Category: Music

Advent song for December 13: Nu tändas tusen juleljus, Sweden

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music1 Comment

Today’s post is going up a little later than usual, because yesterday was my last day at my old job and now I have a long weekend off before I start the new one, so instead of hurriedly posting from the office I am sitting in my pyjamas in front of the Christmas tree, with a cup of tea and a crumpet, watching a terrible movie about two neighbours in a deadly vendetta over who has the most extravagant Christmas lights. I am enjoying it a lot.

I had a lovely last day at work, and on my way home I was thinking how great my old colleagues were, and how I will miss them, and as I was thinking it I came up the escalator from the tube into London Bridge station, and the Salvation Army brass band were in the concourse playing The First Nowell, and I got ever so slightly tearful (in a good, Richard Curtis sort of a way). And listening to this performance of Nu tändas tusen juleljus, or “Now are lit a thousand Christmas candles” has had the same effect. It’s just so pretty! It was composed in Sweden in 1898 and is a popular carol there, and this is just a lovely video, even though it’s amateur and shaky. Enjoy.

Advent song for December 12: The Wexford Carol, Ireland

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music1 Comment

I could, as the beloved pointed out, have chosen for my Irish carol Once in Royal David’s City, whose words were written by the Irish poet and hymn writer Cecil Alexander (who was, despite what you might assume, a woman, and incidentally don’t you think Cecil is a super-cool name for a girl? I do), also known for All Things Bright and Beautiful and There Is A Green Hill Far Away.

But the Wexford Carol (or Carúl Loch Garman, or Carúl Inis Córthaidh) is more obviously Irish, and is also several hundred years older, having originated in the county for which it is named sometime around the twelfth century – making it, incidentally, one of the oldest carols in Europe and certainly, I think, the oldest on my list.

And it is very beautiful. This is a five-minutes-plus version by the Palestrina choir of St Mary’s in Dublin, so instead of sitting hunched over your screen looking at the not-very-interesting video I suggest you turn up the volume and go and do something else while you listen to it.

Advent song for December 11: Inkanyezi Nezazi, South Africa

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

Thanks to Donna for suggesting this lovely song, which I vaguely remember from that time it was used in a Heinz baked beans ad back in 1997. This is the full-length version, first recorded in 1992, and the video I’ve chosen features lyrics in both Zulu and English, in which language the song is called “The Star and the Wiseman”.

You already know all about Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the isicathamiya (traditional Zulu music) choir founded by Joseph Shabalala in the 1960s after he heard their voices in a series of dreams, and if you are lucky you’ll have seen them performing on one of their many international tours. They are almost more of a brand than a band these days, but the gorgeous sound they make is as spine-tingling as ever:

Advent song for December 10: Pásztorok, Pásztorok, Hungary

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music2 Comments

This is another one I haven’t been able to find out very much about, although I have managed to work out that “Pásztorok” is Hungarian for “shepherds”, and that the first line means “Shepherds, shepherds rejoice” which is the sort of line many an English-language carol might start with.

But here’s the thing. I’ve listened to all of these songs so many times now, in so many variations, that I can no longer remember whether I already knew this tune before I started, or whether it was completely new to me. It sounds like a carol we might sing in English, but maybe all carols sound like that. So I need you, with your fresh ears, to tell me whether we have a local equivalent to Pásztorok, Pásztorok, or whether it’s just one of those tunes that sound immediately familiar:

(Have you found yourselves earwormed by any of these, incidentally? For me Tonttu, Musevisa and Florile Dalbe have taken up residence in my brain and seem disinclined to leave anytime soon.)

Advent song for December 9: Nos Galan, Wales

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music1 Comment

Nos Galan, also known as Oer yw’r gwr, is a Welsh folk song dating back to at least the eighteenth century (that’s when it was first written down, but it was already old then). I’m not going to tell you much more about it if you don’t already know what it’s called in English, because I want you to listen to this gorgeous version without preconceptions (you may have to skip an ad first, but I promise it’s worth it).

If you want to cheat, the Welsh lyrics and the English are both listed here. The English version isn’t a translation of the Welsh, though, because even though I only know a dozen Welsh words, one of them is “Cymru”, which appears in the third line of the Welsh version and nowhere at all in the version I grew up with. Google translate suggests that the first verse in Welsh is actually something like:

Cold is the man who can not love
Old beloved mountains of Wales
To him their warmest love
[Gwyia] joyful next year

(It couldn’t handle “Gwiya”. Do let me know if you know what it means.)

UPDATE: We have a better translation via Pegasus and specifically Rhian, their Welsh alto:

Rhian’s mum says it is used in specific idiomatic expression meaning ‘Hope there is much celebration for you next year”

So we can assume that the final line is to be translated as above. Phew. Thank you, Rhian’s mum.

Anyway, I like those words much better than the English ones, and this version of it has turned a carol I always thought of as quite dull into something magically beautiful. That’s Welsh singing for you, I suppose*.

*Technically, these singers are Dutch, but Dutch and Welsh are kind of similar, aren’t they? And it’s clearly a Welsh version of a Welsh song, and it’s by far the nicest version I could find, so I cheated a bit. Sorry.

Public service announcement: Christmas with Pegasus

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

It has come to my attention that the Pegasus choir, who have been following our daily singalongs via the medium of Twitter, will be singing carols tonight in Claygate, which sounds like it should be in East London, but which is in fact down in Surrey. I am sadly otherwise engaged, but if you aren’t, I think you should go along, especially as MICHAEL ASPEL is doing the readings.

To help you on your way, here they are singing Jingle Bells, which is also today’s bonus song:

Advent song for December 7: Quelle est cette odeur agréable?, France

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music1 Comment

Welcome to France, and a carol which I would translate as “What is that nice smell?”, but which Wikipedia tells me is more usually rendered in English as “Whence is that goodly fragrance flowing?”, which I suppose is more holy-sounding. This is  a traditional carol from the 17th century, and you have probably heard it before, but it’s very lovely, so here it is again, sung by Les Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal (“the little singers of the royal mountain”?). There is something very enjoyable about watching small boys concentrate as they sing choral music, and some of these small boys are concentrating very hard indeed:

Advent song for December 6: Kasadya ni’ng Táknaa/Ang Pasko ay Sumapit, Philippines

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music1 Comment

Why yes, that is a long title. That’s because this Filipino Christmas carol was originally composed in Cebuano as Kasadya ni’ng Táknaa (“How Blissful is the Season”), which is the version you can see below, but the more famous version is Ang Pasko ay Sumapit (“Christmas Has Arrived”), which is in Tagalog (but is not a direct translation of Kasadya, although they are both Christmas songs). Wikipedia lists the lyrics for both versions, as well as an English translation.

Here is the Sisters Of Mary Boystown Chorale singing it as part of the Grand Fiesta Manila 2012 Chorale Competition. Stick with it to the end; the last chord will send a tingle down your spine.

Advent song for December 5: Musevisa, Norway

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music4 Comments

This is a jolly story. In 1946 the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation asked Alf Prøysen – poet, singer-songwriter and author of the Mrs Pepperpot stories which you  may remember from childhood – to write a Christmas song for children. The result was Musevisa, or The Mouse Song, which is sung to a traditional tune and tells the story of a family of mice preparing for Christmas.

This is a recording of Prøysen himself singing it, but it’s a bit old and crackly. There’s a clearer version, featuring what sounds like a cameo from one or both of Pinky and Perky, here.

There is also an English translation of the lyrics here, but it sounds much better in Norwegian.

Altogether now: ♫ HEI-san og HOPP-san og fa-la-ra-la-ra… ♫

Advent song for December 4: Fum Fum Fum, Catalonia

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music1 Comment

This is a folk song really, but this version is jazzed up and complicatedly orchestrated. I picked it because it was the best-quality version I could find which was (apparently) performed by people from the place it originates. It is very easy to find US-based choirs singing all of these songs beautifully, but that is not the point. And the US will get its day, soon.

As someone points out in the comments, this sounds like the soundtrack to a Tim Burton film. (As someone else points out, this arrangement is by Juan José Colomer, who has composed scores for quite a lot of films, so its glitziness is less surprising than it might at first seem.)

Charmingly, Wikipedia lists lyrics in English as well as several Catalan and Spanish versions, so you can sing along in whichever language you like best.