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:
All I have been able to discover about Florile Dalbe (“White flowers”, or more poetically “Flowers of frost”) is that it is a traditional Romanian Christmas song. The internet offers some schmaltzy instrumental settings, some easy listening-style singers doing Ronan Keatingesque versions, some non-Romanian choirs doing fancy schmancy versions, and lots of amateur performances by school choirs and family groups. The one I’ve chosen is from the last category because it sounds so much nicer with a single acoustic guitar than with a stage full of plugged-in instruments. Um, it does sort of start with a close-up shot of the guitarist’s bottom, but I promise it improves after that.
Someone has made a game attempt at some English-language lyrics here, but I suspect it loses something in translation. Or, I don’t know, maybe dropping crockery is a Romanian Christmas tradition. I shall have to visit and find out.
This, courtesy of someone I don’t know on Twitter called Rich Cook, has just made me laugh a lot.
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:
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.
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… ♫
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.
This is really a New Year’s song, but it’s been adapted into English as the Carol of the Bells or the Ukranian Bell Carol, and is indelibly associated with Christmas over here and especially in the States where various English-language Christmassy versions exist (you may especially remember it from Home Alone, or that might just be me).
This isn’t the best video in the world, but it’s the most charming version musically, so I hope you forgive the shakiness. If not, you are allowed to cheat and watch the Muppets version instead.
You might not have heard of Carlos Galhardo, but in his day his lively radio hits made him a star in his home country of Brazil. Boas Festas was composed by his friend Assis Valente and first recorded in 1933, when Galhardo was just twenty. It took me a long time to find a Christmas song from South America that wasn’t Spanish or Portuguese in origin, but since Galhardo and Valente were both born in Brazil and lived there all their lives I think Boas Festas counts as authentically Brazilian.
I haven’t been able to find a convincing translation for the whole song, but I am fairly confident that the title translates as “Happy Holidays”. If you are good at Portuguese <COUGH Sam>, please feel free to send me a translation or stick it in the comments below. Otherwise, just enjoy the music.
This is the perfect song to start with. Not only is it from Lapland (well, Finland anyway), it is also absolutely lovely (especially from 1:50 onwards), and – this is my favourite part – it is about Tonttu the Christmas Gnome. Why don’t we have a Christmas gnome in the UK? Perhaps I will start a campaign.
There’s an English translation of the lyrics here (scroll down).
Glad All Over 