Be Mery and Glad This Gude Newyere!

Here’s a medieval New Year’s carol.

What cher? Gud cher! Gud cher! Gud cher!
Be mery and glad this gude Newyere!

“Lyft up your harts and be glad”
In Cryste’s byrth the angel bad;
Say eche to oder, yf any be sad:
What cher? Gud cher! Gud cher! Gud cher!
Be mery and glad this gude Newyere!

Now the kyng of hevyn his byrth hath take,
Joy and myrth we owght to make.
Say eche to oder, for hys sake:
What cher? Gud cher! Gud cher! Gud cher!
Be mery and glad this gude Newyere!

I tell you all with hart so fre,
Ryght welcum ye be to me.
Be glad and mery for charite!
What cher? Gud cher! Gud cher! Gud cher!
Be mery and glad this gude Newyere!

The gudman of this place in fere
You to be mery he prayth you here;
And with gud hert he doth to you say:
What cher? Gud cher! Gud cher! Gud cher!
Be mery and glad this gude Newyere!

(From a manuscript from Balliol College, Oxford, MS.354. Described as ‘Richard Hill of London, commonplace-book in English, Latin and French, including transcripts of late medieval poems and carols, London annals, family memoranda, etc., first third of the 16th century.’ Original here. The Clerk of Oxford has a modernized text here.

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Nic Jones on the John Peel Show, 1976

This is Nic Jones at the height of his powers. Simply glorious, in my view.

‘Nowell Sing We’

This is beautiful:

 

Here are the lyrics (close enough):

Nowell sing we now all and some,
For Rex pacificus is come.

In Bethlehem, in that fair city,
A child was born of a maiden free,
That shall a lord and prince be,
A solis ortus cardine.

Children were slain in full great plenty,
Jesu, for the love of thee;
Wherefore their souls saved be,
Hostis Herodis impie.

As the sun shineth through the glass,
So Jesu in his mother was;
Thee to serve now grant us grace,
O lux beata Trinitas.

Now God is come to worship us;
Now of Mary is born Jesus;
Make we merry amongst us;
Exultet caelum laudibus.

Nowell sing we now all and some,
For Rex pacificus is come.

For background information about this fifteenth century carol and its meaning and story, see this really interesting post by Eleanor Parker, the ‘Clerk of Oxford’.

Tidings of Comfort and Joy

Here is my 2017 Christmas song, my version of the old traditional Christmas carol ‘God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen’. There are several versions of this carol. I found one I liked in an old edition of the ‘Oxford Book of Carols’; the notes say it came from a broadside ballad printed by J & C Evans, Long Lane, London in about 1797. I’ve changed the words very slightly, but what you get is mostly what I found in the book! There were two different tunes but I chose the familiar one. The guitar arrangement is my own.

So – this comes to you all with my best wishes for a joyful Christmas and lots of ‘Tidings of Comfort and Joy’.

P.S. This is a free download on my Reverbnation site, so if you like it, head over there and help yourself!

Siobhan Miller ‘Bonny Light Horseman’

When I introduce this song I usually say “It’s an anti-war song, but the war it’s ‘anti’ is the Napoleonic Wars”. It’s a traditional song that exists in English and Irish versions; I learned it from James Keelaghan, but Siobhan Miller and her boys do a nice job of it here.

 

This is number two in my series of ‘Songs of War and Peace 2017’.

Norah Rendell performs Maria Dunn’s song ‘The Peddler’

This is a Maria Dunn song, but Norah does a nice job of it too, I think.

 

I’m going to be posting a few reflective songs on the theme of war and peace as we run up to Remembrance Day. This is the first.

Daoirí Farrell: ‘The Creggan White Hare’

I’ve long suspected that the ideal folk festival for me to attend exists in Britain, not in North America. The lineup at this year’s Cambridge Folk Festival is proving me right.

For example, here’s Daorí Farrell playing his version of ‘The Creggan White Hare’.

Here’s what the Festival website has to say about him:

A former electrician, who decided to change profession after seeing Christy Moore perform on Irish TV, Dublin-born traditional singer and bouzouki player Daoirí (pronounced ‘Derry’) Farrell is being described by some of the biggest names in Irish folk music as one of most important singers to come out of Ireland in recent years, and has delivered the album to prove them right.

Six months after releasing the album ‘True Born Irishman’ Daoirí won two prestigious BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2017 for Best Newcomer, and Best Traditional Track and also performed live at the awards ceremony at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Here’s his website.