[Theme music begins]
Welcome to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
The longest and darkest of nights, the Winter Solstice has been an important waypost in the cycle of the year throughout the world since as early as the Stone Age. The astronomical component of the Solstice typically occurs on December 21st in the Northern Hemisphere, when the Earth’s North Pole reaches its maximum distance from the Sun. Solstice night is traditionally observed with rituals celebrating the warmth of community and return of the light, with food, drink, fire, greenery, and of course festive song and dance. The symbolic rebirth of the sun inspires hope for springtime, fortifying the spirit against the bleak months ahead. Nothing drives the cold winter away quite like a rousing tune, so join us this hour for music in honor of the Winter Solstice.
[Theme music fades at :59]
________________________________________
News Cutaway: 01:00 – 6:00
MUSIC TRACK
Francesco Correa de Arauxo: Libro de tientos
InAlto
Ricercar 2022 | RIC435
Francesco Correa de Arauxo
D. 3 Tr. 1 Canto llano de la Inmaculada Concepcion de la Virgen Maria Señora nuestra (4:46)
Francesco Correa de Arauxo’s setting of a Canto llano (plainchant) for the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Bernard Foccroulle led the ensemble InAlto. / The feast day of the Immaculate Conception occurs on December 8th. /. . . And it’s an example of Christian celebrations that have blended with older solstice traditions [in some regions].
Because of its proximity to December 25th, the Winter Solstice has long been associated with Christmas celebrations in European Christian communities, but the Solstice’s cultural significance dates back much further. Neolithic and Bronze Age Europeans developed their agricultural and spiritual cycles around astronomical solstices and equinoxes; some of the monuments at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England are aligned to the sunrise on the Winter Solstice. Ancient Romans also celebrated the Sun god Sol on December 25th, Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, the birthday of the unconquered Sun.
As Christianity spread throughout Europe, some Pagan solstice traditions were assimilated into the new festivals. The Germanic pagan winter festival Yule is now synonymous with Christmas in much of Northern Europe, although elements of it, including the burning of a Yule log, wassailing or caroling, and decorating with evergreen, predate Christianization.
MUSIC TRACK
Wintersongs
Kitka
Diaphonica 2004
Traditional
Tr. 1 Tec, Peleite, Zernju Zogtu (3:06)
Kitka performed Tec, Peleite, Zernju Zogtu, an ancient East Latvian Winter Solstice song honoring the Sun goddess. Kitka is a women’s vocal ensemble devoted to Eastern European folk music. Teg pe-leh-te zern-yu zog-tu
The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is traditional to the village of Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire, England. Though it has historically been performed on Christmas, New Year’s Day, and Epiphany, it currently occurs in September. Six dancers carry sets of ancient Reindeer antlers and proCESS from St. Nicholas Church through the village and countryside, accompanied by Maid Marian, a hobby horse, a fool, a boy with bow and arrow, and musicians. Though first documented in the thirteenth century, the use of antlers may derive from Anglo-Saxon rituals for the success of the year’s hunt.
MUSIC TRACK
The Christmas Revels: In celebration of the Winter Solstice
Lisle Kulbach
Revels Records 2005 | REVCD1078
Traditional
Tr. 1 Abbots Bromley Horn Dance (1:52)
The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance tune, performed on recorder by Lisle Kulbach from the 1978 recording The Christmas Revels: In celebration of the Winter Solstice.
The Middle English poem “Wolcum Yole,” famously set in Benjamin Britten’s 1942 Ceremony of Carols, demonstrates the conflation of Yule with Christmastide that had taken place by the Middle Ages. Britten’s collection of new compositions on medieval and Renaissance poetry inspired Nancy Hadden, director of Psallite Women’s Choir, to seek out historically appropriate music for Britten’s chosen texts. As no historical setting of “Wolcum Yole” survives, Hadden paired it with thirteenth-century music for Walter of Châtillon’s Christmas poem “Verbum Patris umanatur,” “the word of the Father is made man.”
We’ll hear the original “Verbum Patris umanatur,” Benjamin Britten’s 1942 setting of “Wolcom Yole,” and finally Nancy Hadden’s 2008 contrafactum.
MUSIC TRACK
The Naxos Book of Carols
Tonus Peregrinus
Naxos 2003 | 8.557330
Anonymous
Tr. 4 Verbum Patris umanatur (1:16)
MUSIC TRACK
Ceremonyes of Carolles
Psallite Women’s Choir
CRD Records 2008 | CRD3514
Benjamin Britten
Tr. 13 Wolcum yole! (1:22)
Nancy Hadden (arranger)
Tr. 2 Wolcum Yole (Verbum patris umanatur) (1:28)
Psallite Women’s Choir performed Nancy Hadden’s setting of “Wolcum Yole,” to the tune of the Latin piece “Verbum patris umanatur.” Before that, we heard the same ensemble with Benjamin Britten’s “Wolcum Yole,” and we started with the original medieval “Verbum Patris umanatur” performed by Tonus Peregrinus.
The preparation of a boar for the Yule feast goes back to the festival’s pagan roots and is described in Germanic and Norse epics from the Early Middle Ages. While today this might take the form of a Christmas ham, in Tudor England, the boar’s head was still ceremonially carried into the feast on a platter. The most popular version of the “Boar’s Head Carol” was first published in London in 1521. Let’s hear a vintage interpretation by the Deller Consort.
MUSIC TRACK
The Holly and the Ivy
The Deller Consort
Vanguard Classics 1956/2006| ATM-CD-1665
Anonymous
Tr. 15 Boar’s Head Carol (1:47)
Alfred Deller led the Deller Consort in a 1956 recording of the “Boar’s Head Carol.”
Today, we might think of wassailing as an older version of Christmas caroling, but for centuries, wassailing was tied to Solstice celebrations. The term “wassail” is derived from the Old Norse greeting “ves heill” that in English came to be understood as a toast.
The house-visit wassail most closely resembles caroling but originated as a type of Yule singing in which participants went door-to-door, singing and drinking, in search of gifts. The wassailers were typically the subjects of the landed nobility, from whom they demanded a sort of year-end bonus. These kinds of festive power-reversals are also found in the Ancient Roman Solstice festival Saturnalia.
MUSIC TRACK
Sing we Noel
The Boston Camerata
Nonesuch 2005 | 603497102068
Traditional
Tr. 19 Gloucestershire Wassail (2:54)
“The Gloucestershire Wassail,” performed by the Boston Camerata led by Joel Cohen.
In another version of the practice, wassailers visited apple orchards in a ritual to honor past and future harvests, singing and drinking to the health of the trees. In both traditions, wassail also refers to the beverage consumed by participants, usually hot mulled cider, or ale. The wassailing of an orchard was usually completed by hanging wassail-soaked toast from the branches as an offering to the tree spirits.
MUSIC TRACK
For Pence and Spicy Ale
The Watersons
Topic Records 1975 – TSCD574
Traditional
Tr. 6 The Apple Tree Wassail (2:41)
“The Apple Tree Wassail,” recorded in 1975 by English folk group The Watersons.
[Theme music begins]
Early music can mean a lot of things. What does it mean to you? Let us know your thoughts and ideas. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org, where you’ll also find playlists and an archive of past shows.
You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
[Theme music fades]
(1:00) Mid Break Music Bed:
MUSIC TRACK
Sing we Noel
The Boston Camerata
Nonesuch 2006 | 603497102068
Anonymous
Tr. 3 Angelus ad virginem (instrumental) (excerpt of 1:33)
(fades out at :59)
Welcome back…
Decorating with greenery is yet another holiday practice associated with Solstice time. Boughs and clippings of conifers, holly, ivy, laurel, and other evergreens brought indoors helped to brighten the household during the darkest time of the year, inspiring hope for the coming spring. In many pre-Christian traditions, wreaths and garlands symbolized eternal life or protected the dwelling from evil spirits. Next up, we have a pair of carols on greenery: “Green growth the holly,” written by Henry VIII of England and published in 1522, and a historically informed spin on a familiar favorite.
MUSIC TRACK
Salacious Chansons and Other Renaissance Ribaldry
New York Ensemble for Early Music’s Gleemen
MusicMasters 1981/| 717794357226
Henry VIII
Tr. 10 Green growth the holly (2:56)
MUSIC TRACK
On a Cold Winter’s Day
Quadriga Consort
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 2013 | 886444087261
Traditional
Tr. 18 Deck the halls (2:22)
MUSIC TRACK
Traditional Songs for Tenor and Harp
Huw Rhys-Evans and Ieuan Jones
Claudio Records 1991/2018 | ClaudioCR4114-2
Traditional
Tr. 20 Nos galan (New year’s eve) (1:11)
Huw Rhys-Evans sang the Welsh carol “Nos Galan,” “New Year’s Eve” with Ieuan Jones, harp. We started the set with Henry VIII’s “Green growth the holly,” performed by New York Ensemble for Early Music, directed by Frederick Renz, followed by the Quadriga Consort’s version of “Deck the Halls.” The well-known English lyrics to “Deck the Halls” were written by Thomas Oliphant in 1862, but the source tune, “Nos Galan,” is a Welsh New Year’s carol first documented in the sixteenth century.
Another way of brightening the darkness during the Winter Solstice is literally, with artificial light. Before electric string lights, this was accomplished with candles, torches, and bonfires. The burning of a specially selected Yule log on the hearth for many days at a time has become an emblem of Christmas in parts of Northern Europe, Britain, and North America, but may trace back to Germanic pagan observances of Yule. Much of the Solstice music we’re hearing this hour is British in origin; the convergence of Germanic and Norse traditions on the island gave Solstice traditions particular staying power.
Elsewhere in Europe, celebrations of light in darkness take place on Christian feast days slightly before the Solstice: the Immaculate Conception on December 8th, and St. Lucy’s (Lucia’s) Day on December 13th. / In some regions of Italy, the Immaculate Conception is celebrated with torchlit processions and bonfires, such as the Notte dei Faugni in Atri, Abruzzo.
The fourth-century St. Lucy of Syracuse, or Santa Lucia, whose name itself means light, is venerated for carrying food to persecuted Christians hiding in the Roman catacombs while wearing a wreath of candles on her head. Her feast day is particularly popular in Scandinavia, where girls wear candle wreathes and participate in candlelit processions. St. Lucia’s Day aligned with the Winter Solstice prior to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar.
MUSIC TRACK
Philipp Dulichius: Sacred Motets
Weser-Renaissance Bremen
CPO 2012 | 777352-2
Philipp Dulichius
Tr. 17 Gaudens gaudebo in Domino à 7 (2:49)
MUSIC TRACK
Magnum Mysterium: Advent and Christmas music for Lute and Voice
Mignarda
Mignarda 2016 | MP011
Adrian Willaert
Tr. 9 In tua patientia (3:22)
The ensemble Mignarda performed In tua patientia, a motet by Adrian Willaert for the feast of St. Lucy, (Santa Lucia). *Before that, a seven-part motet by Philipp Dulichius on the antiphon Gaudens gaudebo for the Immaculate Conception. Manfred Cordes led Weser-Renaissance Bremen.
Let’s continue our celebration of the Winter Solstice with a pair of songs that get to the shared essence of Solstice festivities: finding ways to make the cold dark nights bearable.
MUSIC TRACK
An Elizabethan Christmas
Fretwork
Signum Classics 2021 | SIGCD680
Thomas Weelkes
Tr. 12 To Shorten Winter’s Sadnesse (2:34)
MUSIC TRACK
And the Glory Shone Around
The Rose Ensemble
Rose Records 2008 | Rose009
Traditional/Playford
Tr. 16 Drive the Cold Winter Away (3:01)
Thomas Weelkes’ “To Shorten Winter’s Sadnesse”, sung by Helen Charlston with Fretwork, followed by the Rose Ensemble with the seventeenth-century Broadside ballad “Drive the Cold winter Away.”
Our featured recording this hour is Shira Kammen’s 2003 classic The Castle of the Holly King: Secular Songs for the Yuletide. Released on independent label Bright Angel Records, this album is a collection selection of tunes for solstice time from Anglo and Celtic traditions.
MUSIC TRACK
The Castle of the Holly King: Secular Songs for the Yuletide
Shira Kammen
Bright Angel Records 2003
Traditional
Tr. 6 Cutty Wren (3:15)
“Cutty Wren,” a folk song for the turn of the year performed by..Shira Kammen and friends, on our featured recording The Castle of the Holly King. Shira Kammen’s album includes a number of wassail songs: another Apple tree wassail, the Gower wassail, and, as we’ll hear next, “Bring us in good ale,” a traditional English wassail with lyrics dating back to the fifteenth century.
MUSIC TRACK
The Castle of the Holly King: Secular Songs for the Yuletide
Shira Kammen
Bright Angel Records 2003
Anonymous
Tr. 15 Bring us in good ale (2:57)
[Tr. 14 Tapster Drynker (1:19)]
Shira Kammen led the medieval wassail “Bring us in good ale” / [and the 15th -century part song Tapster Drynker] / on her 2003 Bright Angel release Castle of the Holly King: Secular Songs for the Yuletide.
[Let’s raise a glass of that “good ale” with wishes for peace on earth and goodwill to all. Happy Holidays!]
[Fade in theme music]
Harmonia is a production of WFIU and part of the educational mission of Indiana University.
Support comes from Early Music America: a national organization that advocates and supports the historical performance of music of the past, the community of artists who create it, and the listeners whose lives are enriched by it. On the web at EarlyMusicAmerica-dot-org.
Additional resources come from the William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
We welcome your thoughts about any part of this program, or about early music in general. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org. You can follow us on Facebook by searching for Harmonia Early Music.
The writer for this edition of Harmonia was Chelsey Belt.
Thanks to our studio engineer Michael Paskash, and our production team: LuAnn Johnson, Wendy Gillespie, Aaron Cain, and John Bailey. I’m Angela Mariani, wishing you a happy holiday season.
[Theme music concludes]
Welcome to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
The longest and darkest of nights, the Winter Solstice has been an important waypost in the cycle of the year throughout the world since as early as the Stone Age. The astronomical component of the Solstice typically occurs on December 21st in the Northern Hemisphere, when the Earth’s North Pole reaches its maximum distance from the Sun. Solstice night is traditionally observed with rituals celebrating the warmth of community and return of the light, with food, drink, fire, greenery, and of course festive song and dance. The symbolic rebirth of the sun inspires hope for springtime, fortifying the spirit against the bleak months ahead. Nothing drives the cold winter away quite like a rousing tune, so join us this hour for music in honor of the Winter Solstice.
[Theme music fades at :59]
________________________________________
News Cutaway: 01:00 – 6:00
MUSIC TRACK
Francesco Correa de Arauxo: Libro de tientos
InAlto
Ricercar 2022 | RIC435
Francesco Correa de Arauxo
D. 3 Tr. 1 Canto llano de la Inmaculada Concepcion de la Virgen Maria Señora nuestra (4:46)
Francesco Correa de Arauxo’s setting of a Canto llano (plainchant) for the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Bernard Foccroulle led the ensemble InAlto. / The feast day of the Immaculate Conception occurs on December 8th. /. . . And it’s an example of Christian celebrations that have blended with older solstice traditions [in some regions].
Because of its proximity to December 25th, the Winter Solstice has long been associated with Christmas celebrations in European Christian communities, but the Solstice’s cultural significance dates back much further. Neolithic and Bronze Age Europeans developed their agricultural and spiritual cycles around astronomical solstices and equinoxes; some of the monuments at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England are aligned to the sunrise on the Winter Solstice. Ancient Romans also celebrated the Sun god Sol on December 25th, Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, the birthday of the unconquered Sun.
As Christianity spread throughout Europe, some Pagan solstice traditions were assimilated into the new festivals. The Germanic pagan winter festival Yule is now synonymous with Christmas in much of Northern Europe, although elements of it, including the burning of a Yule log, wassailing or caroling, and decorating with evergreen, predate Christianization.
MUSIC TRACK
Wintersongs
Kitka
Diaphonica 2004
Traditional
Tr. 1 Tec, Peleite, Zernju Zogtu (3:06)
Kitka performed Tec, Peleite, Zernju Zogtu, an ancient East Latvian Winter Solstice song honoring the Sun goddess. Kitka is a women’s vocal ensemble devoted to Eastern European folk music. Teg pe-leh-te zern-yu zog-tu
The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is traditional to the village of Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire, England. Though it has historically been performed on Christmas, New Year’s Day, and Epiphany, it currently occurs in September. Six dancers carry sets of ancient Reindeer antlers and proCESS from St. Nicholas Church through the village and countryside, accompanied by Maid Marian, a hobby horse, a fool, a boy with bow and arrow, and musicians. Though first documented in the thirteenth century, the use of antlers may derive from Anglo-Saxon rituals for the success of the year’s hunt.
MUSIC TRACK
The Christmas Revels: In celebration of the Winter Solstice
Lisle Kulbach
Revels Records 2005 | REVCD1078
Traditional
Tr. 1 Abbots Bromley Horn Dance (1:52)
The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance tune, performed on recorder by Lisle Kulbach from the 1978 recording The Christmas Revels: In celebration of the Winter Solstice.
The Middle English poem “Wolcum Yole,” famously set in Benjamin Britten’s 1942 Ceremony of Carols, demonstrates the conflation of Yule with Christmastide that had taken place by the Middle Ages. Britten’s collection of new compositions on medieval and Renaissance poetry inspired Nancy Hadden, director of Psallite Women’s Choir, to seek out historically appropriate music for Britten’s chosen texts. As no historical setting of “Wolcum Yole” survives, Hadden paired it with thirteenth-century music for Walter of Châtillon’s Christmas poem “Verbum Patris umanatur,” “the word of the Father is made man.”
We’ll hear the original “Verbum Patris umanatur,” Benjamin Britten’s 1942 setting of “Wolcom Yole,” and finally Nancy Hadden’s 2008 contrafactum.
MUSIC TRACK
The Naxos Book of Carols
Tonus Peregrinus
Naxos 2003 | 8.557330
Anonymous
Tr. 4 Verbum Patris umanatur (1:16)
MUSIC TRACK
Ceremonyes of Carolles
Psallite Women’s Choir
CRD Records 2008 | CRD3514
Benjamin Britten
Tr. 13 Wolcum yole! (1:22)
Nancy Hadden (arranger)
Tr. 2 Wolcum Yole (Verbum patris umanatur) (1:28)
Psallite Women’s Choir performed Nancy Hadden’s setting of “Wolcum Yole,” to the tune of the Latin piece “Verbum patris umanatur.” Before that, we heard the same ensemble with Benjamin Britten’s “Wolcum Yole,” and we started with the original medieval “Verbum Patris umanatur” performed by Tonus Peregrinus.
The preparation of a boar for the Yule feast goes back to the festival’s pagan roots and is described in Germanic and Norse epics from the Early Middle Ages. While today this might take the form of a Christmas ham, in Tudor England, the boar’s head was still ceremonially carried into the feast on a platter. The most popular version of the “Boar’s Head Carol” was first published in London in 1521. Let’s hear a vintage interpretation by the Deller Consort.
MUSIC TRACK
The Holly and the Ivy
The Deller Consort
Vanguard Classics 1956/2006| ATM-CD-1665
Anonymous
Tr. 15 Boar’s Head Carol (1:47)
Alfred Deller led the Deller Consort in a 1956 recording of the “Boar’s Head Carol.”
Today, we might think of wassailing as an older version of Christmas caroling, but for centuries, wassailing was tied to Solstice celebrations. The term “wassail” is derived from the Old Norse greeting “ves heill” that in English came to be understood as a toast.
The house-visit wassail most closely resembles caroling but originated as a type of Yule singing in which participants went door-to-door, singing and drinking, in search of gifts. The wassailers were typically the subjects of the landed nobility, from whom they demanded a sort of year-end bonus. These kinds of festive power-reversals are also found in the Ancient Roman Solstice festival Saturnalia.
MUSIC TRACK
Sing we Noel
The Boston Camerata
Nonesuch 2005 | 603497102068
Traditional
Tr. 19 Gloucestershire Wassail (2:54)
“The Gloucestershire Wassail,” performed by the Boston Camerata led by Joel Cohen.
In another version of the practice, wassailers visited apple orchards in a ritual to honor past and future harvests, singing and drinking to the health of the trees. In both traditions, wassail also refers to the beverage consumed by participants, usually hot mulled cider, or ale. The wassailing of an orchard was usually completed by hanging wassail-soaked toast from the branches as an offering to the tree spirits.
MUSIC TRACK
For Pence and Spicy Ale
The Watersons
Topic Records 1975 – TSCD574
Traditional
Tr. 6 The Apple Tree Wassail (2:41)
“The Apple Tree Wassail,” recorded in 1975 by English folk group The Watersons.
[Theme music begins]
Early music can mean a lot of things. What does it mean to you? Let us know your thoughts and ideas. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org, where you’ll also find playlists and an archive of past shows.
You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
[Theme music fades]
(1:00) Mid Break Music Bed:
MUSIC TRACK
Sing we Noel
The Boston Camerata
Nonesuch 2006 | 603497102068
Anonymous
Tr. 3 Angelus ad virginem (instrumental) (excerpt of 1:33)
(fades out at :59)
Welcome back…
Decorating with greenery is yet another holiday practice associated with Solstice time. Boughs and clippings of conifers, holly, ivy, laurel, and other evergreens brought indoors helped to brighten the household during the darkest time of the year, inspiring hope for the coming spring. In many pre-Christian traditions, wreaths and garlands symbolized eternal life or protected the dwelling from evil spirits. Next up, we have a pair of carols on greenery: “Green growth the holly,” written by Henry VIII of England and published in 1522, and a historically informed spin on a familiar favorite.
MUSIC TRACK
Salacious Chansons and Other Renaissance Ribaldry
New York Ensemble for Early Music’s Gleemen
MusicMasters 1981/| 717794357226
Henry VIII
Tr. 10 Green growth the holly (2:56)
MUSIC TRACK
On a Cold Winter’s Day
Quadriga Consort
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 2013 | 886444087261
Traditional
Tr. 18 Deck the halls (2:22)
MUSIC TRACK
Traditional Songs for Tenor and Harp
Huw Rhys-Evans and Ieuan Jones
Claudio Records 1991/2018 | ClaudioCR4114-2
Traditional
Tr. 20 Nos galan (New year’s eve) (1:11)
Huw Rhys-Evans sang the Welsh carol “Nos Galan,” “New Year’s Eve” with Ieuan Jones, harp. We started the set with Henry VIII’s “Green growth the holly,” performed by New York Ensemble for Early Music, directed by Frederick Renz, followed by the Quadriga Consort’s version of “Deck the Halls.” The well-known English lyrics to “Deck the Halls” were written by Thomas Oliphant in 1862, but the source tune, “Nos Galan,” is a Welsh New Year’s carol first documented in the sixteenth century.
Another way of brightening the darkness during the Winter Solstice is literally, with artificial light. Before electric string lights, this was accomplished with candles, torches, and bonfires. The burning of a specially selected Yule log on the hearth for many days at a time has become an emblem of Christmas in parts of Northern Europe, Britain, and North America, but may trace back to Germanic pagan observances of Yule. Much of the Solstice music we’re hearing this hour is British in origin; the convergence of Germanic and Norse traditions on the island gave Solstice traditions particular staying power.
Elsewhere in Europe, celebrations of light in darkness take place on Christian feast days slightly before the Solstice: the Immaculate Conception on December 8th, and St. Lucy’s (Lucia’s) Day on December 13th. / In some regions of Italy, the Immaculate Conception is celebrated with torchlit processions and bonfires, such as the Notte dei Faugni in Atri, Abruzzo.
The fourth-century St. Lucy of Syracuse, or Santa Lucia, whose name itself means light, is venerated for carrying food to persecuted Christians hiding in the Roman catacombs while wearing a wreath of candles on her head. Her feast day is particularly popular in Scandinavia, where girls wear candle wreathes and participate in candlelit processions. St. Lucia’s Day aligned with the Winter Solstice prior to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar.
MUSIC TRACK
Philipp Dulichius: Sacred Motets
Weser-Renaissance Bremen
CPO 2012 | 777352-2
Philipp Dulichius
Tr. 17 Gaudens gaudebo in Domino à 7 (2:49)
MUSIC TRACK
Magnum Mysterium: Advent and Christmas music for Lute and Voice
Mignarda
Mignarda 2016 | MP011
Adrian Willaert
Tr. 9 In tua patientia (3:22)
The ensemble Mignarda performed In tua patientia, a motet by Adrian Willaert for the feast of St. Lucy, (Santa Lucia). *Before that, a seven-part motet by Philipp Dulichius on the antiphon Gaudens gaudebo for the Immaculate Conception. Manfred Cordes led Weser-Renaissance Bremen.
Let’s continue our celebration of the Winter Solstice with a pair of songs that get to the shared essence of Solstice festivities: finding ways to make the cold dark nights bearable.
MUSIC TRACK
An Elizabethan Christmas
Fretwork
Signum Classics 2021 | SIGCD680
Thomas Weelkes
Tr. 12 To Shorten Winter’s Sadnesse (2:34)
MUSIC TRACK
And the Glory Shone Around
The Rose Ensemble
Rose Records 2008 | Rose009
Traditional/Playford
Tr. 16 Drive the Cold Winter Away (3:01)
Thomas Weelkes’ “To Shorten Winter’s Sadnesse”, sung by Helen Charlston with Fretwork, followed by the Rose Ensemble with the seventeenth-century Broadside ballad “Drive the Cold winter Away.”
Our featured recording this hour is Shira Kammen’s 2003 classic The Castle of the Holly King: Secular Songs for the Yuletide. Released on independent label Bright Angel Records, this album is a collection selection of tunes for solstice time from Anglo and Celtic traditions.
MUSIC TRACK
The Castle of the Holly King: Secular Songs for the Yuletide
Shira Kammen
Bright Angel Records 2003
Traditional
Tr. 6 Cutty Wren (3:15)
“Cutty Wren,” a folk song for the turn of the year performed by..Shira Kammen and friends, on our featured recording The Castle of the Holly King. Shira Kammen’s album includes a number of wassail songs: another Apple tree wassail, the Gower wassail, and, as we’ll hear next, “Bring us in good ale,” a traditional English wassail with lyrics dating back to the fifteenth century.
MUSIC TRACK
The Castle of the Holly King: Secular Songs for the Yuletide
Shira Kammen
Bright Angel Records 2003
Anonymous
Tr. 15 Bring us in good ale (2:57)
[Tr. 14 Tapster Drynker (1:19)]
Shira Kammen led the medieval wassail “Bring us in good ale” / [and the 15th -century part song Tapster Drynker] / on her 2003 Bright Angel release Castle of the Holly King: Secular Songs for the Yuletide.
[Let’s raise a glass of that “good ale” with wishes for peace on earth and goodwill to all. Happy Holidays!]
[Fade in theme music]
Harmonia is a production of WFIU and part of the educational mission of Indiana University.
Support comes from Early Music America: a national organization that advocates and supports the historical performance of music of the past, the community of artists who create it, and the listeners whose lives are enriched by it. On the web at EarlyMusicAmerica-dot-org.
Additional resources come from the William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
We welcome your thoughts about any part of this program, or about early music in general. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org. You can follow us on Facebook by searching for Harmonia Early Music.
The writer for this edition of Harmonia was Chelsey Belt.
Thanks to our studio engineer Michael Paskash, and our production team: LuAnn Johnson, Wendy Gillespie, Aaron Cain, and John Bailey. I’m Angela Mariani, wishing you a happy holiday season.
[Theme music concludes]
