An Early Christmas
Every year I get into trouble from my wife Kate as the Christmas music I choose to play around the house “isn’t traditional enough”. But this year I think I might have taken the traditional thing too far. If I’m honest she’s likely to be even less amused.
Two years ago I created a playlist for Boomtown which contained over five hours of alternative in-your-face Christmas tunes covering punk, ska, metal, hip-hop, d’n’b and even gabba. Then last year, St Paul’s Carnival asked me to make them a festive playlist full of reggae, dancehall, soca, calypso and parang, which was also very cool if I do say so myself. This year took a turn that not even I could have guessed before the covid lockdowns happened.
Not to go too deeply into it, (as there is a long and sprawling post brewing where I shall explain everything in great detail), but my Spotify playlists which started as a daily ritual during the first lockdown, and now cover a multitude of different styles and eras, eventually led me way back into time. For the last few months, I’ve been exploring the period between 1400-1600, which is commonly known here in Western Europe as The Renaissance.
The playlists I’ve been creating are on their way early next year, but I thought this one would be a rather fun seasonal offshoot. When making these playlists, I try to be as true to the time period as possible. But ‘tis not the season to be po-faced, so on the whole this is an easy, accessible and hopefully enjoyable interpretation of songs and music that was written or played during that period.
Some of the arrangements are certainly from much later on, but I shall explain all of that as we look at each individual track (or you can skip to the playlist here). I hope you gain as much pleasure from these songs and little insights about them as I have. Either way, have a very Merry Christmas and I shall see you back here in the New Year.
Steeleye Span - Gaudette
Oddly enough, this was one of the last tracks I added and I can’t think why it didn’t go in straight away. It certainly proves to be the perfect opener. The carol was first found within a collection of Finnish/Swedish sacred songs from 1582 and this 1973 version by one of the most legendary folk rock groups was actually a Top-20 hit in the UK, one of only three Latin songs to enter the charts over here.
Jon Boden - Boar’s Head Carol
Jon is a multi-instrumentalist and the lead vocalist in the seminal English folk group Bellowhead (who are currently defunct but will be on tour again next November). Back in 2010 he put out a folk song a day for the whole year. As you might imagine, December was remarkably carol-heavy. This one from the 15th century describes a Yuletide sacrificial tradition almost certainly inherited from the Anglo Saxons (according to people more knowledgeable than me).
Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band - Personent Hodie
Maddy is likely the biggest influence for me making this playlist. She’s already popped up with her group Steeleye Span, but her 1987 album ‘A Tapestry Of Carols’ was a favourite of my mother’s and, if I remember rightly, was stuck in her car stereo for ages. So it wasn’t limited just to Christmas. Her band makes use of period instruments, and this is a rather jolly version of a song first printed in 1582 but undoubtedly written a few centuries before.
Jeremy Barlow & the Broadside Band - Branle de l’Official
This one is perhaps the odd one out as it’s not technically a Renaissance Christmas tune. It’s from a book of French social dances first published in 1589 by a priest called Jehan Tabourout, under his anagrammatic pseudonym Thoinot Arbeau (‘i’ and ‘j’ were interchangeable back then in case you were wondering). The lyrics which eventually turned it into the Christmas classic ‘Ding Dong Merrily on High’, weren’t actually written until 1924 by the English composer George Ratcliffe Woodward. This is why I’ve gone for the original instrumental version released in 1989 by music historian Jeremy Barlow and his band.
Mike Oldfield - In Dulce Jubilo
Okay, maybe we’re getting a little too fast and loose with the brief here. But I couldn’t help myself. I tried a whole bunch of different choral versions of In Dulce Jubilo which preserve the original text of this medieval Christmas Carol, but all of them used the slightly later melody from J.S. Bach (just one period over) and I kept on wanting to hear them faster. Eventually I had to admit I just wanted to hear Mike Oldfield. I’m sure you’ll agree. It’s a great addition to this selection regardless of having scant elements left from the original, which Renaissance listeners would have known.
Coro del Círculo Catalán & Luis Madrid - Fum Fum Fum
Back to some proper decorum here as I opted for the original Catalán version of this 16th (or maybe 17th) century carol, as opposed to the much later English translation. It’s a great song in either language to be fair.
Huddersfield Choral Society & Simon Lindley - Sir Christèmas
Although this version uses a ‘70s arrangement by the great Welsh composer William Mathias, the song was first published in the Ritson Manuscript back in 1510.
The Sixteen - Hodie Christus Natus Est
The Sixteen are one of the better known early music choral ensembles, and while they have also recorded a version of this traditional antiphon by the more popular Renaissance composer Palestrina, I feel this Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck version is from the same period is actually far more enjoyable.
The Kings Singers - Resonet in Laudibus
Another of the more popular choral groups. This arrangement of the 14th century carol is from a version by Orlando di Lassus, one of the leading composers of the Franco-Flemish school in the 16th Century.
Harald Jers & Kammerchor Constant - Make We Joy Now In This Fest
William Walton’s interpretation of a 15th century carol provides the basis for this German ensemble’s version from their 2009 album Lux Beatissima.
Musica Ficta - Noel Noel
Repping the early Burgundian School, this chanson / carol is from a 15th century collection snappily titled 5557. It’s attributed to Antoin Busnois, a French composer and poet who was one of the leading figures of the school. This recording is by the Danish choral group Musica Ficta, who were founded by composer and conductor Bo Holten.
Mediæval Bæbes - The Coventry Carol
The all-female chart-topping ensemble present this traditional English carol, which formed part of the 16th century ‘mystery play’ and nativity, Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors.
Theatre Of Voices - Green Grow’th The Holly
When not creating almighty religious schisms, starting wars or beheading wives, Henry VIII was known to be a strong patron of the arts and ardent music lover, he was even a dab hand at playing instruments and writing songs himself, not that this exempted him from being a downright nasty bastard. This carol is one of Henry’s compositions - perhaps not one of the best but beautifully sung here by Paul Hiller’s multinational ensemble, Theatre Of Voices.
The Tallis Scholars - Nesciens Mater
One family who are unavoidable when studying the Renaissance are the Medicis. This motet first appeared in the Medici Codex of 1518, which was compiled for Pope Leo X, just one of the many powerful members of the family. It’s ascribed to Jean Mouton, a principal composer for the French court of the time.
The Tallis Scholars are another well-established early music ensemble from the UK, put together by Peter Phillips back in 1973.
Cara Dillon - The Wexford Carol
Although she made her name replacing Kate Rusby in the seminal English folk group Equation (whose other members are Kathryn Roberts and the Lakeman Brothers, including Dillon’s husband Sam), Cara Dillon is undoubtedly one of the most popular Irish folk singers working toda. So it seemed only right to include her version of this carol, which as the name suggests comes from County Wexford, probably around the 15th or 16th century.
The Young Tradition ft Shirley Collins & Dolly Collins - The Cherry Tree Carol
Recorded in 1969 (but not released until much later), the tune for this medieval Christmas carol and child ballad was adapted by the wonderful folk singer Shirley Collins in the 1950s. She featured the song on her first album, Sweet England, and on a BBC Radio Christmas broadcast a couple of years before that. Shirley also appears here alongside English folk trio, The Young Tradition, and her sister Dolly.
Choir Of King’s College - There Is No Rose
The first available copy of this carol is to be found on the Trinity College Roll dating back to the 15th century, so it seems apt that I should include a recording by the University of Cambridge choir. It’s from one of their annual carol services; something of an institution in England. This particular version was adapted by John Joubert in the 1950s.
The Cambridge Singers & City of London Sinfonia - There Is A Flower
There’s another famous Cambridge University choir over at Clare’s College, and the Cambridge Singers were set up by its former musical director John Rutter who also composed the music to accompany these words by fifteenth-century priest and poet John Audelay.
The Sixteen - This Day Christ Was Born
Not only do we have The Sixteen again, but this is a translation of the earlier Hodie Christus Natus Est. In William Byrd’s hands it is very different indeed, and it’s good to get him featured in here.
Choir Of King’s College - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
We also have the Kings College Choir back, only this must be a much earlier recording than the last as it’s under the musical direction of David Willcocks rather than Stephen Cleobury. Here they tackle one of the more popular carols, which dates back to at least 1760 when our earliest known version was written.
Nat King Cole - Joy To The World
I stopped short of including Aretha Franklin or Earth Wind & Fire’s versions of Isaac Watts’ 1719 carol, but I think Nat brings this collection to a close just perfectly with warmth and actual joy in his voice.
As I said earlier, hopefully you enjoy listening to this playlist as much as I’ve enjoyed making it. And if you have, then do keep an eye out for my other Renaissance playlists in the new year.
