My Favourite Yuletide Songs

[chicar]

Like It Say In The Title:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1YqEIdBI7fr1Y1DYlki4ya?si=0rXlBO8cQd-UoA16hpP69w

[Deimos]

MY fav really is a "Yuletide" carol.....it heralds the New Year.

It's maybe 15th or 16th C. (i.e., Renaissance) New Year's Day carol and the music may remind of you of Greensleeves,which is also 16th C. composition (the Christmas lyrics came much later).
I have heard it sung to Greensleeves but didn't care for it.

But whatever the origin of the music of this version I'm a sucker for any carol in a minor key.
The best performance (imo) is by Apollo's Fire, (soprano Sandra Simon).

The Old Yeare Now Away is Fled


Lyrics: (I've only listed 4 of the 6 Stanzas --1,2,3 and 5--- because the recording only has those 4. I especially like the last one..... )

The Old Yeare  Now Away Is Fled

1. The old year now away is fled,
The new year it is entered;
Then let us all our sins down tread,
    And joyfully all appear.

Let's merry be this holy day,
And let us now go sport and play,
Hang sorrow, let's cast care away
    God send you a happy year.

2. For Christ's circumcision this day we keep,
Who for our sins did often weep;
His hands and feet were wounded deep,
    And his blessed side, with a spear.

His head they crowned then with thorn,
And at him they did laugh and scorn,
Who for to save our souls was born;
    God send us a merry New Year!

3. And now with New-Year's gifts each friend
Unto each other they do send;
God grant we may all our lives amend,
    And that the truth may appear.

Now like the snake cast off your skin
Of evil thoughts and wicked sin,
And to amend this new year begin:
    God send us a merry new year!

5. Come lads and lasses every one,
Jack, Tom, Dick, Bessie, Mary and John,
Let's carve the meat unto the bone,
    For welcome you need not fear.

And here for good liquor we shall not lack,
It will whet my brains and strengthen my back;
This jolly good cheer it must go to wrack:
    God send us a merry new year!



      

[SeVeNeVeS]

Jethro Tull - Ring Out Solstice Bells (lyrics)

RUN RUN RUDOLPH LEMMY KILMISTER studio

[Synistor 303]

I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas
Christmas Day, A Carol (Australian)
Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire
Christmas Secrets (Enya... I know, I know, it's sad of me, but I enjoy a bit of melancholy on occasion.)
The Holly and the Ivy

[J. Wilhelm]

Two different traditions in Latin countries, specifically Spain, Portugal and in Latin America which seem unrelated, yet are necessarily tied by the history of music and their concurrence, historically speaking:

The first, is the musical "Tuna," an assembly of students from a university (in the middle ages starting in the 13th century, and growing through the Renaissance, and noting universities were basically religious seminaries at first), whereby the music players dress in traditional garb and play period instruments.  In Mexico they're called "Estudiantinas." (Estudiante = Student)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuna_(music)

The second is the tradition in Latin American countries of the "Posadas" (Posada = inn, as in hostel), whereby a procession of townsfolk, singing carols called "villancicos" (villano = villain or townsfolk), having previously made arrangements organize a pilgrimage through the town, knocking from door to door asking to be let in, in reenactment of Joseph and Mary's pilgrimage before the birth of Christ.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Posadas

Usually children will assume the role of nativity re-enactors. As the pilgrimage approches à previously arranged house, they are let in, at which point à nativity scene is reenacted and a celebration ensues. The tradition started by way of a papal edict, as a means of reviving a 10th century extended devotional prayer (Novenario), on this case teaching the natives about the nativity, and substituting the native solstice pagan rituals dedicated to the Aztec gods, Tonantzin and Huitzilopochli.

When you witness an estudiantina / tuna performing villancicos in the posadas procession you basically travel back in time

Unfortunately the Internet is rather sparse on the subject. It surprised me. Normally I can find more relevant videos. But I found this villancico called "Los peces en el río" (the fish in the river), a song that "draws a contrast between between the fishes in the river, who are excited about the birth of the baby Jesus, and the Virgin Mary, who goes about doing the chores of daily life."

According to the Valencian news site Las Provincias, both the author and composer of Los peces en el río, and even when it was written, are unknown. The song gained popularity in the second half of the 20th century, and the structure and tonality of the song show Arabic influence.

University of Guanajuato Christmas Tuna

Los Peces en el Río - Estudiantina de la Universidad de Guanajuato

Los peces en el río

La Virgen se está peinando
entre cortina y cortina.
Los cabellos son de oro
y el peine de plata fina.

ESTRIBILLO:
Pero mira cómo beben
los peces en el río.
Pero mira cómo beben
por ver a Dios nacido.
Beben y beben
y vuelven a beber.
Los peces en el río
por ver a Dios nacer.

La Virgen lava pañales
y los tiende en el romero,
los pajarillos cantando,
y el romero floreciendo.

ESTRIBILLO

La Virgen se está lavando
con un poco de jabón.
Se le han picado las manos,
manos de mi corazón.

ESTRIBILLO
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

The Fishes in the River (Translation of Los peces en el río)

The Virgin is combing her hair
between the curtains.
Her hairs are of gold
and the comb of fine silver.

CHORUS:
But look at how the fishes
in the river drink.
But look how they drink
in order to see God born.
They drink and they drink
and they return to drink,
the fishes in the river,
to see God being born.


The Virgin washes diapers
and hangs them on the rosemary,
the birdies singing
and the rosemary blooming.flowering

CHORUS
The virgin is washing herself
with a little bit of soap.
Her hands have been irritated,
the hands of my heart.

CHORUS

Here's a look at an Estudiantina /Tuna at any other time of the year. It is customary for estudiantinas to go around town singing in the 16th century streets and alleys of the mining City of Guanajuato.

Estudiantina La Tuna de Guanajuato Mexico