365 Albums 346-355

1. Appelsientje Kerstconcert Dick Bakker & The London Symphony Orchestra 1991
2. Angels and Men Kate Rusby 2017 
3. Advent to Christmas Page CXVI 2013* 
4. Sweet Bells Kate Rusby 2008
5. Holly Head Kate Rusby 2019 
6. Joy to the world Thijs van Leer & Family 1996 
7. The Frost is all over Kate Rusby 2015 
8. Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh & The Carnival Band 2001 
9. Three Ships Jon Anderson
10. I got the Blues for Christmas Peter Green & The Men in Blue 1997#

(# Not the Peter Green, some other bloke)

365 Albums 330-345

1. Hymns - Lullabies Page CXVI 2012*
2. And Winter came Enya 2008
3. Drive the cold winter away Horslips 1985
4. Christmas Variations Rick Wakeman 2000*
5. The Jethro Tull Christmas Album Jethro Tull 2003
6. Music per la Notte de Natale Thijs v Leer, Louis van Dijk, Rogier van Otterloo 1976*
7. We Three kings The Roches 1990
8. Chris Squire's Swiss Choir Chris Squire 2007
9. The Christmas Album Keith Emerson 1999
10. December The Moody Blues 2003
11. The Dawn of Grace Sixpence None the Richer 2008
12. While Mortals Sleep Kate Rusby 2011
13. Kerst met Thijs van Leer en Elly Ameling in de Grote Kerk Te Monickendam Thijs v Leer & Elly Ameling 1979* 
14. Carols & Capers Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band 1991
15. A Tapestry of Carols Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band 1986

365 Albums 151-165

1. War U2 1983
2. The Yes Album Yes 1970 (M31)
3. Saved Bob Dylan 1980
4. The Chieftains 5 The Chieftains 1975
5. Tanx T Rex 1973
6. Peace Eurythmics 1999
7. Paradise Found Maddy Prior & the Carnival Band 2007 * (J5)
8. Focus X Focus 2012
9. Birds Trace 1975
10. Mind Wave Cyril Havermans 1974
11. Slow Train Coming Bob Dylan 1979
12. Let it Be The Beatles 1970
13. Introspection 3 Thijs van Leer 1977 (J10)
14. Underwater Sunlight Tangerine Dream 1986
15. Ekseption 5 Ekseption 1972

365 Albums 31-45

1. Inside Llewyn Davies Soundtrack 2013
2. Joshua Tree U2 1987
3. Cuilidh Julie Fowlis 2007
4. 6 6 6 Aphrodite's Child 1972
5. Sing Lustily and with Good Courage Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band 1990*
6. Epsilon in Malaysian Pale Edgar Froese 1975
7. Trace Trace 1974
8. Tales from the Book of Time Catherine Lambert and the Lore Liege Ensemble 2003
9. The Chirping Crickets The Crickets 1957
10. Hamburger Concerto Focus 1974
11. Dona Nobis Pacem Pedal Point 1983*
12. Guitars Philip Catherine 1975
13. Regatta de Blanc The Police 1979
14. Long Player Late Bloomer Ron Sexsmith 2010
15. The Unfortunate Cup of Tea Horslips 1975

(* Suitable for Sunday playing IMHO)

10 Lesser known Christmas songs 3 Ane sang of the birth of Christ

Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Ane Sang Of The Birth Of Christ (Balulalow)

Scottish 16th Century written by James, John and Robert Wedderburn

I come fra hevin here to tell

The best nowells that e'er befell

To you their tythings trew I bring

And I will of them say and sing.

To you this day is born ane child

Of Marie meik and Virgin mild.

That blissit bairn bening and kind (bening and kind)

Shall you rejoyce baith hart and mind.

Lat us rejoyis and be blyth

And with the Hydris go full swyth

And see what God of his grace has done

Throu Christ to bring us to his throne

My saull and life, stand up and see

What lyis in ane cribbe of tree.

What Babe is that, sa gude and fair? (sa gue and fair?)

It is Christ, God's Son and Air.

The silk and sandell thee to eis

Ar hay and sempill sweilling clais,

Whar thou greit glorious God and King

As thou in hev'n war in thy ring.

And war the warld ten times sa wide,

Cled ouer with gold and stanes of pride

Unworthie yit it were to thee

Under thy feet ane stule to be.

O my deir hart, yung Jesus sweit,

Prepare thy creddil in my spreit!

And I shall rock thee in my hart

And never mair fra thee depart.

Bot I sall praise thee evermoir

With sangis sweit unto thy gloir.

The kneis of my hart sall I bow,

And sing that rycht Balulalow.

This is again from Carols and capers by Maddy Prtor and the Carnival Band

10 Lesser known Christmas Songs 2 My dancing day

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day;

I would my true love did so chance
To see the legend of my play,
To call my true love to my dance;

Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,
This have I done for my true love

Then was I born of a virgin pure,
Of her I took fleshly substance
Thus was I knit to man's nature
To call my true love to my dance.

In a manger laid, and wrapped I was

So very poor, this was my chance
Betwixt an ox and a silly poor ass
To call my true love to my dance.

Other verses go as follows

Then afterwards baptized I was;

The Holy Ghost on me did glance,
My Father’s voice heard from above,
To call my true love to my dance.

Into the desert I was led,

Where I fasted without substance;
The Devil bade me make stones my bread,
To have me break my true love's dance.

The Jews on me they made great suit,

And with me made great variance,
Because they loved darkness rather than light,
To call my true love to my dance.

For thirty pence Judas me sold,

His covetousness for to advance:
Mark whom I kiss, the same do hold!
The same is he shall lead the dance.

Before Pilate the Jews me brought,

Where Barabbas had deliverance;
They scourged me and set me at nought,
Judged me to die to lead the dance.

Then on the cross hanged I was,

Where a spear my heart did glance;
There issued forth both water and blood,
To call my true love to my dance.

Then down to hell I took my way
For my true love's deliverance,
And rose again on the third day,
Up to my true love and the dance.

Then up to heaven I did ascend,
Where now I dwell in sure substance
On the right hand of God, that man
May come unto the general dance.

I know the first part from the Maddy Prior and the Carnival band album Carols and capers. The traditional song goes back to Mediaeval times and is said to be the root of the modern song Lord of the dance.

Retro Album "of the week" 47 - Sing lustily and with good courage

I was first aware of Maddy Prior as a youngster when Steeleye Span would occasionally breach the British charts. Later on a friend of mine saw them in concert and was thrown an artificial flower by the aforesaid Maddy. People offered him ridiculous amounts for it which he later wished he had taken. Anyway a few years later and I'm in Alan Davey's car and he is playing on the tape deck a wonderful set of hymns sung in an approximation of the 18th century Methodists. On enquiry I got hold of the details and was able to track it down somewhere on cassette. I'm not sure if I ever got it on CD. I now have it on the old iTunes (along with some few similar albums) and still enjoy although that initial impact has become a little muted. The album is By Maddy and the Carnival Band and the title refers to something John Wesley once urged on his followers.

The technical term for this is gallery songs or West Gallery music. This is sacred music (often metrical psalms but hymns and anthems too) sung and played in English parish churches and nonconformist chapels c 1700 to 1850 until church organs took over. The term comes from the wooden galleries constructed at the west end of churches during the 18th century upon which the choir would perform. Victorians did not like these Georgian galleries, and most were removed in the 19th century.

The best known precedent for this is apparently The Waterson's "Sound, Sound Your Instruments of Joy" (1977). This album has 16 items that were all known to me before. Indeed, these were my favourite hymns as a nonconformist teenager. As pants the hart (N Tate) and Watts's Rejoice ye shining worlds and Lord in the morning are pretty much psalms and O worship the king a more developed psalm. Monkland is an instrumental most often used to Milton's version of Psalm 136 (played here with the music to the 19th century hymn All things bright). Nearly half the hymns are by the gifted Charles Wesley (O Thou who camest from above, Lo He comes with clouds descending, O for a thousand tongues to sing, Light of the World, Away with our sorrow and care, Christ the Lord is ris'n today and And can it be?). There is also Thomas Oliver's wonderfully Jewish God of Abraham praise. As for the Baptists, there is Bunyan's Who would true valour and How firm a foundation which they attribute to Richard Keen. Also, All hail the power by Perronet and Rippon.
The album makes few pretensions to authenticity or spirituality but it is a very enjoyable album well worth a listen.

Paradise Found

Regular visitors to this blog may have noticed a predeliction for the hymns of Charles Wesley. This year is the 300th anniversary of his birth and to mark that date one of the things that has been done this year is the release of a CD, which I have just purchased. It is by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band. Maddy Prior came to prominence in the seventies with the folk rock band Steeleye Span (All around my hat, etc). The Carnival Band specialise in old instruments. I believe they came together to play some Christmas carols at first (they have three or four good Christmas CDs by now) and then later did a collection of 18th Century hymns ('Sing lustily and with good courage'). I remember being in the car with my friend Alan Davey one day and he played this latter album on CD. I was immediately struck and had to get it which I did. More recently I managed to track down a CD version which I've continued to enjoy.

I'd not noticed Paradise Found, which came out back in May, but there was a reference to it in The Times the other week and when I looked there it was on i-tunes and Amazon. I wouldn't want a praise band in church but this is very pleasant (a remarkably old fashioned idea by the way). Everything is done in the folk (rather than operatic) idiom which I think is a better way to sing hymns. There's plenty of well known stuff on this CD (Love Divine All Loves Excelling, Ye Servants Of God, Soldiers Of Christ Arise, Jesu Lover Of My Soul, etc) but often to an unfamiliar tune. There are also new ones to me like Dead Dead The Child I Loved So Well and Come On My Partners In Distress (not all the verses below but some of them). There's a very bouncy 'Come away to the skies' that grabs my fancy most on first listening.

Come on, my partners in distress,
My comrades through the wilderness,
Who still your bodies feel;
Awhile forget your griefs and fears,
And look beyond the vale of tears,
To that celestial hill.

Beyond the bounds of time and space,
Look forward to that happy place,
The saints’ secure abode;
On faith’s strong eagle pinions rise,
And force your passage to the skies,
And scale the mount of God.

See where the Lamb in glory stands,
Encircled with His radiant bands,
And join the angelic powers.
For all that height of glorious bliss,
Our everlasting portion is,
And all that Heaven is ours.

Who suffer with our Master here,
We shall before His face appear
And by His side sit down;
To patient faith the prize is sure,
And all that to the end endure
The cross, shall wear the crown.

Thrice blessèd, bliss-inspiring hope!
It lifts the fainting spirits up,
It brings to life the dead;
Our conflicts here shall soon be past,
And you and I ascend at last,
Triumphant with our Head.

That great mysterious Deity
We soon with open face shall see;
The beatific sight
Shall fill the heavenly courts with praise,
And wide diffuse the golden blaze
Of everlasting light.

The Father shining on His throne,
The glorious co-eternal Son,
The Spirit one and seven,
Conspire our rapture to complete;
And lo! we fall before His feet,
And silence heightens Heaven.

In hope of that ecstatic pause,
Jesus, we now sustain Thy cross,
And at Thy footstool fall,
’Till Thou our hidden life reveal,
’Till Thou our ravished spirits fill,
And God is all in all.