insight into the talent which is about today within our small country. As long as we can all pick and choose the pieces we like, then all is well in our musical firmament……especially when it can be played and sung by the marvellour musicians of St Mary’s.
