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Deck The Halls
"Deck the Hall” is a traditional Christmas carol. The melody is Welsh, dating back to the sixteenth century, and belongs to a winter carol, "Nos Galan", while the English lyrics, written by the Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant, date to 1862. Lyrics The English-language lyrics were written by the Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant. They first appeared in 1862, in volume 2 of ''Welsh Melodies'', a set of four volumes authored by John Thomas, including Welsh words by John Jones (Talhaiarn) and English words by Oliphant. The original English lyrics, as published in 1862, run as follows (later variants are discussed below): The phrase "'Tis the season", from the lyrics, has become synonymous with the Christmas and holiday season, 'tis being an archaic contraction of "it is". Variants A variation of the lyrics appears in the December 1877 issue of the ''Pennsylvania School Journal''. This version, in which there is no longer any reference to drinking, runs as follows: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it is preceded by the season of Advent or the Nativity Fast and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many countries, is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians, as well as culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the holiday season organized around it. The traditional Christmas narrative recounted in the New Testament, known as the Nativity of Jesus, says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in accordance with messianic prophecies. When Joseph and Mary arrived in the city, the inn had no room and so they were offered a stable where the Christ Child was soon born, with angels p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruth Herbert Lewis
Ruth Herbert Lewis (29 November 1871 – 26 August 1946, née Caine) was an English temperance movement activist of Manx descent and collector of Welsh folk songs. She published collections of Welsh folk songs, and was a key member of the Welsh Folk-Song Society in the first half of the 20th century. Early life and education Ruth Caine was born in Liverpool, the daughter of William Sproston Caine and Alice Brown Caine. Her father was a Member of Parliament. She attended Newnham College, Cambridge, but as Cambridge did not award degrees to women at the time, she was given a master's degree by the University of Dublin.Evan David Jones"Lady Ruth Herbert Lewis"in ''Dictionary of Welsh Biography'' (National Library of Wales 2009). Folk music After she married a Welsh politician, she moved to Wales, learned to speak Welsh, and committed herself to learning Welsh culture. In 1906, she was one of the charter members of the Welsh Folk-Song Society (Cymdeithas Alawon Gwerin), and i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nos Galan
Calennig is a Welsh word meaning "''New Year celebration/gift''", although it literally translates to "the first day of the month", deriving from the Latin word kalends. The English word "Calendar" also has its root in this word. It is a tradition where children carry a decorated apple, pierced with three sticks and decorated with a sprig of box and hazelnuts on new year's day. Children would sing a verse and were often gifted with money or food. Gift giving The tradition of giving gifts and money on New Year's Day is an ancient custom that survives even in modern-day Wales, though nowadays it is customary to give bread and cheese. Many people give gifts on New Year's morning, with children having skewered apples stuck with raisins and fruit. In some parts of Wales, people must visit all their relatives by midday to collect their Calennig, and celebrations and traditions can vary from area to area. In ''Stations of the Sun'', Ronald Hutton gives the following example of Calennig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hoboken Catalogue
The Hoboken catalogue is a catalogue of the musical compositions by Joseph Haydn compiled by Anthony van Hoboken. It is intended to cover the composer's entire oeuvre and includes over 750 entries. Its full title in the original German is ''Joseph Haydn, Thematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis'' ("Joseph Haydn, thematic-bibliographic catalogue of works"). The Haydn catalogue that now bears Hoboken's name was begun in card format in 1934; work continued until the publication of the third and final book volume in 1978. Works by Haydn are often indicated using their Hoboken catalogue number, typically in the format " Violin Concerto No. 1 in C major, Hob. VIIa:1". The catalogue The catalogue is a massive work; a currently available version runs to 1936 pages. Each work is given with an identifying incipit, printed on a single musical line. There is discussion of manuscript sources, early editions, listing in previous catalogues (including the two Haydn prepared), and critical co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led him to be called "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet". Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their Eszterháza Castle. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, "forced to become original". Yet his music circulated widely, and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe. He was a friend and mentor of Mozart, a tutor of Beethoven, and the elder brother of composer Michael Haydn. Biography Early life Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, a village that at that time stood on the border with Hungary. His father was Mathias Haydn, a wheelwright who also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television are named), it remains the most-read daily newspaper in the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region. It had the sixth-highest circulation for American newspapers in 2017. In the 1850s, under Joseph Medill, the ''Chicago Tribune'' became closely associated with the Illinois politician Abraham Lincoln, and the Republican Party's progressive wing. In the 20th century under Medill's grandson, Robert R. McCormick, it achieved a reputation as a crusading paper with a decidedly more American-conservative anti- New Deal outlook, and its writing reached other markets through family and corporate relationships at the '' New York Daily News'' and the '' Washington Times-Herald.'' The 1960s saw its corporate parent owner, Tribune Company ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Violin Sonata No
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regular use. The violin typically has four strings (some can have five), usually tuned in perfect fifths with notes G3, D4, A4, E5, and is most commonly played by drawing a bow across its strings. It can also be played by plucking the strings with the fingers (pizzicato) and, in specialized cases, by striking the strings with the wooden side of the bow (col legno). Violins are important instruments in a wide variety of musical genres. They are most prominent in the Western classical tradition, both in ensembles (from chamber music to orchestras) and as solo instruments. Violins are also important in many varieties of folk music, including country music, bluegrass music, and in jazz. Electric violins with solid bodies and piezoelectric p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition resulted in more than 800 works of virtually every genre of his time. Many of these compositions are acknowledged as pinnacles of the symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral repertoire. Mozart is widely regarded as among the greatest composers in the history of Western music, with his music admired for its "melodic beauty, its formal elegance and its richness of harmony and texture". Born in Salzburg, in the Holy Roman Empire, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. His father took him on a grand tour of Europe and then three trips to Italy. At 17, he was a musician at the Salzburg court ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Folk Song
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, music that is played on traditional instruments, music about cultural or national identity, music that changes between generations (folk process), music associated with a people's folklore, or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. The term originated in the 19th century, but folk music extends beyond that. Starting in the mid-20th century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the (second) folk revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is sometimes called contemporary folk music or folk re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Ceiriog Hughes
John Ceiriog Hughes (25 September 1832 – 23 April 1887) was a Welsh poet and collector of Welsh folk tunes, sometimes termed a Robert Burns of Wales. He was born at Penybryn Farm, overlooking the village of Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog in the Ceiriog Valley of north-east Wales, then in Denbighshire, now part of Wrexham County Borough. One of eight children, he was a favourite of his mother, Phoebe, a midwife and herbal-medicine expert. Life At 18, Hughes left the village for Manchester to work as a grocer. He opened his own shop in 1854. There he met and was befriended and influenced by William Williams (Creuddynfab), a station master in the Pennines, who found him a job on the railway. Williams had been appointed first secretary of the National Eisteddfod Society. Hughes decided to sell his shop and concentrate on writing poetry, but he also started to drink heavily. Hughes returned to Wales in 1865 as station master at Llanidloes. From 1868, he was also manager of the Van R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Parry (harpist)
John Parry (c.1710 – 7 October 1782), known as ''Parri Ddall, Rhiwabon'' (or, in English, ''Blind Parry of Ruabon'') was born in the Llŷn Peninsula, Caernarfonshire, now Gwynedd, in Wales, and was blind from birth. His first patrons were the Griffiths family, of the Cefn Amwlch estate at Bryn Cynan on Pen Llŷn, who provided the young Parry with a Welsh triple harp. He later became harpist to Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn at Wynnstay, Ruabon and became a master of the High Baroque. He lived on the Wynnstay estate but spent much of his time at the Williams-Wynn's London home where he performed on the Welsh triple harp for London's cultural elite. Parry became a member of the Royal Society of Musicians in 1763. He inspired Thomas Gray to write his 1757 poem, ''The Bard''. It is also claimed that Parri first wrote down – or dictated to his fellow-compiler Evan Williams – in his manuscript ''Antient British Music'' (1741) a then unnamed 'aria' which is now world-famous as " Deck ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Air (music)
An air ( it, aria; also ''ayr'', ''ayre'' in French) is a song-like vocal or instrumental composition. The term can also be applied to the interchangeable melodies of folk songs and ballads. It is a variant of the musical song form often referred to (in opera, cantata and oratorio) as aria. English lute ayres Lute airs were first produced in the royal court of England toward the end of the 16th century and enjoyed considerable popularity until the 1620s. Probably based on Italian monody and French '' air de cour'', they were solo songs, occasionally with more (usually three) parts, accompanied on a lute.G. J. Buelow, ''History of Baroque Music: Music in the 17th and First Half of the 18th Centuries'', Indiana University Press, 2004 (p. 306). Their popularity began with the publication of John Dowland's (1563–1626) ''First Booke of Songs or Ayres'' (1597). His most famous airs include " Come again", "Flow, my tears", " I saw my Lady weepe", and " In darkness let me dwell". The ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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