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Nowell Sing We Clear
Nowell Sing We Clear is a previously four-member musical group that performs an annual yuletide concert series. They have also released a series of related albums and a songbook of their repertoire. The concerts consist of yuletide stories and music, and often include a Mummers Play. Members The group consisted of John Roberts (musician), John Roberts, Tony Barrand, Fred Breunig, and Andy Davis (pianist), Andy Davis (who replaced original member Steve Woodruff after Woodruff moved to California), until Tony Barrand's passing in January 2022. Their more recent performances have been partnered with the vocal group Windborne (band), Windborne of which Fred Breunig's daughter Lauren Breunig is a member. Credits from first album: * John Roberts – vocals, English concertina#English concertina, English concertina, English concertina#Anglo concertina, Anglo concertina * Tony Barrand – vocals, tambourine * Fred Breunig – fiddle, harmony vocals * Steve Woodruff – button accordion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roberts And Barrand
Roberts and Barrand was a musical group formed in 1969 by John Roberts (musician), John Roberts and Tony Barrand while they were graduate students in psychology at Cornell University. Much of their repertoire is traditional English music (including many prominent recordings of Sea shanty, sea shanties), although they have also recorded other English-language and contemporary folk songs. The duo also performed as members of the four-man act Nowell Sing We Clear. Tony Barrand died on 29 January 2022, at the age of 76. John Roberts died on 3 February 2025, at the age of 80. Discography Spencer the Rover is Alive and Well... (1971, 2001) Traditional English Ballads and Songs # "Spencer the Rover" # "Creeping Jane" # "I Wish They'd do it Now" # "Rambleaway" # "What a Mouth (What a North and South), What a Mouth!" # "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" # "Silicosis" # "The Coachman" # "The Lincolnshire Poacher" # "Warlike Seamen" # "Down the Plughole" # "Shine Your Buttons wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masters In This Hall
"Masters in This Hall" (alternative title: "Nowell, Sing We Clear") is a Christmas carol with words written around 1860 by the English poet and artist William Morris to an old French dance tune. The carol is moderately popular around the world but has not entered the canon of most popular carols. Tune The French composer Marin Marais composed the tune as a dance for his opera ''Alcyone'' of 1706, with the title ''Marche pour les Matelots''. The tune was subsequently included in Raoul Auger Feuillet's 1706 ''Recueil de contredanse'' along with a longways proper dance, ''La Matelotte'', which Feuillet had himself written to go with the tune.Anderson, Douglas D''Hymns and Carols for Christmas''Contains long and short versions of the lyrics, Accessed December 2009 In 1710 John Essex (d. 1744) published an English translation of Feuillet's work called, ''For the Further Improvement of Dancing'', in which the dance is given as ''The Female Saylor''. Words The words were written aro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cutty Wren
"The Cutty Wren" and its variants such as "The Hunting of the Wren" are traditional English folk songs. The origins and meaning of the song are disputed. It is number 236 in the Roud Folk Song Index. Origin The song is thought by some to represent the human sacrifice of the Year King, or the symbolic substitute slaughter of the wren as "king of the birds" at the end of the year for similar purposes, and such songs are traditionally sung on Boxing Day (26 December), just after the winter solstice. 26 December is sometimes called Saint Stephen's Day or Wren Day. These rituals are discussed in ''The Golden Bough''. It is alternatively attributed to the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381, and the wren is supposed to be the young king Richard II, who is killed and fed to the poor. However, there is no strong evidence to connect this song with the Peasants' Revolt. The idea seems to have originated in A.L. Lloyd's 1944 book ''The Singing Englishman''. The liner notes to Chumbawamba's a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gabriel's Message
"Gabriel's Message" or "The angel Gabriel from heaven came" () is a Basque Christmas folk carol about the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary by the archangel Gabriel that she would become the mother of Jesus Christ the Son of God. Text It quotes the biblical account of the Annunciation (Luke, Chapter 1, verses 26–38) and Mary's Magnificat (Luke 1.46–55) with the opening lines: The angel Gabriel from heaven came, his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame; "All hail", said he, "thou lowly maiden Mary, most highly favoured lady." Gloria. A Basque folk carol, originally based on ''Angelus ad virginem'', a 13th or 14th Century Latin carol, it was collected by Charles Bordes (pub. Paris 1897) and then paraphrased into English by Sabine Baring-Gould (pub. 1922), who had spent a winter as a boy in the Basque country. The tune is called "Gabriel's Message". It is commonly performed in an arrangement by Edgar Pettman published in 1922. The use of the lilting phrase "Most highl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orkney
Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north of Caithness and has about 70 islands, of which 20 are inhabited.Haswell-Smith (2004) pp. 336–403. The largest island, the Mainland, Orkney, Mainland, has an area of , making it the List of islands of Scotland, sixth-largest Scottish island and the List of islands of the British Isles, tenth-largest island in the British Isles. Orkney's largest settlement, and also its administrative centre, is Kirkwall. Orkney is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland, council areas of Scotland, as well as a Orkney (Scottish Parliament constituency), constituency of the Scottish Parliament, a Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area, and an counties of Scotland, historic county. The local council is Orkney I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bitter Withy
The Bitter Withy or Mary Mild ( Roud #452) is an English folk song reflecting an unusual and apocryphal vernacular idea of Jesus Christ. The ''withy'' of the title is the Willow and the song gives an explanation as to why the willow tree rots from the centre out, rather than the outside in. The song was recorded by The Kingston Trio on their album '' The Last Month of the Year''. English folk artist John Tams John Tams (born 16 February 1949) is an English actor, singer, songwriter, composer and musician born in Holbrook, Derbyshire, Holbrook, Derbyshire, the son of a Public house, publican. He first worked as a reporter for the ''Ripley, Derbyshire ... recorded the song on his album ''The Reckoning'' (2005; won 2006 the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for the 'Best Album') and is contained in ''The Definitive Collection'' (2007) also. Lyrics :As it fell out on a holy day, :The drops of rain did fall, did fall, :Our Saviour asked leave of His mother, Mary, :If He might go play at ball ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boar's Head Carol
The "Boar's Head Carol" (Roud 22229) is a macaronic 15th centuryHusk, William Henry. ''Songs of the Nativity Being Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern.'' London: John Camden Hotten, 1868 reprinted by Norwood Editions, Norwood, PA, 1973. Digitally reproduced and annotated bA Treasury of Christmas Carols: The Hymns and Carols of Christmas/ref>Spears, James E. Folklore, Vol. 85, No. 3. (Autumn, 1974), pp. 194–198JSTOR/ref> English Christmas carol that describes serving a boar's head at a Yuletide feast. Of the several extant versions of the carol, the one most usually performed today is based on a version published in 1521 in Wynkyn de Worde's ''Christmasse Carolles''. A modern choral arrangement by Elizabeth Poston (1960) is also widely performed. History and origins Some folklorists have claimed that the boar's head tradition was: In Scandinavia and England, Saint Stephen may have inherited some of Freyr's legacy. Saint Stephen's feast day is 26 December, and thus he came ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wassail
Wassail (, ) is a beverage made from hot mulled cider, ale, or wine and spices, drunk traditionally as an integral part of wassailing, an ancient English Christmastide and Yuletide drinking ritual and salutation either involved in door-to-door charity-giving or used to ensure a good harvest the following year. Etymology According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the word "wassail" originated as a borrowing from the Old Norse salutation ''ves heill,'' corresponding to Old English ''hál wes þú'' or ''wes hál'' – literally meaning 'be in good health' or 'be fortunate'. It was initially used in the sense of 'hail' or 'farewell', without any drinking connotation. The English interjection "" is a cognate of the etymon of the second part of "wassail", and was probably influenced by the Old English phrase. The expression later became part of the drinking formula ''"''wassail ... drinkhail" which, the OED suggests, initially arose in England among the Anglo-Danes, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Somerset
Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. The largest settlement is the city of Bath, Somerset, Bath, and the county town is Taunton. Somerset is a predominantly rural county, especially to the south and west, with an area of and a population of 965,424. After Bath (101,557), the largest settlements are Weston-super-Mare (82,418), Taunton (60,479), and Yeovil (49,698). Wells, Somerset, Wells (12,000) is a city, the second-smallest by population in England. For Local government in England, local government purposes the county comprises three Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas: Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, and Somerset Council, Somerset. Bath and North East Somerset Council is a member of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sussex Carol
The "Sussex Carol" is a Christmas carol popular in United Kingdom, Britain, sometimes referred to by its first line "On Christmas night all Christians sing". Its words were first published by Luke Wadding (bishop), Luke Wadding, a late 17th-century poet and bishop of the Catholic Church in Ireland, in a work called ''Small Garland of Pious and Godly Songs'' (1684). It is unclear whether Wadding wrote the song or was recording an earlier composition.On Christmas Night www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com Both the text and the tune to which it is now sung were discovered and written down by Cecil Sharp in Buckland, Gloucestershire, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, who heard it being sung by a Harriet Verrall of Monk's Gate, near Horsham, Sussex (hence "Sussex Carol").Cecil Sharp, ''s:English F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cherry-Tree Carol
"The Cherry-Tree Carol" ( Roud 453) is a ballad with the rare distinction of being both a Christmas carol and one of the Child Ballads (no. 54). The song itself is very old, reportedly sung in some form at the Feast of Corpus Christi in the early 15th century. Synopsis The ballad relates an apocryphal story of the Virgin Mary, presumably while traveling to Bethlehem with Joseph for the census. In the most popular version, the two stop in a cherry orchard, and Mary asks her husband to pick cherries for her, citing her child. Joseph spitefully tells Mary to let the child's father pick her cherries. At this point in most versions, the infant Jesus, from the womb, speaks to the tree and commands it to lower a branch down to Mary, which it does. Joseph, witnessing this miracle, immediately repents his harsh words. The more contemporary versions sometimes end here, while others often include an angel appearing to Joseph and telling him of the circumstances of Jesus's birth. Other vers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
