Playlist
Nowell: Dieu vous garde Suzi LeBlanc and Le Voix Humaines 3:40
Salut á la compagnie Malicorne :54
Sugar Wassail Waterson:Carthy 2:10
Clementsing Coope, Boyes, Simpson, Fraser & Freya :58
Congratulations (A Happy New Year Song) Pink Martini 2:53
Soul Christmas Graham Parker and Nona Hendryx 4:35
Music notes
[Reminder: These music notes include links to the posting that has more detailed information about the songs and performers.]
Nowell: Dieu vous garde This is performed by Montreal-based soprano Suzie LeBlanc and the viol duo Les Voix Humaines, which at the time was comprised of Susie Napper & Margaret Little.
The song is from a 15th century manuscript, possibly from the hand of Rev. Richard Smart (or Smert or Smerte) who was the vicar-choral of Exeter Cathedral from 1428-1466. It includes the earliest reference to a personification of Christmas, creating a character who is the forerunner to Father Christmas and Santa Claus. I haven’t seen it suggested elsewhere, but my guess is that Sir Christmas may have been an alternate title given to the Lord of Misrule – the court official who had been given the important job of organizing the 12 day Christmastide festivities. The lyrics are:
Nowell. Who is there that singeth so: Nowell?
I am here, Sire Christësmas.
Welcome, my lord, Sire Christësmas!
Welcome to us all, both more and less!
Come near, Nowell.
Dieu vous garde, beau sire, tidingës I you bring:
A maid hath born a child full young,
The which causeth you for to sing:
Nowell. Nowell.
Buvez bien par toute la compagnie,
Make good cheer and be right merry,
And sing with us now joyfully:
Nowell. Nowell.
There is more information about this song in my Dec 11, 2022 post.
Salut á la compagnie This is a traditional French luck-visit song specifically for New Year’s Day. In medieval times the custom of part à Dieu was near the end of well-off people’s holiday feasting, when poor people could come to share in the left-overs in exchange for their offerings of entertainment and blessings for the coming year.
Similar ceremonial visits have been happening throughout Europe since time immemorial, and in fact there are parallel ritualized ceremonies of lean-season visiting and generosity found throughout the world. In the scholarly world of folklore research, using principles similar to those in linguistic archaeology, this pattern of being widespread but with regional variations is considered evidence of antiquity.
The custom continued into more modern times as a children’s door-to-door New Year’s custom similar to our Halloween trick-or-treating. The brief song is performed here by Malicorne.
Salut à la compagnie
De cette maison.
Je vous souhaite une bonne année,
Du bien à foison.
Nous sommes d’un pays étrange,
Venus dans ce lieu,
Pour vous faire la demande
De la part à Dieu.
Si la fève s’y présente,
Nous la planterons
Dans un jardin, sous un arbre
Nous la metterons.
Nous prierons la Sainte Vierge,
Jésus, les trois Rois,
Qu’ils nous fassent à tous la grâce
Que la puissions voir.
For three more luck visiting songs, and information about them as well as this one, see the notes in my Dec 21 posting in my 2022 series, which also includes my Ancient Origins essay about luck visiting, wassailing and Christmas caroling.
Sugar Wassail This is from a collection of such songs in Sussex that were collected in the 1840s by the pioneering folk music collector Rev. John Broadwood. It is performed here by the multigenerational folk group Waterson:Carthy whose roots go back to one of the most celebrated groups of the 1960s folk revival in Britain - The Watersons. For more information, see here.
The words for the full song, as collected by John Broadwood and which is unnamed, are available here, and here are the verses that Waterson:Carthy sing:
A wassail, a wassail, a wassail we begin
With sugar strands and cinnamon and all the treasures in.Chorus (after each verse):
With a wassail, a wassail, a jolly wassail,
And may joy come to you and to our wassail.And if you any maids within your house as I suppose you’ve done,
They’d not let us stand a-wassailing so long on this cold stone.We’ll cut a toast from off the log and sat it by the fire,
We’ll wassail bees, and apple trees, unto your hearts’ desire.Bring out your silver tankard, likewise your kissing sphere, [mistletoe bunch]
We’ll come no more a-wassailing until another year.
Clementsing This is an example of how a song can migrate from a different season to Christmastime. Since the luck-visiting traditions associated with many other occasions did not continue to recent times, Christmas has become a haven for their refugee songs.
This song originated as a song for soliciting food and beverage from blacksmiths and other metalworkers on St Clement’s Day (Nov 23) since he was their patron saint. The legends and commemorative day for him coincide with those of the mythic Saxon metalworking demigod Wayland the Smith. That is not a coincidence, as was discussed in my Dec 21 essay.
This song was recorded by Barry Coope, Jim Boyes, Lester Simpson, Fi Fraser, Jo Freya and Georgina Boyes (website here). The lyrics had been written down by a boy from Walton on Trent, Derbyshire, in 1886. The words mostly sound like a traditional wassail song except for “one for Peter, two for Paul, three for him that made us all.” In general, wassail songs collected in the 19th century do not have religious references, suggesting that the clementsing tradition had been influenced by the “keep Christmas” movement which promoted a transition from wassailing to caroling.
Those words and phrases in this song sound to me like it is a variant of another well-known luck-visit refugee song that moved to Christmas from Halloween – a’Souling (aka Soul Cake.) Since there was no music to go with the words of this one, Jim and Lester set them to what they say is a traditional tune
Gong Xi Gong Xi (Congratulations: A Happy New Year Song) When this song was written “winter” was used as a metaphor to represent a long period of hardship. But when it was recorded in 1946 by the sisters Yao Lee and Yao Min “winter” took on its literal meaning and the song became a very popular and enduring favourite for celebrating the Chinese New Year (which is celebrated at the end of winter.) The song has its own Wikipedia entry. You can hear that version with subtitled translation and a slideshow here.
Due to the popularity of the song, the phrase “Gong Xi Gong Xi!” became the standard holiday greeting for the new year in China, similar to us saying “Happy New Year!”
The song here is performed by members of the “lounge orchestra” Pink Martini China Forbes and Timothy Yuji Nishimoto. For more information, see here.
Soul Christmas This song was written by British rock & roll musician Graham Parker, who has a 40 year rock & roll career under his belt. He sings it here with Nona Hendrix whose professional singing career goes back to being a founding member of the doo-wop trio Labelle, the first African-American women's singing group ever to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Learn more and see photos here.
Mom and Daddy sat around the Christmas tree
The kids played with presents on the floor
It's A Wonderful Life was showin' on TV
They were all gettin' kinda bored
So Daddy jumped up and said let's liven things up
I was a big time producer you know
I'll make a few calls, make a few old connections
Get a few friends over to blow
So Sam and Dave turned up in a black Cadillac
James Brown flew in from the south
Everybody wondered if this thing would swing
But then Mary Wells opened her mouth
And oh, what a heavenly sound came out
Then there was a knock on the door (knock knock)
There stood Eddie Floyd with a smile on his face
And everybody yelled for more
(Chorus]
It was a Soul Christmas
We got a Soul Christmas
We got a Soul Christmas
And we're gonna rock it right through
The whole of the new year
Daddy called Al Jackson and Duck Dunn too
Cropper showed up with his guitar
Booker T was in the kitchen makin' Memphis Stew
Sam Cooke was workin' the bar
Then came Carla Thomas, look for her tram
And I swear the next morning I saw
Comin' right down the chimney was
Otis himself y'all dressed up as Santa Claus
ChorusDaddy called some backin' singers from Detroit
They were dancin' all over that room
Don Covay said there ain't no doubt about it
Little Milton's gonna turn up soon
Outside the snow was deep and crisp and even
And a poor man struggled to the door
And standin' right there singin' songs of deliverance
Was Al Green with a full gospel choirEverybody said this is better than Jingle Bells
When Junior Walker blew on his sax
They turned that middle class home out in suburbia
Into a chicken shack
But the one big question on everybody's lips was
Where is the Queen of Soul?
Is that sweet Mama gonna grace us with her presence
Hey, when is Aretha gonna show?
Chorus (x2)
Reminiscence
After my burn-out in 2021, this year was pretty relaxed. In 2022 (as with this year) there was no stressful working late into the night in order to meet my posting deadlines, but there were enjoyable late-night sessions when I was on a creative binge.
I did get started doing the write-ups and making final selections a bit later than I would have preferred because I was busy with my jigsaw puzzle newsletter/blog. But once I got started things came together pretty easily: I had a lot of songs already informally selected in my mind as well as what I could say about them. Also in my mind was the mantra: Keep it short! I was successful at holding off on writing essays except for the one that I had deferred from 2021.
Each posting that year was a single long song or a small set of related shorter ones. I l had a lot of great songs in my candidate files, and ideas for putting some together into short sets. One of my postings even did double duty in both of my newsletter/blogs, with a snowman song (that you have probably not heard before) and a review of a small (but very fun!) snowman puzzle.
Of course, other ideas also popped up once I got on a roll. For example, I did a set (Dec 13) to illustrate the evolving history of recording technology and musical tastes in the first half of the 20th century using songs about Christmas bells. On a whim, I followed that with a set (Dec 14) of folk songs about bells which sounded Christmassy but in which all were “ringers.”
All in all, this year was all fun and with no stress that I can recall.
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