Bill’s Midwinter Music Blog

Playlist

* We Three Kings The Sackville All Stars 6:16

* Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella Fernando Ortega 3:20

Music notes

We Three KingsThis familiar Christmas carol was written by Deacon John Henry Hopkins Jr, editor of the Church Journal in New York City. Since Hopkins Sr. was an Episcopal bishop, and Hopkins Jr. and his brothers were all church officials in various places, Christmas Day itself was an inconvenient day for the family to hold its annual family holiday gathering. So it was always held on the Epiphany (January 6) at their parent’s home in Burlington, Vermont.

As a gift for his nephews and nieces, in 1857 Uncle John wrote both the words and music of this carol for them to sing for the adults at that year’s family gathering. Children’s “theatricals” were very popular at that time, and he purposely set the song in a key that is good for children (and basses) to sing.

I can imagine him giving his manuscript of the song to the children in confidence when he first arrived so they could surprise the adults with it in the context of a Christmas pageant. (Actually, they may have staged a Christmas pageant every year, but a brand new song that no one had ever heard before would have been quite a treat.) They could secretly have practiced it and other Nativity songs out in the barn, and scoured their grandparents’ house for bits and pieces of clothing, costume jewelry, and other stuff to make attire for their performance. It may not have happened that way, but that is how I imagine it occurring.

Anyway, that first performance was a big hit with the family, which encouraged Hopkins to write more Christmas hymns and carols for the kids and publish a songbook with them. Unfortunately, Hopkins proved to be a one hit wonder as a songwriter, but he had better success as an author, journalist, book illustrator and stained-glass window designer. But his one hit was certainly a big one: It was the first American Christmas song to cross the Atlantic to Britain, and now is one of the world’s most well-known Christmas carols.

The recording of it is one of several jam sessions that were recorded to create an album for the now-defunct Sackville Records, a Toronto-based jazz label. The musicians are all now deceased but they truly all were major jazz stars in their time. They are Jim Galloway on the soprano saxophone, Ralph Sutton on piano, Milt Hinton on bass, and Gus Johnson on drums.

As I understand it, the musicians mostly toured the jazz club circuit independently but all happened to be in Toronto at the same time. That enabled the founders of Sackville Records, John Norris and Bill Smith, to book them together a recording gig. The album is The Sackville All Star Christmas Record, and all of its tracks were recorded on two days in March 1986. It is now one of the best-selling jazz Christmas albums of all time.

Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabellais performed here by Fernando Ortega, who is primarily known as a singer-songwriter of contemporary Christian music. He was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, near the banks of the Rio Grande, and started learning piano at eight years of age. This is from his 2008 album Christmas Songs.

The melody and words for Un flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle are included in a manuscript written by Joseph Bastide, an Avignon surgeon, at the beginning of the 18th century. At the time the region was part of the Papal States, and the people spoke the local dialect called Provençal Occitan. The manuscript documented noëls that his friend Nicolas Saboly had collected or written himself. Saboly had trained to be a priest, and became one, but ending up finding that his true calling was as the Cathedral’s organist and choirmaster, as well as a religious poet and composer. He worked almost entirely in his native dialect, and his poetry and songs are now considered an important part of the heritage of that region.

It is not clear whether this is entirely Saboly’s own composition, or is a folk noël that he collected, or a folk or other kind of melody for which he wrote Provençal noël-style lyrics, or something in between. In any event, as soon as Bastide’s transcription of Saboly’s songs was published in 1662 they were translated into Parisian French, and this song went viral, and not just as a noël. Within four years Charpentier used this melody for a pub song in a revival of Molière’s farce Le médecin malgré lui (The physician in spite of himself). Perhaps the tune had returned to its natural habitat.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit midwintermusic.substack.com

Playlist

* Colorado Christmas Greg Blake 3:25

* My Little Country Church at Christmas Time Matt Anderson 4:15

Introduction

I’ve noticed a pattern. In the rare times when new songs get into the rare status of having sufficient popular appeal that they come back year after year, it is usually not that they are about new aspects of the holiday, or express new feelings. To achieve the status of becoming a Christmas Classic they respect the traditional tropes of Christmas songs.

Those can be organized by topic, and within each topic the ones that have become and remained popular adhere to an optimistic or nostalgic take on the events or feelings they portray. All I Want for Christmas is You is a new “Christmas Classic” song, but it is not a new trope.

Calling the recurring themes of Christmas music “tropes” is not a criticism of them. I think that one of the things that most of us love about the holiday season is that its “meaning” is optimistic and aspirational. Our vision of the perfect Christmas is our vision for a perfect world. We sing about the world we want, not necessarily the real world around us. And we return to those same aspirations every year, especially at this season that is identified as a time of new beginnings and redemption.

An example of such a trope is that our songs about going home for Christmas are almost always about leaving the city and returning to rural roots. That also seems to be the common scenario for Hallmark Christmas movies.

We live in a time when most people have grown up in cities or the suburbs, but there are very few “Christmas Classic” songs about going there for Christmas. (Silver Bells is the exception, and interestingly that song is much more likely commonly recorded by country music singers.) The popular Christmas songs are almost always about returning to home in the country or a small town. I suppose that it is difficult to convey sentimentality and nostalgia for urban life, and those are emotions that we have come to want and expect from our annual binge of Christmas.

The core trope of such songs seems to be that the key to achieving a better future can be found by returning to Christmas’ idealized past.

Music notes

Colorado Christmas This song has someone expressing a desire to experience snow on Christmas Day. Where have we heard that before?

It was written by the late singer/songwriter Steve Goodman (1948-’84). Goodman is best known for having written City of New Orleans. He was born and lived most of his life in Chicago, but he and his family lived in Seal Beach near Los Angeles from 1980 to ’84, near the end of his tragically short life. Goodman never lived in Colorado. But the song’s references to wanting to go there are not expressing a longing to return home – just to experience the snow there, as is the case with that other song. Here is Goodman’s own recording of this song, released posthumously.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band had recorded Colorado Christmas in 1983, the same year it was written, and released it as the “A” side of a 45rpm 7” record (with a re-release of their early big hit Mister Bojangles on the “B” side.) I was going to include their version of the song here, but then I found this one by Greg Blake on YouTube. I love its intimacy - just him and his guitar. It isn’t from a recording: You can see him playing and singing it in the video, and in an introduction he says that it was the third song that he posted on that day. Greg has a website where you can learn more about him and his music.

Looking out the window of this Hollywood hotelYou’d never know that it was Christmas Eve.The billboards and the neon took the place of silver bells,And the temperature is 84 degrees.

I can hear the traffic on the crowded strip below,As the palm trees poke their heads above the scene.There’s not a single reindeer and it hardly ever snows,And Santa drives a Rolls Royce limousine. But all along the Rockies you can feel it in the air From Telluride to Boulder down below, The closest thing to heaven on this planet anywhere Is a quiet Christmas morning in the Colorado snow.I remember Christmases when I was just a boy,In the morning I would run to see the tree.And the carolers on the hillside sang their songs of Christmas joy,Well, I always thought they sang them just for me.

Now the sun is setting in the California skyAnd I can’t find the spirit anywhere.So I think it’s time for me to tell Los Angeles goodbyeI’m going back home to look for Christmas there. But all along the Rockies you can feel it in the air From Telluride to Boulder down below, The closest thing to heaven on this planet anywhere Is a quiet Christmas morning in the Colorado snow.

By the way, this song is very similar in both sentiment and content of the little-known introductory verse that Irving Berlin wrote for his immortal White Christmas. That verse was not included in Bing Crosby’s version which became such a big hit song that it became the template for almost every cover of it, so they do not include the introductory verse either. But that verse provides a clarifying set-up for why the narrator has such a longing for snow on Christmas:

The sun is shining, the grass is greenThe orange and palm trees swayThere’s never been such a dayIn Beverly Hills, L.ABut it’s December the twenty-fourthAnd I am longing to be up North.I’m dreaming of a white ChristmasJust like the ones I used to know....

You can hear that introduction in this beautiful rendition of White Christmas sung by Ginny Reilly, recorded in 1984.

My Little Country Church at Christmas Time This song is by singer-songwriter Matt Andersen and is from his self-published 2011 album Spirit of Christmas. Attending church on Christmas is a common country music Christmas-song trope. I’m not really into country music myself in general, but that kind of music is a great source for Christmas songs that exhibit sincerity and authenticity, and that is what I hear in this song. I especially like the little touches, like noting “the crack of the pews as we kneel down” and “the sound of the heater clicking on.” I presume that this song comes from personal experience, either depicting one particular Christmas service or memories compiled from several of them.

Matt was raised in the small village of Perth-Andover, New Brunswick but now lives in the Ottawa Valley. The first line of the song suggests that the song is from the perspective of someone who lives in the community, rather than someone who has returned home for the holidays, and narrator’s parents are clearly depicted as being members of the congregation. That leads me to suspect that Matt Andersen wrote this song based on childhood memories of going to church on Christmas.

Seeing faces, we haven’t seen all yearAnd some who’ve come as friends of friendsOur hearts are filled with Christmas cheerAnd the chills we get, when the songs begin

I hear my mother singing with the choirMy father shaking hands at the doorIt’s the smell of the hall hung with freshly cut pineIt’s my little country church at Christmas time

The crack of the pews as we kneel downThe sound of the heater clicking onA fresh batch of snow lays on the groundAs we think about the year that’s come and gone

I hear my mother singing with the choirMy father shaking hands at the doorIt’s the smell of the hall hung with freshly cut pineIt’s my little country church at Christmas time

A father holds his daughterA mother holds her sonWe bow our heads and we are thankfulFor all that we have, to be among the lucky ones

The room is full with the love of ChristmasWe share a smile as a baby criesWe sound just like a band of angelsAs we sing the closing hymn of Silent Night

I hear my mother singing with the choirMy father shaking hands at the doorIt’s the smell of the hall hung with freshly cut pineIt’s my little country church at Christmas time

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit midwintermusic.substack.com

Playlist

* The Many and the Few The Klezmatics 6:20

* Hanukkah Dance Woody Guthrie 1:24

Music notes

The Many and the Few This song is an account of the history of the establishment of the Jewish people’s annual Hanukkah Festival, but it begins much earlier than that - in 538 BCE when King Cyrus of Babylon ended the Hebrew people’s captivity and allowed them to return to their homeland, bringing their sacred book the Torah with them.

Later, the kingdoms of Judea and Israel were again conquered, this time by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. Upon his death, the Hellenized (i.e., living in accordance with Greek culture) Macedonian Empire was broken up, and the Jewish homeland soon fell under the control of the Seleucid dynasty based in Syria. At first, the Seleucids continued Alexander’s policy of permitting religious and cultural diversity in the conquered lands, but about 150 years later the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes began to issue decrees to homogenize the empire. He forbade Jewish religious practices, and required the people to adopt Greek culture and religion.

Many of the Jewish people, especially those in positions of power and wealth, accepted conversion to Hellenism, but there was also resistance. In 167 BCE, after an unsuccessful Jewish revolt, Antiochus re-conquered Jerusalem and converted its Temple to a a place for the worship of Zeus. This led to a successful uprising, initially led by an elderly rural priest called Mattathias, and then by his son Judah “The Hammer” Maccabee. The song recounts some of the early battles of that uprising.

One of the early successes of that revolution was a reconquering of Jerusalem and its Temple, but now we’re getting into the part of the story that you probably already know. If you don’t, well, that story is greatly abbreviated in the last four verses of this song.

Here is where the story gets interesting. This song was written and recorded by Woody Guthrie in or before 1949. Woody was not Jewish himself but he got a crash course in Judaism when he began dating and then marrying Marjorie Greenblatt and promised that their children would grow up in the Jewish religion and culture. Marjorie’s mother was a prominent poet, songwriter, and leader in New York’s Coney Island hotbed of Jewish culture and political activism. Woody got along great with his mother-in-law and her friends; he and Marjorie moved to a house on Mermaid Street across from hers.

I could go on and on about Woody’s family and his acceptance into the core of that neighbourhood’s Jewish cultural and political community, but I have already done that. If you want to learn more I suggest that you read my essay about it in my Dec 6, 2021 post.

This rendition of the song is by The Klezmatics. It is from their 2005 album Woody Guthrie’s Happy Joyous Hanukkah.

Hanukkah Dance This song is Woodys own recording of another Hanukkah song that he wrote. It was found by the Smithsonian Museum archivists among the documents and master discs that were donated to them by Moses Ashe, the founder and proprietor of the legendary recording company Folkways Records. Unlike Woody’s own recording of The Many and the Few, they do not know when this track was recorded. It might have been during the same session as that song (Dec 29, 1949) or it may have been earlier.

Since the song is so short and stops so abruptly, it might not have been intended to be a full song for Woody’s intended album of Hanukkah songs; a project that was never completed. Perhaps it was a sound check for The Many and the Few or one of Woody’s other Folkways recordings, or a demo to show the range of songs that could go on his proposed Hanukkah album. It does provide a contrast to the seriousness of The Many and the Few. Those two tracks are the only Hanukkah songs that Woody ever recorded, although lyrics for other Hanukkah songs that he wrote for the proposed album were found by his family in his notebooks.

To me, this sounds like the kind of song a father might improvise to spur on a laughing and dancing toddler or very young child. Both the family and the Smithsonian archivists think that it was probably written for Woody and Marjorie’s daughter Cathy, who was born in February 1943 but died tragically in a house fire at the age of four years old. The cause was an electrical malfunction in the family’s radio. As you can imagine, the event deeply affected both Woody and Marjorie.

Woody suffered a serious depression from his grief, especially because that was not the first time that fire had caused a family tragedy for him. Little Cathy’s death is often cited as a turning point towards Woody’s deteriorating mental and physical health in the following years, prior to the onset of the symptoms that accompanied his final extended deterioration from genetically-inherited Huntington’s Disease. But despite his grief, Woody continued to write songs and stories based on his memory of that lively little daughter, as well his interactions with other children.

If this was recorded in 1949 or later, the dancing child might have been Arlo, but the song itself might still originally have been inspired by Cathy. I know from my experience with my own daughters that family ditties I made up for Gillian often got recycled when singing to Wendy.

You can hear a much longer version of this song by the Klezmatics on my Dec 5, 2021 post. In it, Lorin Sklamberg, the lead singer, adds additional lyrics from a Woody manuscript, and in the last half he seems to be giving shout-outs to the children of the band members and their entourage. In the context of Woody’s loss of little Cathy, the tenderness of that version always brings both a tear to my eye as well as a smile to my face. The tone of this recording by Woody seems to be set by his little laugh in the first verse.

Want to learn more about Hanukkah?

I spent many years collecting Hanukkah songs and tunes to make a Hanukkah music album to be one of my Bill’s Sampler CDs. Hanukkah music, and Hanukkah itself, was a subject about which I had previously known next to nothing. As I came to appreciate the music I began to envision it as being a theme I could occasionally intersperse with usual Christmas music samplers, as I had done with Winter Solstice music.

But that was not to be. It was only two years after my Bill’s 2019 Hanukkah Music Sampler that I recognized that my years of using CDs as my medium to convey this music to people had come to an end, just as my five years of putting them on cassette tapes had ended 20 years earlier.

But, as a silver lining for that dark cloud, the space limitations of fitting my research into printed liner notes had always meant holding back a lot of things I learned from my research that I wanted to tell. As you have seen, these online message do not impose a length-limit on my writing. In 2021 I wrote three essays on the history and evolution of Hanukkah that I think are pretty good:

1. Nov 25, 2021 Hanukkah’s history Part 1 - Rebellion, rededication, and an eight-day celebration of gaining freedom from foreign rule. Song: Chanukah Light from Oil for the Lamps, a folk opera.

2. Dec 1, 2021 Hanukkah’s history Part 2 - Talmudic reinterpretation of the meaning of the festival, oil, and becoming a Festival of Light. Songs: Three Hanukkah classics; Banu Choshech, the Candle Blessings, and Ocho Kandelikas.

3. Dec 3, 2021 Hanukkah’s history Part 3 – Transformation for new times; becoming more celebratory and family-focused. Songs: Hanukkah humour; The Latke Song (Mrs. Maccabeus) and Is it Hanukah or Chanukah?

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit midwintermusic.substack.com

The wassailing tradition, a forerunner to the Victorian-invented Christmas caroling, is a custom that almost certainly pre-dates Christianity. I wrote an essay about that attached to my Dec 21, 2022 posting, as well as one about how other pagan customs survived medieval times in my Dec 18, 2021 posting. I won’t repeat all of that for you now (you’re thinking “thank goodness!”) but after the Music Notes below is an essay (about 1600 words) with some follow-up thoughts about the possible history of the custom and its songs.

Playlist

* Here We Come a-Wassailing The Watersons 1:28

* Jacobstowe Wassail Waterson:Carthy 2:51

* Here We Come a-Wassailing Kate Rusby 3:12

Music notes

Here We Come a-Wassailing is the name that the then-newly-formed British folk-revival group The Watersons used for this song when they recorded it in 1965 as the opening song on their very first album, Frost and Fire. After considerable research, the origins of this particular wassail song are still a mystery to me. Its first and fourth verses are very familiar with only minor variances from those found in many wassails, but its melody is unusual and the charming second and third verses seem to be unique:

Here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so green,Here we come a-wandering so fairly to be seen,Now is winter-time strangers travel far and near,And we wish you, send you, a happy New Year.

Bud and blossom, bud and blossom, bud and bloom and bear,So we may have plenty of cider all next year;Hatfuls and in capfuls and in bushel bags and all,And there’s cider running out of every gutter hole.

Down here in the muddy lane there sits an old red fox,Starving and a-shivering and licking his old chops;Bring us out your table and spread it if you please,And give us hungry wassailers a bit of bread and cheese.

I’ve got a little purse and it’s made of leather skin,A little silver sixpence it would line it well within;Now is winter-time; strangers travel far and near,And we wish you, send you a happy New Year.

The Frost and Fire album’s original sleeve notes did not give any information about this particular wassail’s origins, and I have been unable to find any source in which the Watersons identify it. Since this was the first song on their first album, and the Watersons had been raised in Yorkshire, I thought it might have been a version of The Yorkshire Wassail (Roud no. 209). That is often called Here We Come a-Wassailing. Taking that a step further, since the Watersons had been raised in Kingston upon Hull, it might be a variant from near that city and perhaps even the version that the Watersons themselves had sung as children.

But Yorkshire has a carefully researched database of the region’s folk music curated by The Yorkshire Garland Group, and the notes for their entries about The Yorkshire Wassail, which is what they call Here We Come a-Wassailing, say:

. . . no Yorkshire song collection could possibly avoid including at least one version of The Yorkshire Wassail. Practically every village in Yorkshire has its own version and, though the words show little variation, there can be almost any permutation of the eight or so standard stanzas, and the chorus and tune can vary considerably.

Though nearly every county of England and Wales has its own distinct Wassail song, some more than one, it is The Yorkshire Wassail which is the most widely known across the whole country, probably the world, due to its early publication and its subsequent inclusion in all of the standard national carol anthologies.

In some parts of England this led to the strange paradox of the local wassail song being sung in the villages, and middle classes in nearby towns singing The Yorkshire Wassail. Fortunately the Yorkshire family group The Watersons have more than redressed this imbalance by recording the main varieties of Wassail songs from other parts of the country.

That last part is certainly true. On the 6 albums that the Watersons and Martin Carthy recorded as a group, and many more that they and their descendants have recorded as duos or singly, they have indeed recorded wassails from all over England. But the two middle verses of this one are not among the “eight or so standard stanzas” with words that “show little variation” that the Garland Group describes as characteristic of The Yorkshire Wassail. If those delightful and rare middle verses appeared in a wassail that had been collected in Yorkshire, I would expect that the Group would take great pride in identifying their region as having been their location of origin.

As far as I know, throughout their career the Watersons only sang traditional English folk songs, albeit in their own idiosyncratic style of harmony singing. I think it unlikely that those middle verses were either their own composition or that they patched them from another source into a variant of The Yorkshire Wassail, and that is despite the fact that doing so would have been very much in the authentic spirit of true wassailing.

If anyone knows the origin of this wassail song variant, please let me know.

Jacobstowe Wassail (aka Robin Redbreast Wassail)was recorded in 2006 by Waterson:Carthy, the next-generation version of the original Watersons group. They were then comprised of Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy from the original group, Eliza Carthy (Martin and Norma’s daughter), and Tim van Eyken. It is from their album Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man.

It was easier to find the origin of this one, and it does have an interesting story. The song was gathered by the Anglican priest, antiquarian, hymn-writer and folk song collector Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924). Baring-Gould collected, documented and published many books on the folk music of Devon and Cornwall, often working in collaboration with another important folk music collector, Cecil Sharp. He also sometimes even collaborated with the American folklorist Francis Child who collected and analyzed variants of English and Scottish ballads and published the eight volume work now known as the Child Ballads.

Rev. Baring-Gould’s contribution to traditional music did not end when he died. He had donated his note books and working drafts to the Plymouth Public Library Archives in 1914 and folklore scholars have been mining information from them ever since. Then in 1998, a previously unknown trove of 30 boxes full of Baring-Gould manuscripts, notebooks and correspondence was discovered at Killerton, a house-museum operated by the National Trust. That has provided a whole new source of previously unknown folk songs, including this one.

One way that Baring-Gould would gather old songs, besides his own field collecting, was to encourage people from Cornwall and Devon to send him transcriptions of old songs and tunes together with information about where and from whomy they collected them. In the Killington trove was correspondence from Mrs. Batchellor who lived in Jacobstowe on the Cornish Penninsula which included the lyrics to this song. She had written them down from the singing of an unnamed wassailer. Since she had not sent him the music, Baring-Gould tentatively matched it with this tune that had been sent to him independently by G. Lewis Maitland.

Baring-Gould never completed that project and published it, which is why it was not with the documents he donated to the Archives in 1914. Baring-Gould hadn’t given a name to his mash-up of lyrics from one source with a tune from another a name in his private manuscript. They also do not say if the tune had been collected in Jacobstowe or from elsewhere. It has gone by various titles since it was discovered.

This rendition by Waterson:Carty was the first to be recorded and they chose to call it Sugar Wassail on their 2006 album. When an amateur group called the Wren Chorus, which is affiliated with the researchers who found it in Baring-Gould’s papers, recorded their version of it in 2008 they chose to call it just Robin Redbreast.

More recently, the name has become standardized by general consensus as Jacobstowe Wassail, since wassails are generally named after the places from which they were collected. Topic Records, the label that published the Waterson:Carthy album, has now posted this same 2006 recording on YouTube and even they are now calling it Jacobstowe Wassail. (This confusion in assigning a name to this newly-found old wassail explains how I accidentally repeated this version of the song after having previously included it in my Dec 8, 2022 set.)

Hopefully, more old songs (including wassails) are still out there to be discovered.

Wassail, wassail,Good master and mistress, sitting down by the fire,While we poor wassailers be dabbling in the mire,With a jolly wassail.Oh, little Robin Redbreast he has a fine wing,Give us of your cider and we’ll begin to sing,With a jolly wassail.

Wassail, wassail,Good master and mistress, our wassail begin,Please open your door and let us come in,With a jolly wassail.Oh, little Robin Redbreast he has a fine song,Give us of your cider, we won’t keep you long,With a jolly wassail.

Wassail, wassail,Your ale cup is white and your ale it is brown,Your beer is the best that e’er can be found,With a jolly wassail.Oh, little Robin Redbreast he has a fine leg,Give us of your cider, and we’ll begin to beg,With a jolly wassail.

Wassail, wassail,Your gin it is brew’d from the juniper tree,Your gin is the best that ever can be,With a jolly wassail.Oh, little Robin Redbreast he has a fine toe,Give us of your cider, and we’ll begin to go,With a jolly wassail.

Wassail, wassail,With a jolly wassail.

Here We Come a-Wassailing Kate Rusby, from Penistone in the West Riding of Yorkshire, is one of England’s best-known contemporary folksingers. She doesn’t seem to have gotten the message that the folk music revival is long past. She records traditional English songs acoustically but in a way turns them into pop music hit songs in Britain.

Rusby appears to have a special affinity for Christmas music. Of the 20 albums that she has recorded, seven have been Christmas albums, and as far as I can tell they have all become mainstream Christmas best-sellers. This is the opening track from Sweet Bells, her first Christmas album released in 2009,

After having done all that research trying to find the roots of the Waterson’s version of Here We Come a-Wassailing and thinking (probably incorrectly) that those roots would be in Yorkshire, this one was easy even though her liner notes only attribute it to “Trad & Kate Rusby”. It ticks all of the boxes for being a variant of The Yorkshire Wassail; even the melody and refrain are the very familiar ones from that region.

The oldest documentation of this generic version of The Yorkshire Wassail seems to be in the 1871 edition of Henry Ramsden Bramley and John Stainer’s Christmas Carols New and Old. That was the Christmas songbook that fueled the Victorian era’s taste for Christmas carols that related to the Nativity story, many of which are very familiar today.

Perhaps as influential in making this particular wassail song so well-known is that it was also in the 1928 edition of The Oxford Book of Carols which Martin Shaw co-authored with Percy Dearmer and R. Vaughan Williams. In it they included this version, which Shaw had learned as a boy from his father, who had often heard it in the streets of Leeds in the 1850s.

Rusby’s version abbreviates the wassail down to five of the standard Yorkshire verses, which is the common length. Her three-line verses (with a repeat of the usual second line) may or may not have ever been sung that way by actual wassailers. She employs her own creativity to make England’s old Christmas songs popular for present and future generations rather than preserving them intact as they had been sung in the past. I can’t recall having ever heard a wassail sung quite this way by anyone else.

Here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so greenHere we come a-wandering so fairly to be seenHere we come a-wandering so fairly to be seen

[Chorus; sing after each verse] Love and joy come to you And to you our wassail too God bless you and send you a Happy New Year God send you a Happy New YearWe are not daily beggars that beg from door to doorBut we’re the neighbour’s children that you’ve seen beforeWe’re thе neighbour’s children that you’ve seen bеforeI have a little purse, it’s made of leather skinI need a silver sixpence to line it well withinI need a silver sixpence to line it well within

God bless the master of the house and then the mistress tooAnd all the little children that ‘round the table growAll the little children that ‘round this table grewAnd here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so greenAnd here we come a-wandering so fairly to be seenHere we come a-wandering so fairly to be seen

Essay: Further thoughts about wassail songs (about 1500 words)

During the Middle Ages throughout most of Christianized Europe, the people kept old pagan traditions alive either by endowing them with Christian symbolic meaning or by purely secular observation. That was the only way those old customs could survive to this day, if they did at all.

But the English wassailing custom and the now largely-extinct-but-not-forgotten Yule Log tradition made no pretense of having Christian meaning. Their probable ancient meaning as a religious rite had likely been long forgotten, but they appear to have been continued as purely secular traditions. Not very many of the wassailing songs that we consider to be traditional today even mention the occasion of Christmas at all, let alone God or the Nativity. Their only connection to the Christian holiday is that the days on which the wassailing takes place locally are often identified by their Christian holy day names.

But how could that happen? How could a tradition with pagan origins survive through adamantly Christian times without at least taking on a veneer of Christian meaning? And why should England be an exception to the medieval Christianization of ancient pagan luck-visit traditions that took place in almost all other places in Europe?

I do have a theory, but it is pure speculation. Perhaps in England the old wassailing custom did take on a Christian symbolic meaning during the Middle Ages, with the songs adapted to reflect being part of celebration of the Christmastide season rather than a continuation of pagan observation of Yuletide.

That was what the early- and mid-Victorian song-collectors thought when they went looking for extant medieval “Christmas carols” from rural communities in isolated locations. The problem was that they couldn’t find very many old songs about the Nativity in the common people’s luck visiting singing repertoire. What they found was that the singing that was being done door-to-door at Christmastime was wassails like these, with no mention of Christmas or the Nativity. For the most part, they didn’t bother to collect those because they were clearly not the medieval Christmas carols they were looking for.

Folklorists have tended to draw the conclusion that medieval caroling as a door-to-door singing of Nativity-oriented songs did not exist: They concluded that it was an imagined Christmastime tradition that Victorian era medievalists were hoping to revive in support of the “keep Christmas” movement. The medievalist’s perspective was that if there had been such a Christian practice in medieval times it would have been discontinued and then forgotten after the celebration of Christmas and its associated Christmastide season had been banned by the Puritan Parliament and Church of England in the latter half of the 17th century.

That ban and its unintended consequences is another topic that I have previously written about in some detail – you can read about it in the essay in my Dec 3, 2021 posting (which is mostly about the modern history of celebrating Hanukkah but I needed to tell about the “Keep Christmas” movement to give context for that story.)

So here’s my theory – perhaps wassailing really had changed into a Christianized custom, with songs related to the Nativity, but then in the mid 17th century when celebration of Christmas was banned by both law and the church the people just adapted to the times again: They removed the Christian symbolism from the occasion and Nativity words from their songs. By doing so they could not only continue to celebrate the season legally and theologically acceptably as a secular occasion in the traditional way, but also revel in their successful resistance to authority by imposing an unintended consequence upon the Puritans in authority who sought to deprive them of the year’s most beloved holidays.

If that had happened, wassail would likely have become what it is now – a secular tradition with no pretense of Christian or Pagan meaning that people participated in simply because it was what you do at this time of year. It is unlikely that the people at that time even knew about wassailing’s pagan roots, and if they did, they certainly would not have revived the pagan aspect of the tradition during a time when witches were being burnt at the stake. In other words, the songs would have ended up being exactly the kinds of solicitations that are in the traditional wassail songs today, with good wishes replacing words like blessings as what the wassailers offer in return.

We know that kind of adaptation is how people might have responded back then, because that is how they did respond when Rumania’s atheist government under Nicolae Ceaușescu banned the celebration of Christmas in the 1980s. I told about that in a post three years ago as background information for two songs from the Rumanian equivalent to wassailing, but to save you from having to find that, here is what I said back then:

This recording was made at a time when the caroling custom, and Christmas itself, was prohibited in Romania. Like the Puritans had done in England in the 17th century, the Communist government under Nicolae Ceaușescu banned celebration of the holiday! But his reasons for doing so couldn’t have been more different from the English Puritans. Ceaușescu saw Christian leadership as posing a threat to his one-party rule and decided to impose Communist Atheism as the state religion. (Or is that a state non-religion?) He had the Orthodox priests arrested and executed, and prohibited all forms of religious observance including colinde [the Rumanian luck-visit equivalent to wassailing] and the singing of Christmas carols. . . .

How did the people react to this prohibition? Pretty much as you would expect (and the same as what had happened in England 300 years earlier.) In the cities, public acknowledgement of Christmas did not take place in public but its celebration continued in the privacy of people’s homes (even though they no longer got the day off work.) In the rural areas the custom of colinde pretty much continued as usual, but with some discretion.

It still began on December 24, but that was nominally done only to keep up tradition: The people said that their new focus of the custom was to celebrate the coming of a new year under the Communist regime. What they sang during the visits depended upon the reputation of who was being visited. For trusty old friends it would be the old carols. But if they were visiting the home of the local party official they would sing the national anthem or another patriotic song. That person could then report what he saw: The people of his village were conforming to both the letter and spirit of the law.

In some cases they would write new secular lyrics to sing to the traditional Nativity carols’ melodies.

But again, the idea that this may have been what happened in England in the 17th century is just speculation, and I’ll have to think more about it. There are some problems with the theory, such as: Why would Christian themes remain so thoroughly removed from wassailing through the 18th and 19th centuries, when England was still a fervently Christian country?

My idea is based on the fact that the wassail songs are an ever-changing type of folk music. As far as we know, wassail songs have always been improvised and tailored specifically for whichever household was being visited, or whoever opened the door. That is another reasons why they escaped attention from folklore collectors until the custom was on the verge of dying out in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The earlier collectors knew that the verses in the wassails they heard were not necessarily old songs; at least some of the verses they heard had just been made up on the spot.

Once folklorists did begin collecting wassails from the living tradition it was to document the current state of the folklore. They would cherry-pick the most clever or most representative verses from the singing. And if they documented the melody at all – most didn’t before the days of recording technology – it would have been by giving the name of the tune they heard if they recognized it. Remember, the 19th century was a time when, unlike our current approach to singing, swapping out melodies between songs was commonly done and a common skill.

As with collecting other types of folk music and songs, such as sea shanties and children’s play songs, the process of documenting these moment-in-time bits and pieces of performances given at various households has created a rather artificial and frozen single “authentic” version of what had been a community’s living and evolving tradition.

Because of similarities in the lyrics of wassail songs collected from far-flung places, often with the exact same couplets being used for the verses collected from places far from each other, I suspect that they were often not collected before the local variants had been influenced by exposure to clever wassail verses from other communities and regions. Also, it seems apparent that some wassail songs were not collected until wassailing that in previous decades had been done by whole families survived only as a remnant children’s activity (as is evidenced by the third song in today’s set.)

So take these “authentic” wassail variants with a grain of salt. Although their melodies and lyrics sometimes vary, what English wassail songs actually say is almost always the same thing: After a polite greeting the visitors are asking householders to fulfill their role in the local wassailing tradition by giving largesse to the visitors.

I think it would be reasonable to think of almost all them as being variants of the same song. Perhaps they should all be called simply The Wassail Song, with the community of origin and circumstances of collection identified in the liner notes. But that won’t happen, so here are several of the variants of The Wassail Song to enjoy, listed under the titles that the performers identified them when they recorded the songs.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit midwintermusic.substack.com

Playlist

* The Wish - Dave Townsend - 2:51

* To Drive the Cold Winter Away - Martin Simpson - 1:45

* The Houses of Winter - Peter Mayer - 4:25

The Wish (aka The Trees Are All Bare)The lyrics of this song derive from a poem written by Thomas Brerewood of Horton, Cheshire who died in 1748. It was part of a series about the seasons. When that poem was first set as a song is unknown. The earliest dated reference to music for it is by a “Mr. Lockhart” in 1813 but that tune is not documented. Sung versions spread and became folk-processed into many variants all across England under many names such as The Turn of the Year, When the Trees Are All Bare, and The Timid Hare. There are also many broadsides (printed lyrics sheets) in the Bodleian Library and in other archives. It was clearly very popular throughout the 19th century.

The song faded from usage during the early 20th century. The melody was unknown until it was discovered in that living archive of English folk music known as the Copper Family. The Coppers have lived in the small village of Rottingdean in rural Sussex since the 16th century. They sang an orally-transmitted repertoire of old English songs together in a rustic harmony style.

The Copper’s repertoire of obscure old songs first caught the attention of collectors of traditional songs in the late 19th century, and a new generation of song-catchers came to them during the 1960s to find ones that previous collectors may have missed. Sure enough, cousins Bob and Ron Copper were still singing the old songs, and among them was this variant of The Trees Are All Bare, which they called simply the Christmas Song.

The song is sung here by the scrupulously authentic heritage musician and folksinger Dave Townsend accompanying himself on the concertina. It is from the Oxford Waits and Mellstock Band’s now out-of-print album Hey for Christmas, released in 2000, where the song is called The Wish. As always, Dave Townsend tells about the song’s background in his liner notes.

The melody he uses is the one sung by Bob Copper, but the lyrics are from an old broadside dated April 1794 which is more similar to the original poem. It also includes the original second verse, which is rarely included in other variants. (As the author of this website has noted; “The people who kept this song alive presumably knew that peasants rarely had the chance to be inactive, and they had more sense than to be outdoors on a freezing cold day.”)

The lyrics for this version are:

When the trees are all bare, not a leaf to be seen,And the meadows their beauty have lost.When Nature’s disrobed of her mantle of green,And the streams are fast,And the streams are fast, fast bound with the frost.

Whilst the peasant inactive stands shivering with coldAs fleet the winds northerly blowAnd the innocent flocks run for ease to the coldWith their fleeces all,With their fleeces all, all covered with snow.

In the yard when the cattle are foddered with strawAnd they send forth their breath like a steam.And the neat-looking dairy maid finds she must thawFlakes of ice that she finds,Flakes of ice she finds, that she finds in her cream.

When the birds to the barn door come hovering for foodAnd with silence they rest on the spray.And the poor timid hare in vain seeks the woodsLest her footsteps her course,Lest her footsteps her course should betray.

Heaven grant in this season it may be my lot With the nymph whom I love and admireWhilst the icicles hang from the eaves of my cotI may thither in safety,I may thither in safety retire.

To Drive the Cold Winter Away The tune is even older than The Trees Are All Bare: It is well documented that it dates back at least to the 17th century and lyrics for it are also found in a number of printed broadsides from that time, the oldest being dated 1625. It has a more-than-common variety of lyrics and titles, which are indications of extensive evolution through oral learning and polishing by many generations of singers, but all express a similar sentiment that the way to drive away cold winter is by filling the season with goodwill and festivities.

Remember, the latter 17th century was the time when the observation of Christmas had been banned by both Parliament and the Church of England, but exuberant celebration of midwinter (not Christmas as such!) was continued in public mainly by young rowdies.

Its melody is known because John Playford set it down in his dance tune-book The English Dancing Master, published in 1651. His name for it is When Phoebus did Rest, which presumably was the opening line of one of the more wide-spread variants. This simple-but-elegant cello rendition is by Martin Simpson and is from a 2000 album called Beautiful Darkness. If you want to try singing along there are many versions of the lyrics available online (for example, from here.)

The Houses of Winter This is a relatively new song, written by singer-songwriter Peter Mayer who lives in Stillwater Minnesota, not far from where I spent every July as a child and where I lived during my high school years. It is from his self-published 2005 album Midwinter (which might be the best midwinter music album that I have in my entire collection!) He does not include any information in his liner notes or on his website about the source of inspiration for this song, but I guess it is pretty self-explanatory.

The houses of winter stand in a rowWith chimneys that billow and windows that glowThey play out their scenes for the snow drifts and icy streets at nightInside they are clearing their dishes awayWatching the news and recounting the dayAnd reading their children stories before their bedtime

And when the rites of the evening are doneThe lights in the windows go dark one by oneUntil the inhabitants all fall asleepAnd the houses of winter become houses of dreams

And they tend their fires with care And whisper a prayer For their dreamers’ safe-keeping As the cold blows wind at the doors And hangs icicle swords Where his captives are sleeping

The houses of winter stand in the coldFending off blizzards and murderous lowsBiding their time till they breathe in the April breeze againHarboring lives with their walls and their roofsWatching like mothers watch over their broodsWakeful as monks meditating before the day begins

And in the darkness, before the day startsThey ponder the purpose in their furnace heartsAnd hope that the people for whom their hearts burnWith love, the long winter, will love with their own hearts in turn

And they tend their fires with care And whisper a prayer For their dreamers’ safe-keeping As the cold blows wind at the doors And hangs icicle swords Where his captives are sleeping

And Orion holds court in the sky And night owls fly above frozen rivers And dreams, like chimney smoke rise From behind the closed eyes In the houses of winter

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit midwintermusic.substack.com

Playlist

* Stars of Glory Dustin Christensen & Debra Fotheringham 2:52

* Mary’s Boy Child modern music box 2:50

* Quelle est cette odeur agréable Lisa Moscatiello 3:17

Music notes

Stars of Glory This song is a hymn with lyrics written in 1862 by the English Catholic priest Frederick Charles Husenbeth (1786-1872), who was also a Doctor of Divinity. It has been set to a variety of tunes in different hymnals. I found one source that says that this melody was inspired by a traditional Celtic carol. That may be true, but I have heard a lot of Celtic Christmas songs and tunes, but offhand I cannot place this melody. (If anyone does recognize it please tell me its name in the comments below so I can update this post in my blog/archive.)

This duet is by Dustin Christensen & Debra Fotheringham, and was recorded when they were members of a Salt Lake City gospel/folk collective called the Lower Lights. It is from that group’s 2011 album Come Let Us Adore Him.

Here are the full original lyrics, including the third verse that is not sung here; the chords are available here.

Stars of glory shine more brightly,Purer be the moonlight’s beam,Glide ye hours and moments lightly,Swiftly down time’s deep’ning stream.Bring the hour that banished sadness,Brought redemption down to earth,When the shepherds heard with gladnessTidings of a Saviour’s birth.See the shepherds quickly rising,Hast’ning to the humble stall,And the newborn Infant prizing,As the mighty Lord of All.Lowly now they bend before himIn His helpless infant state.Firmly faithful we adore Him,And His greatness celebrate.See how Mary loves her BoychildIn the light of Bethlehem.Lowly ox and ass breathe warmlyOn the little Lord of All.Now the world is hushed in stillness,In the joy of knowing God is near!Hope and love have come to dwell here,Driving out the night of fear.Hark! The swell of heav’nly voicesPeals along the vaulted sky.Angels sing while earth rejoices,“Glory to our God on high!Glory in the highest heaven.Peace to lowly ones on earth.Joy to these and bliss be givenIn the great Redeemer’s birth.

Mary’s Boy ChildThose of you who have my Christmas Music Samplers on CD know that I am a sucker for the sound of music boxes. They sound so cheery and delicate that no matter how lively the tune might be, they fit right in with the kind of relaxing music that is the intent for today’s postings. But in this case I chose a song that is already quite relaxing and delicate.

I got this from one of those cheap compilation albums of “Christmas classics” from a no-name label that you used to always see in drug stores at Christmastime. It still has its price tag - $2.00. It came in a sleeve, not a plastic jewel case, and of course it has no liner notes. The only attribution for this track is “modern music box”.

But I can tell you about the tune itself. When I first researched it for the liner notes of another version that was on my 2007 Sampler I was rather surprised to discover that this is an American song. I had assumed that was as Jamaican as Harry Belefonte, who made it a calypso hit song in 1956. That year it rose to #12 on the Billboard pop music chart, and stayed in the top 40 for 5 weeks. The next year it made it to #1 on the British pop music charts.

Actually, I was wrong on both counts. Harry Belefonte was born in Harlem, on the teeming East Side of Manhattan. He spent four years during his youth living with his grandmother in Jamaica, but otherwise he lived his entire life in the United States. And both the words and music for Mary’s Boy Child were written by Jester Hairston, who was born in North Carolina but raised in the industrial city of Pittsburgh. You can read about how he came to write this calypso Christmas song from its Wikipedia entry, or in more detail here.

This is a very popular Christmas carol so you probably already know the words. But in case you don’t:

A long time ago in Bethlehem,So the Holy Bible say,Mary’s boy child, Jesus ChristWas born on Christmas day.

[Chorus] Hark, now hear the angels sing A new King born today And man will live for evermore Because of Christmas day

Trumpets sound and angels sing Listen what they say That man will live forevermore Because of Christmas dayWhile shepherds watched their flock by nightThem see a bright new shining starThen hear a choir singThe music seemed to come from afar

Now Joseph and his wife MaryCome to Bethlehem that nightThen find no place to born she childNot a single room was in sight [Chorus]

By and by they find a little nookIn a stable all forlornAnd in a manger cold and darkMary’s little boy was born

Long time ago in BethlehemSo the Holy Bible sayMary’s boy child, Jesus ChristWas born on Christmas day [Chorus]

Quelle est cette odeur agréable?This is a usually attributed as being a 17th century traditional noël. Certainly the tune is that old, although oddly, the earliest documentation of it is from England in 1698 when it was included in Thomas D’Urfey’s Wit and Mirth: Or Pills to Purge Melancholy. Thirty years later it appears as a drinking song called Fill Ev’ry Glass, sung by the rogues in playwright John Gay’s The Begger’s Opera that had music by the German-born Baroque composer Johann Christoph Pepusch.

The earliest reference to the song in France is from Christophe Ballard’s 1717 collection of theatrical songs La Clef des chansonniers ou Recueil des Vaudevilles depuis cent ans et plus. As I understand it, this tune was used as a drinking song in several French comic opera productions in the 18th century. It is less clear whether or not the melody was also used as a noël with these lyrics at that time. I have been unable to find any source that says when Quelle est cette odeur agréable? was first documented. Some sources I found say that it comes from the Lorraine region, but none say when it was collected there.

In my research into various carols and noels I have found that many share their melodies with drinking songs, and while drinking songs seem to come and go readily, the tunes seem to have a better chance at longevity as Christmas songs. So I don’t know if Quelle est cette odeur agréable? is a drinking song that became a noël, or if it is the other way around. I suppose it really doesn’t matter. We can be thankful that this beautiful song survives and comes back to us every year as a Christmas song, whether in French or in any one of its many poetic translations.

This French version is sung here by the American singer Lisa Moscatiello (who also plays the whistle in the instrumental break), with accompaniment by Sue Richards on Celtic harp, Jennifer Cutting on the organ, and Barbara Brown on cello. It is from Jennifer Cutting’s 2010 album Song of Solstice.

Here are the French lyrics for the full six verses of the song. Usually only the 1st, 2nd and 5th verses are sung, and that is the way that Lisa sings it here.

1. Quelle est cette odeur agréable,Bergers, qui ravit tous nos sens?S’exhale t’il rien de semblableAu milieu des fleurs du printemps?Quelle est cette odeur agréableBergers, qui ravit tous nos sens?

2. Mais quelle éclatante lumièreDans la nuit vient frapper nos yeuxL’astre de jour, dans sa carrière,Futil jamais si radieux!Mais quelle éclatante lumièreDans la nuit vient frapper nos yeux.

3. Voici beaucoup d’autres merveilles!Grand Dieu! qu’entends-je dans les airs?Quelles voix! Jamais nos oreillesN’ont entendu pareils concerts.Voici beaucoup d’autres merveilles!Grand Dieu! qu’entends-je dans les airs?

4. Ne craignez rein, peuple fidèleÉcoutez l’ange du Seigneur;Il vous annonce une merveilleQui va vous combler de bonheur.Ne craignez rein, peuple fidèleÉcoutez l’ange du Seigneur.

5. A Bethléem, dans une crècheIl vient de vous naitre-un SauveurAllons, que rien ne vous empâcheD’adorer votre redémpteurA Bethléem, dans une crèche,Il vient de vous naître-un Sauveur.

6. Dieu tout puissant, gloire éternelleVous soit rendue jusqu’aux cieux.Que la paix soit universelleQue la grace a bonde en tous lieux.Dieu tout puissant, gloire éternelleVous soit rendue jusqu’aux cieux.

You can find three versions of three poetic, singable English translations here, and a lot more can be found online by googling.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit midwintermusic.substack.com

[Note: Don’t forget that you can forward these e-mails to friends who you think would like my quirky samplers of unusual music for the holiday season and my background information. I’ve gained about 50 subscribers already so far this year.]

Playlist

* A taste of the Grandshire peal Victoria Guild of Bellringers 1:00

* Ring Out Wild Bells Emily Brown & Alyssa Pyper 3:12

* Russian Orthodox Christmas bell peal Novo-Diveevo Convent bellringers 1:01

* Sweet Chiming Bells Nowell Sing We Clear 4:03

Music notes

A taste of the Grandshire pealThe 17th century English playwright and diarist Ben Jonson said that the change-ringing of church bells was “the poetry of the steeples”. Another way of thinking about it is that they are the loudest and most public form of folk music.

According to this article:

Bells [have] long been part of the English aural landscape. In the eighth century, Bede wrote that a bell sounded the call to prayer at the monastic house at Hackness, near Scarborough. But by the end of the 16th century bell ringing had become a secular pastime and pleasure. A German traveler in 1602 noted that: ‘On arriving in London we heard a great ringing of bells in almost all the churches, going on very late into the evening. We were informed that the young people do that for the sake of exercise and amusements.’ And for gambling too, he was told.

It is out of this milieu that change ringing developed. The first-known secular bell-ringing society, the ‘Schollers of Cheapeside’, was founded on 2 February 1603 . . .

In 1628, the parishioners of Ashby-de-la-Zouch felt compelled to crack down on bell ringers. ‘None shall be allowed to ring for pleasure above twice in the week’, they decreed, ‘and that above the space for an hour at a time.’ No doubt they felt, to use a ringing term, over-belled.

I live about three blocks from Victoria’s Anglican Christ Church Cathedral which has a bell tower with large bells suitable for doing the full circle change-ringing known as peals. Christ Church’s ten bells range from 250 to 1450 kilos (550 to 3200 lbs.) with diameters ranging from 66 cm (2 feet 3 inches) to 137 cm (4 feet 6 inches). They are all tuned to harmonize with the largest bell which is tuned to the note of D. They are the same size, weight and have the same tuning as the change-ringing bells of Westminster Abbey.

I have a nice view of the back of the cathedral from my balcony, and hear them ringing frequently. The ringers practice most Tuesday evenings, and do a short “method” (a short duration of change-ringing) before two masses on most Sunday mornings. That makes it easy to take for granted what a rare privilege it is for me to hear this glorious “joyful noise”.

Here is the Cathedral’s Guild of Bellringers’ explanation of change-ringing, from their notes about this recording:

We are one of seven churches in Canada (three in BC) equipped for traditional “change-ringing” in the style that emerged mostly in England in the 16th Century. The bells are mounted on wheels which are turned by means of a rope passing round the rim of the wheel and controlled by the ringer on a lower floor, who cannot see the bell he or she is ringing. Each bell turns through nearly a full circle and is struck at the end of its swing by the clapper suspended inside the bell from its crown. [There is therefore a time delay between when the rope is pulled and the bell is rung.]

This method of ringing makes the playing of tunes impracticable, so the aim of change-ringing is to produce a changing pattern of sound through a set of mathematical permutations which are both rhythmic and musical. The bells begin by ringing down the scale and, at a signal from the conductor, proceed to ring in a different order each time the bell-ropes are pulled.

There are fixed rules governing the position of each bell in these changing sequences. The bells eventually return to ringing down the scale, without any one change being repeated. Since one person can ring only one bell, change-ringing is very much a team enterprise and requires great concentration on the part of all the ringers. Eight ringers were involved in the performances on this recording.

Here is an interesting four minute video about Christ Church Cathedral’s bells and bellringers.

This track is only a small one-minute sample from the beginning of a plain peal where it is just starting to get into the more abstract-sounding parts of the progression. A full change-ringing peal takes over 5000 rings from each of 8 bell, with the progression continuing non-stop for about three hours and 25 minutes, but those are only accomplished very, very rarely. (As far as I know, the Victoria Guild has not done one.) More common but still very challenging is a 45 minute quarter-peal, but even that length of change-ringing is challenging and uncommon.

The ringers adjust the place of their bell in a cycle through a brief pause of the appropriate length in their rope-pulling. Proper ringing takes and incredible amount of both memory and concentration by the ringers, and even one bell rung out of its proper sequence means that the peal, quarter peal, or shorter change-ringing sequence is not considered to have been successful.

Actually, there are a variety of peal progressions of different lengths, based on different mathematical sequences of changes. This recording is excerpted from the Grandshire Triples progression composed by Robert Roan around 1650. I got the recording from this YouTube video. These are the same bells that I get to hear every week.

Ring Out Wild Bells The lyrics for this song are a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson that was first published in 1850, the same year that he was appointed Britain’s Poet Laureate.

According to a local legend, the poem was inspired by the ringing of a midnight New Year’s Eve peal by the bellringers of Waltham Abbey in Essex, north of London. They don’t do it that late here, but there is an old English custom for some churches to “ring out the old year and ring in the new one” at midnight. Sometimes the bells are first rung half-muffled for the death of the old year, then the muffles are removed to ring proudly, marking the birth of the New Year.

For most churches, the midnight ritual would just be ringing the church bell enthusiastically, but like Victoria, the bell tower of Waltham Abbey is equipped for ringing the changes. Lord Tennyson happened to be staying nearby to the Abbey in High Beech and apparently a heard he midnight peal for the first time.

This recording is by Emily Brown & Alyssa Pyper, and is from an out-of-print 2015 charitable fund-raising sampler album called Merry Christmas Provo Vol. 2 (from Provo City, Utah.) This music setting for the poem is by Crawford Gates and is published in the Hymnal of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints.

Below is the whole Alfred Lord Tennyson poem, and here is allpoetry.com’s analysis of its uncommonly optimistic message from that Victorian poet:

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,The flying cloud, the frosty light:The year is dying in the night;Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,Ring, happy bells, across the snow:The year is going, let him go;Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mindFor those that here we see no more;Ring out the feud of rich and poor,Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,And ancient forms of party strife;Ring in the nobler modes of life,With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,The faithless coldness of the times;Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymesBut ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,The civic slander and the spite;Ring in the love of truth and right,Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;Ring out the thousand wars of old,Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,The larger heart, the kindlier hand;Ring out the darkness of the land,Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Russian Orthodox Christmas bell pealThis is another abridged ringing from a YouTube video, but this one was posted by the Novo-Diveevo Russian Orthodox Convent in Nanuet, New York. You can see the bell-ringers in action in that four-minute video.

Not only are the size of these bells smaller and higher in pitch than I am used to, but the Russian Orthodox style of change-ringing is very different. There is an interesting Wikipedia entry about the history and spiritual meaning of bells for the Orthodox church where they are described as “singing icons” that are as important for the Orthodox church as its painted ones.

According to that Wikipedia entry:

The foundation of Orthodox bell ringing lies not in melody but in rhythm, with its intrinsic dynamic, and in the interaction of the timbres of the various bells. These sequences have a very special harmony, since Russian bells (unlike Western European ones) are not tuned to a single note. Western bells usually have an octave between the loudest upper tone (”ring”) and the loudest lower tone (”hum”). Russian bells have a seventh between these sounds. Generally, a good Russian bell is tuned to produce a whole scale of sounds (up to several dozen of them). . . .

The Russian Orthodox [liturgical instruction manual] provides for different types of bell ringing. Different ringing is used on different days (on working days, on Sunday, on holy days, during fasts, Lent, Easter etc.) Different ringing is required for different services (for morning service, service for the dead, liturgy, etc.). These differences are accomplished by ringing particular bells in particular ways.

Sweet Chiming Bellsis derived from a Salvation Army song called The Bells Ring Out at Christmas Time, which is of unknown origin. Its Salvation Army lyrics were:

The bells ring out at Christmas time Their message loud and clear. Our hearts are stirred as on the air The joyful sound we hear.

Chorus: Sweet chiming Christmas bells Sweet chiming Christmas bells They cheer us on our heavenward way Sweet chiming bells. They cheer us on our heavenward way Sweet chiming bells.

Thanks be to God since all may learn The bells’ exultant theme. The babe of Bethlehem was born This lost world to redeem Chorus

Glad message of the Christmas bells Of God Whose name is love. Oh may this music all our days Our hope and comfort prove Chorus

Those verse lyrics would have fit perfectly for my set today about bells, but I can’t find a recording of it being song sung that way. They are certainly appropriate for the Salvation Army, whose red kettles and bell ringers (where permitted) have become a ubiquitous feature of the Christmas season.

[Digression about the Salvation Army kettles and bells: According to the Salvation Army, their use of kettles to solicit donations for Christmas charity was begun in San Francisco by a Canadian-born ex-sailing captain named Joseph McFee:

When his corps (local church) wanted to host a Christmas Day dinner for 1,000 of San Francisco’s poor, Joseph accepted the task of raising money to pay for the meals. He then remembered the “Simpson’s pot” he saw in Liverpool, England, during his years as a sailor. The pot was a cooking kettle that a man named Simpson placed near the wharf to collect donations for the poor.

Joseph decided to use this same technique and, on either December 14 or 15, 1891, he placed an iron cooking pot on San Francisco’s wharf near the ferry depot entrance. He hung a sign above the iron pot that read: ‘Fill the pot for the poor. Free dinner on Christmas Day to 1,000 poor women, children, and unemployed men.” A Salvation Army Soldier (local church member) stood guard next to the pot. A second pot, this one a brass urn, was placed in the ferry waiting room, and a third near the ferry exit.

The donation pots were an immediate success and this pre-Christmas charitable fund-raising technique soon spread to other Salvation Army corps across the US and Canada, and has since gone world-wide. The use of bell-ringing to draw attention to the donation kettles was invented in 1900 by 16 year-old Salvation Army cadet named Amelia Kunkle (1884-1984). According to her:

When I first stood by the kettle to ‘keep the pot a-boiling,’ it was a bleak, cold, damp day. Girl-cadets wore long, black cotton stockings and rubbers over regular shoes; rubbers resembled slippers but were unlined and not high-topped like modern galoshes or boots.

Standing on newspapers helped block the dampness and penetrating cold. I was in The Battery, near Wall Street. Our kettle was by the entrance, or exit, to the ‘El’ which brought droves of businessmen to and from the financial district. Some contributed to The Salvation Army kettle; most passed by.

In those days, the average donation was a nickel or a dime; sometimes a quarter; occasionally, a dollar. One afternoon, donations totaled $18; very good for a four-hour stint! Most days, I was disappointed that people ignored me and my kettle.

Someone suggested that she bang a stick on the kettle to draw attention but she considered that to be too unladylike. But when she was in a nearby Woolworths she saw a small handbell that made a tinkling sound. It cost only 10 cents and she bought it. On her next day of kettle duty she rang her bell and more people stopped and donated. Raising more money to feed the poor was obviously much more satisfying when more money got raised. When she told the other cadets about the success she was having with her new technique, it spread like wildfire.

The Salvation Army’s kettles and bell ringing has become an iconic symbol of Christmas charity. That is the type of bells referred to in the traditional Christmas song Silver Bells, but I’ll leave that song and story for another time. End of digression.]

Back to this song, Sweet Chiming Bells. The Salvation Army song The Bells Ring Out at Christmas Time apparently soon faded away but it did not die. In northern England it was transformed by folk-processing into this popular Christmas pub-singing song.

Like many hymns, and many other songs too, its verses are in a commonly-used poetic rhythm – in fact, it is so commonly used that it is called common meter (CM). CM has four stanzas, and the number of syllables in each stanza is 8,6,8,6 with the accents on the even-numbered syllables. That makes it easy to the swap melodies between any songs with lyrics are written in CM.

Playing around with songs by matching different lyrics to melodies used to be much more common than it is today. The most popular pub-singing way to sing the verses of this song became using the familiar words of While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night, but with a variant of the original song’s jolly Sweet Chiming Bells chorus, even though that has nothing to do with shepherds and angels.

During England’s folk music revival in the 1960s the song sung in that format spread out from Northern England’s pubs across the land, to become a popular mainstream Christmas song throughout the country. And that is the form in which the song came across the pond to the New England seasonal recording and touring folk group Nowell Sing We Clear (active 1977 to 2019).

NSWC already had plenty of versions of WSWTFBN in their repertoire, so they changed the verses again but now they were from a CM poem called A Song for Christmas Eve. In the chorus they changed a single word, swapping “heav’nly” to “merry”.

The poem had come from a small, stapled 95 page paperback book called Kriss Kringle Recitations, Dialogs and Songs for Christmas, compiled by Hal. J. Weigle and published in Chicago in 1914. The group says “this little book of poems and stories yielded pure gold.” They recorded this version of Sweet Chiming Bells on their 1995 album Hail Smiling Morn! and with its light-hearted, highly sing-along-able chorus it became a fan favourite.

Here are the song’s lyrics the way Nowell Sing We Clear sings it here:

O blessed night! A star shines brightThough seen through falling snow:The star of love lit from aboveTo set the world aglow.

CHORUS Sweet bells, sweet chiming Christmas bells, Sweet bells, sweet chiming Christmas bells, They cheer us on our merry way, sweet chiming bells. They cheer us on our merry way, sweet chiming bells.

Child voices sweet once more repeatThe angels’ glorious strain,Our grey old earth in holy mirthBecomes a child again. [Chorus]

Chime sweetly on, ye Christmas bells,While happy voices sing.Shine out, O star, from Heaven afarAnd guide us to our king. [Chorus]

To hail the little new-born kingA few poor shepherds came,Although with wonder, joy and loveThe heavens were aflame. [Chorus]

The wise men came upon their wayLed by that heavenly light,O star of love, shine from above,And make our pathway bright. [Chorus]

The loving heart, the prayer of faith,Are sweeter gifts to bring,Shine out, O star, from heaven afar,And guide us to our king. [Chorus]

For more information about Sweet Chiming Bells, and to hear another rendition of it, go to my Dec 10, 2025 post.

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Playlist

* Ríu Ríu Chíu Bruce Cockburn 6:26

* A la nanita nana Alina Alcántara, Crystal Lizardo, Don Soledad 3:03

Music notes

Ríu Ríu ChíuThis is a sixteenth century or earlier Spanish villancico; a dance-song equivalent to a French carole or English carol from that time. Some music scholars attribute it to the Catalan composer Mateo Flecha the Elder, and some suspect the Aragonese composer Bartomeu Càrceres, but it is accepted by most as being anonymous.

The song did not survive in the popular culture. We only know it from an old music book of villancicos that was published in Venice in 1556. It is in the part of the book that has Villancicos de Navidad a quatro bozes (Christmas villancicos for four voices). There is only one known remaining copy of that songbook. It is at Uppsala University in Sweden.

The earliest recording ever made of Riu Riu Chiu was in 1957, by the highly regarded ensemble New York Pro Musica which was active from 1952 to 1974. The hallmarks of that group were being able to find long-forgotten old songs in obscure places, and a reputation for being meticulous in researching how to authentically perform their early music. They sang this in the original archaic Spanish from the antique songbook, and they would have sought advice from a linguist regarding the proper 16th century pronunciation.

During the folk revival of the 1960s this lively Christmas song spread from the early-music appreciators out to the general public via both the folk music community and pop music: It was recorded in modern Spanish by such groups as the Kingston Trio and The Monkees. (Those are links to their versions.)

More recently, in 1993 Canadian folksinger Bruce Cockburn recorded this version that he learned from the New York Pro Musica’s recording in antique Spanish. It is from his 1993 album simply called Christmas. Cockburn accompanies himself here on guitars, dulcimer and percussion, and is accompanied by Hugh March on the violin, Dick Smith on percussion, and background vocalists Eliseo Borrero, Alberto Mirabal and Candi Sosa.

The expression “Riu, riu, chiu” is not translatable; it represents a bird singing. That was first thought to represent the song of a nightingale, but scholars now think that both etymology and the other lyrics in the chorus indicate that it was intended to be the song of a kingfisher. The lyrics and translation from a fan site are:

Riu, riu, chiu, la guarda ribera Dios guarde el lobo de nuestra cordera

El lobo rabioso la quiso morderMas Dios poderoso la supo defenderQuizole hazer que no pudiesse pecarNi aun original esta uirgen no tuuiera (Chorus)Este uiene a dar a los muertos uidaY uiene a reparar de todas la caylaEs la luz del dia aqueste mocueloEste es el cordero que San Juan dixera (Chorus) Yo ui mil garcones que andauan contandoPor aqui bolando haziendo mil sonesDiziendo a gascones, “Gloria sea en el cieloY paz en el suelo pues Jesus nasciera.” (Chorus)

Este uiene a dar a los muertos uidaY uiene a reparar de todas la caylaEs la luz del dia aqueste mocuelo.Este es el cordero que San Juan dixera. (Chorus)

Yo ui mil garcones que andauan contandoPor aqui bolando haziendo mil sonesDiziendo a gascones “Gloria sea en el cieloY paz en el suelo pues Jesus nasciera.” (Chorus)

A translation is:

Riu, riu, chiu, the river bank protects it, As God kept the wolf from our lamb

The rabid wolf tried to bite herBut God Almighty knew how to defend herHe wished to create her impervious to sinNor was this maid to embody original sin

He comes to give life to the deadHe comes to redeem the fall of manThis child is the light of dayHe is the very lamb Saint John prophecied

A thousand singing herons I saw passing,Flying overhead, sounding A thousand voicesExulting, “Glory be in the heavens, and peace on earth, for Jesus has been born.”

He comes to give life to the deadHe comes to redeem the fall of manThis child is the light of dayHe is the very lamb Saint John prophesied

A thousand singing herons I saw passingFlying overhead, sounding a thousand voicesExulting, “Glory be in the heavens, And peace on earth for Jesus has been born.”

A la nanita nana is a Christmas carol written by Juan Francisco Muñoz y Pabón and was first published in 1904. It is very popular in the Hispanic world both as a Christmas carol and as a lullaby sung to babies at any time of the year. The song recently came to popular attention among non-Hispanic young people after the Disney-created band The Cheetah Girls sang their version of it in their second TV movie on the Disney Channel.

I also have a beautiful a cappella choral version of the song that was recorded by the Trapp Family Singers in 1953, but I found today’s rendition on YouTube and especially enjoyed the guitar accompaniment by Don Soledad. The singers are Crystal Lizardo and Alina Alcántara.

A la nanita nana, nanita ea, nanita ea,Mi Jesús tiene sueño. Bendito sea, bendito sea. (X2)

Fuentecita que corre clara y sonora,Ruiseñor que en la selva, cantando llora,Callan mientras la cuna se balancea.

A la nanita nana, nanita ea, (X2)

English translation:

Come, let’s sing a little lullaby, Come, let’s sing a little,My Jesus is sleepy. Blessed be, blessed be.

Little spring that runs clear & sonorous,Nightingale that in the forest,Weeps as it sings,Hush, while the cradle rocks.

Come, let’s sing a little lullaby, Come, let’s sing a little lullaby.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit midwintermusic.substack.com

Playlist

* The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance Lisle Kulbach 1:07

* I Am Christmas John Conolly 4:35

* Joy to the World The Mouldy Figs 1:43

Music notes

The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is an ancient autumn dance that is still performed every year in the small Staffordshire village of Abbots Bromley. It is believed to descend from a pre-Christian stag-hunting ritual,and is considered by folklore scholars to be one of the oldest and most important survivals of community magico-religious ceremony in all of Europe. Musically, like many other songs and tunes related to other holidays this tune has migrated to being associated with Christmas and the Winter Solstice.

The event is performed in the dim twilight of evening by Morris dancers ceremonially engaging each other with the massive horns of reindeer. The antlers used in the dance these days are relatively recent replacements because the ones that the villagers had been using became too fragile. The old antlers have been scientifically analyzed as being British reindeer dating from before they became extinct in that country in the 12th or 13rd century.

This simple recorder version of the tune was played Lisle Kulback to accompany the opening scene for one of the early performances of The Christmas Revels, a Christmas pageant tradition that began in New York in 1957 but which is now held by local affiliates in several American cities. I got this recording from the CD version of the Revels’ first album; issued in 1978 which is called simply The Christmas Revels.

I Am Christmas was written by John Conolly and Bill Meek, with Meek credited for the haunting lyrics. John Conolly recorded it on his 2008 album The Grumpy Old Men of Old England, but I got it from this YouTube video that he posted at that time. I posted another rendition of this song on Dec 2, 2021 in which I give a bit more background information about the song.

Here are the lyrics:

I will sew a braid of gold on grey December’s ragged sleeveTeach the crabbed and jaded soul how to give, how to receiveFor rooms are thick with magic now, the tree its soft light throwingThe mistletoe, the holly bough, my age-old spell bestowing

For I bring stories by the hearth, delight in half-forgotten namesApple logs on fragrant fires with flick’ring faces in the flamesAnd as the year draws in its days and tired leaves are fallingI will brighten darkened ways where dusk is early calling

I am warmth and I am light, and I am kith and kin A candle in your longest night I am Christmas, let me in, I am Christmas, let me in

I can take the weary miles and weave a carpet to your doorGuide the dusty wand’rers home, safely to your side once moreAnd I can cheer the bitter days with tunes to set you singingMy standard in your heart I’ll raise, joy and comfort bringing

I bring churches all a-glow and carols on the midnight airColoured windows streaked with snow that gild the congregation thereFor young and old shall join and sing to mark the longest turningFrom one glad candle that I bring, ten thousand more are burning.

I am warmth and I am light, and I am kith and kin; A candle in your longest night, I am Christmas, let me in, I am Christmas, let me in [x2]

Joy to the World This version of the familiar carol tune was recorded by a St. Paul, Minnesota bar band called The Mouldy Figs, and is from their 1996 self-published album Have Yourself a Mouldy Little Christmas. It was sent to me as a Christmas present by a high-school friend. (Thanks Kingsley!)

The band members were Rick Anderson on Banjo, John Plomondon on fiddle, Adam Granger - guitar, Dave Faison on Bass, and the group’s leader, the late Jim “Fig” Field on washboard. The band is no longer active, but that is not surprising since in 2003 they issued an anniversary album called Never Trust a Band Under Thirty to celebrate having played together for 30 years.

The poem that became the lyrics for Joy to the World were written by “the father of English hymns” Isaac Watts. Authorship of the melody and arrangement is more complicated, and for a long time was been mis-attributed to either the great Baroque composer Georg Friedrich Handel or to the Bostonian banker and music director Lowell Mason, a leader in 19th century American church music. But recent research has pretty persuasively solved the mystery. If you want to know whodunit, go here.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit midwintermusic.substack.com

Playlist

* Rise Up Shepherd and Follow Odetta 1:42

* Born in Bethlehem Blind Boys of Alabama, w. Mavis Staples 6:29

Music notes

Rise Up Shepherd and FollowI found a lot of information (as well as misinformation) about the origins of this song online. One thing is clear: It is an authentic spiritual – what we used to call a Negro spiritual. Most cite its earliest documentation as being in a short story written by Ruth McEnery Stuart titled Christmas-Gifts that appeared in the January-June 1891 issue Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine.

The song appears in Ruth Craawford Seeger’s 1951 American Folk Songs for Christmas, and her attribution says that she collected it from Religious Folk Songs of the Negro, As Sung on the Plantations, a 1909 songbook compiled by the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute’s Music Director Thomas P. Fenner. While Fenner might have gotten the song from that short story, but I think it more likely that he collected it directly from an African American source.

The song also appears in other plantation days songbooks published before 1920, but it is not clear to what extent they were copying songs from the same sources. I haven’t dug into it enough by looking for differences in the texts of the various sources to see if they all are derived from the quoted song in the Ruth McEnery Stuart short story.

Either way, we are left with the question of whether this is a song that dates back to the days of slavery, or whether it is a relatively new “jubilee spiritual”. Spirituals are inherently songs that were passed around orally and they would have been prone to rapidly evolving. Jubilee spiritual is the name given to songs that arose among freed ex-slaves either during the Civil War or shortly after it during the short-lived period of the 1865-1877 Reconstruction. That time period is after the ending of direct slavery but before the ex-slaves’ optimistic spirit of freedom was shattered by the rise of Jim Crow laws. It is that type of spiritual that is the root of the style of songs and singing that we now call Gospel Music.

The contrast between the styles of jubilee spirituals and slavery-time ones has been studied by many people, including the African-American poet, novelist and social activist Langston Hughes. There are many documented Christian religious spirituals from the times of slavery, but they are not about Christmas and Christ’s Nativity. Almost all of the slavery era’s spirituals refer to a powerful King Jesus, with an intention and capability to relieve his followers from oppression, and not about him being a helpless baby. Therefore, a spiritual like this one is likely to have been first sung during that brief post-emancipation and pre-Jim Crow period.

If you want to explore the history of this song, and the problems of documenting spirituals in general, besides Langston Hughes’ writings on the subject, I recommend you start with its Wikipedia entry and this article from a series about the history of songs sung in Methodist churches.

Rise up Shepherd is sung here by Odetta, arguably the most influential Black folksinger of all time. What do I mean by “influential”? Well, besides her leadership role in getting nearly the entire folk revival movement to actively support the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, her 1957 album At the Horn was cited by Bob Dylan as having spurred him into singing folk music (where he became a folk music icon before moving on to folk-rock and beyond.) This recording is from her 1960 Vanguard album Christmas Spirituals.

There’s a star in the east on Christmas morn,It will lead to the place where the Savior’s born,

[Refrain]Follow, follow,Rise up, shepherd, and followFollow the star of Bethlehem,Rise up, shepherd, and follow.

If you take good heed to the angel’s word,Rise up, shepherd, and follow,You’ll forget your flocks, you’ll forget your herd,Rise up, shepherd, and follow

Leave your sheep, and leave your lambsRise up, shepherd, and followLeave your ewes, and leave your ramsRise up, shepherd, and follow

[Refrain]

Born in BethlehemThis memory-challenging cumulative or counting song is known by many names including Little Bitty Baby and The Holy Baby, but it is generally titled by its opening line: Children Go Where I Send Thee. It is accepted as being a spiritual, and is often said to date back to the days of slavery in the US, but as discussed above that is unlikely.

The earliest reference that I can find to collection of the song was in 1934 by John and Alan Lomax, who recorded it from Black convicts at the Bellwood Labor Camp in Georgia while on the same collection trip where they first met Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter.

That is not to say that the song is not an authentic jubilee spiritual; there is certainly identified song-writer, and there are many variants in the wording, especially in the counting progression, which is evidence of considerable oral transmission. But the song does not appear in Ruth Crawford Seeger’s American Folk Songs for Christmas book, nor presumably in any of the early sources of African American songs that gathered songs from in her diligent research. She must have known about Children Go Where I Send Thee and if she thought that it was an authentic spiritual she would certainly have included it in her book.

Another reason to suspect that it is not an old spiritual is that none of the documented ones are cumulative songs. The history of this song is closely intertwined with a similar well-known cumulative song that has very early European roots. It is also known by various names and has many variants in both melody and lyrics. You’ll probably instantly recognize the song I am talking about from this first verse from one of its variants. . .

I’ll sing you one OGreen grow the rushes, OWhat is your one, O?One is one and all aloneAnd evermore shall be so.

. . . and/or from this first verse from many other variants:

Come and I will sing you,What will you sing me?I will sing you one-o.What will the one be?One the one that’s all alone and ever more shall be so.

That song, which also has many names, comes from long tradition of European memory-game songs. What the variants of that song and Born in Bethlehem have in common is that their counting progressions, while they vary considerably in specifics, are totally interchangeable. Unless the adaptation went the other way, the use of religious counting lyrics in a memory-game song might have been inspired by a 16th century Ashkenazi Passover teaching song for children called Echad Mi Yodea.

This song’s collection by the Lomaxes in 1934 coincides with the early growth of the Gospel singing movement, and the earliest recordings of Children Go Where I Send Thee (under its various names) were recorded by Black musical evangelists like Dennis Crumpton & Robert Summers (1936) and by Black quartets like the Golden Gate Quartet (1937) and the Heavenly Gospel Singers (1938). (You can listen to those early recordings through those links.) Gospel singing is rooted in spirituals but also includes newly-written songs. What they all have in common is that their singing is in the style of African-American worship singing.

Whenever this song came into being it is clearly from African-American roots and it has become a core Christmas song among gospel music singers, Black and White.

This version, with the full twelve verses, was arranged and recorded by The Blind Boys of Alabama, a group whose roots go back to 1939. It is from their 2003 album Go Tell It On The Mountain. The lead singer is Jimmy Carter, and he is accompanied by the great Mavis Staples of the Staple Singers.

In the style of gospel singing this song has so much improvisation and variations from verse to verse that it would be a transcription nightmare. I will only give you the first verse and the progression of numbered characters in the constantly growing verses.

Little children, go where I send thee.How will you send me? I’m gonna send thee one by one One for the little bitty baby.Born of the Virgin MaryBorn, born, born in Bethlehem.

2. Two was Paul and Silas …3. Three for the Hebrew children …4. Four for the four that stood at the door ...5. Five for the gospel preachers ...6. Six for the six that couldn’t get fixed ...7. Seven for the seven that couldn’t go to heaven ...8. Eight for the eight that stood at the gate ...9. Nine for the nine that dressed so fine ...10. Ten for the ten commandments ...11. Eleven for the gospel riders ...12. Twelve for the twelve disciples ...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit midwintermusic.substack.com