Here's something seasonal for a change ...
I've just been reading on the BBC website an item about popular carols having "folk roots" - the link is http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8412999.stm.
This reminded me of our English session last week where we played several well-known carols, and it was obvious how well those carols fitted in with the English tunes. In fact, we were easily moving between the tunes and the carols without thinking about it. It shows how close the carols and the tunes must have been in their origins.
Any thoughts about how would this work out in an Irish session?
Thanks Lazyhound, that's interesting. The choir I'm with have been singing the Yorkshire Wassail which sounded folky to me. Then I found out it came from Vaughan Williams' collection.
The mix seems to work pretty well on the Chieftains' "The Bells of Dublin" album. I'm wondering whether or not to try anything like that in the session I host. It seems seasonally appropriate, but I'm not really sure what to do.
The BBC did a very good programme last year called "The Truth about Carols". It's repeated next Sunday at 7 on BBC4. From what I remember, it covered the history very well and includes recent footage of the Sheffield pub carol tradition. Well worth a look. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00gbgt3
As lazyhound said, the carols that were mixed in with the usual trad tunes at that English session fitted in very well.
It might be worth noting that the carols were played on that evening at the request of the pub management. They look after us very well there, so worth doing for that reason alone!
We're doing this in our sessions lately, but will stop after the Christmas season (obviously). For one of ours we play a carol (can't remember which one) and then go to Kesh and back to the carol a couple of times. It's pretty cool, actually...
At the session I mentioned, our occasional singer (a professional, so she's pretty good) sang Holy Night in German ("Heilige Nacht ...") a capella, and said afterwards that it's very difficult to find an English version that is both accurate and sings properly.
I try to never hear Christmas carols. I did hear While Shepherds Watched on the Today programme this morning, sung to the tune of Ilkley Moor. Worthy of Sorry I Haven't a Clue it was. It was so bad it was almost good.
I've been throwing carols into sets on the fiddle for myself around the house this month. Plunk's right. It's sort of refreshing to drop a carol in between a couple tunes, and alot of carols play nice in D or G.
I like how for 3 or 4 weeks a year I have an extra 20 or so tunes I know. I forget them all by January and have to learn them all again next year
this year I learned how to get F naturals and B flats out of a low D whistle so I could play "Angels We have Heard on High" with the kids in my CCD class.
Doing a few gig lately and I also throw in a few carols with the reel selection. Wither the punters know the difference...well that's another story. It is Christmas time after all, and after all there is very little difference between 'The Piper in the meadow straying' and 'Deck the Halls'
Favourite carol is 'The Conventry Carol' sung acapella... a haunting melody.
Stille Nacht (Silent Night) is of much later date than other well-known carols (mid nineteenth century) and the lyrics are of known authorship (Father Josef Mohr ) as is the melody (Franz Xaver Gruber) - both Austrians.
Unlike the other commonly-sung carols (which are melodic in nature) the tune is harmonic, and thus is does not sit so well mixed in with normal session tunes, as do the other carols.
Singing it at a session (as opposed to playing it) is of course an entirely different matter. Of course, we both know the singer that you mention, and we also both know that she makes a very fine job of it.
The difficulty fitting the lyrics to the melody arises from the fact the the tune that is used today differs considerably from the composed original.
It's been a little tradition for us to do God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen into Morrison's Jig every year. Also my buddy sings Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon this time of year at session. We do all sorts of stuff, little sets of seasonal tunes. I even fiddled Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel the other day. Couldn't figure out what to go into after. Hava Nagila would have been the appropriate chocie in retrospect!
It's fun to play common carols as tunes in G or D. Everyone knows them and can pull them out of their _____ on the fly, good seasonal fun.
If we did play Christmas carols at our local sessions, I would want to play either "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" or "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer".
I don't have to play Christmas carols at our local sessions because I get enough playing of Christmas carols when I play with the band at church every Sunday morning.
I don't have to play Christmas carols at our local sessions, because I get enough Christmas music *everywhere else*, for the entire six weeks leading up to Christmas.
Honestly - I don't celebrate Christmas, nor wish to. I'm not the only one. There's no shortage of places I could go from November through Christmas if I wanted to hear, sing, or play Christmas music. I don't, and I don't think it's unreasonable to want a single venue, even in the middle of December, where I can play the sort of music I like playing.
-TD&M, whose session last weekend was preempted by carolers
SWFL Fiddler -- A tune that might go well with the Dreydl Song at an Irish session is Itzikel, a traditional Klezmer freilach (wedding tune). Nice version on Kevin Burke’s “In Concert” album.
I don’t think the Judaeo-Irish (oirish?) repertoire is terribly vast, unless maybe some Tin-pan alley music hall songs were written by Jewish composers like Yellen and Ager.
I enjoy playing carols but also seasonal chestnuts like, well, “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” or Irving Berlin’s (Jewish btw) “White Christmas”. Not at a session, mind you!
Interesting discussion. As a church musician who is fighting off the philistines at the ramparts promoting the infiltration of commercialized Christmas claptrap into Church Christmas celebrations (for those not interested in things religious or liturgical, I humbly ask that you consider this on a broader, conceptual basis), christmas carols in ITM, especially those based in traditional music could very well have a place.
Think about it. ITM was/is a threatened music form which was/is being preserved. Carols and other traditionally based are also threatened by commerical soft rock/christian rock/volkswagen commercial music. So as musicians who are preserving one music form, it would seem incumbent on us to play/preserve a music form, particularly if it is related historically.
On the other hand, I suppose as musicians we are supposed to respect all music even the garish Amy Grantesque efforts. Which begs the question, 'Just because music exists and is valid....do we have to play it in a particular venue vis-a-vis session.
Me thinks I side with those who say...play things in appropriate their settings. Perhaps a session is not the most appropriate place for Carols.
I doubt we would play 'White Christmas' or "I wanna hippopotamus for Christmas" at the offertory of Christmas high mass. Even though we play a few things that come close.
Steve - you have it completely wrong - "Ilkley Moor" is sung to the tune of "While Shepherds Watched". THAT is the correct tune for the old carol.
The song "Ilkley Moor" is a much more modern composition which pinched the old traditional tune, meanwhile I blame "Hymns Ancient and Modern" for putting a perfectly good traditional carol to a crap 19thc tune.
And in Sacred Harp we sing Sherbourne, which is "While Shepherds Watched" to yet another tune.......
Zippy, may I suggest that you play "Pennies From Heaven" or "Money" by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd during the offertory. Now that would really shake things up.
But if someone wants a hippopotamus, they will have to go to the nearest zoo and/or Africa.
I'm an occasionally practising Jew, and I enjoy playing Christmas carols in sessions (my local session is predominantly English, despite being in the middle of Wales) as much as the next man. Religion doesn't come into it; they're just nice tunes that everyone knows, and it's a bit of fun. I'd be just as happy playing Ma'oz Tzur (a song which traditionally accompanies the lighting of the Chanukkah candles), except that nobody else knows it (although, it's actually a German folk melody, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a Christian hymn or carol to the same tune).
Goldfrog - One of my fellow session-goers has pointed out that those three are traditional dance tunes. We all knew about the Welsh one already, of course ("Nos Galan" is Welsh for "New Year's Eve"). I've heard also that God Rest Ye merry Gentlemen is an old French Bourrée.
Conán - Yes, The Wexford Carol is a beautiful tune, worthy of being played all year round.
I suppose, though, that whilst many of these carol tunes fit, quite comfortably, stylistically speaking, into an English session, the same is perhaps not so true of an Irish session. Irish dance music is, on the whole, more 'notey' than its English counterpart and relies on that for its light and fluid rhythm. Since Christmas carols are made to be sung by the masses and are consequently relatively simple, lending themselves more to the heavier rhythms most readily associated with traditional English music and dance (which I have come to love during my 3 years in isolation from an Irish music scene).
I heard that On Ilkley Moor Baht 'At was made up by a group of singers in Yorkshire, to amuse themselves on a bus ride, on their way to a carol concert. So the story goes.
It was a late 19thC West Riding chapel choir, who had been out on Rombald's (Ilkley) Moor on their annual treat. On the way back in the chara, they put silly verses to the Hymn tune "Cranbrook", one of many in those parts used for "Shepherds", and the new creation caught on!
Greeting from God's Own County to all lovers of Irish Music (yes, I like Tommy Moore too!).
God's own country indeed. All you need in England is the Yorkshire Dales and the north Cornwall coast. And a few Irish tunes of course. Ah, no wonder I'm mellowing with age.
But I see you typed "county", not country. Faux pas, old chap. If it's counties you want to ascribe to the Almighty, then you're on the wrong side of the Pennines I fear. The grimy side, in fact.
As "Father" of this thread I claim the right to tell this little story - it's vaguely related to Christmas and sessions (but not carols).
Back in the English Parliament of the 19th century a Protestant MP with strong anti-Catholic leanings proposed a Bill to banish the word "Christmas" and replace it with "Christ Tide". In the ensuing debate in a Parliamentary session another MP said that he would consider voting for the Bill if the Honourable Member would change his name to "Tomtide Tidey". The Bill was laughed out, as they say, and never got anywhere near the Statute Book.
Not having the time to wade through a century of Hansard, I regret I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the above account.
Don't forget those "miserable b*ggers" (as a certain Scottish Archbishop Richard Holloway once put it in one of his sermons) the Puritans, who in addition to many political sins, actually DID abolish Christmas! Some of them, about ten years earlier went to a place called Plymouth Rock in the Americas. does anybody know if what happened to them?
We always throw in a few carols at this time of year. Last session, I launched into a spirited version of Joy to the World, afterward someone pointed out that I had played it at perfect set dancing speed, polka style! Jinge Bells also makes a nice polka. Later, someone asked what the Wexford Carol was, and I sang a bit. Problem was that I sang it in D, and nearly tore my throat out when I hit the high note, which in D is a high F natural--I do not have the high tenor range I used to have in younger days!
And don't forget Bing Crosby's old cheesy Irish Christmas song--Christmas in Killarney!
Oh, yes - the mb's. They DID abolish Christmas in Massachusetts. "Violators incurred a five shilling fine for feasting, taking time off work or otherwise acknowledging the holiday, which Puritans (ie Miserable B*ggers) regarded as a human invention, tainted by paganism and without scriptural warrant." Miserable B*ggers!
I have a record of the "Jingle Bells Polka" on the CD "Pigeon on The Gate", played on the one-row melodeon.
"Father" in the sense of being the one who started off the thread, yes. But in the Parliamentary sense of longest serving Member ("Father of the House"), no: there is only One here who has rightful claim to that title!
....Some of them, about ten years earlier went to a place called Plymouth Rock in the Americas. does anybody know if what happened to them?....
I know of at least one who started a line of folks bent on marrying Irish Catholic women, resulting, many years later, in a flock of pale freckled fiddlers who live in my house.
Christmas in Killarney supposedly was written by John Redmond, James Cavanaugh, and Frank Weldon. It was copyrighted in "MCML" by the Remick Music Corporation.
Christmas carols in sessions
Christmas carols in sessions
Here's something seasonal for a change ...
I've just been reading on the BBC website an item about popular carols having "folk roots" - the link is http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8412999.stm.
This reminded me of our English session last week where we played several well-known carols, and it was obvious how well those carols fitted in with the English tunes. In fact, we were easily moving between the tunes and the carols without thinking about it. It shows how close the carols and the tunes must have been in their origins.
Any thoughts about how would this work out in an Irish session?
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
don't know, death by banjo
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by Earl Cameron
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
No really, I am intrigued by this, but not surprised.
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by Earl Cameron
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Dunno.
Do they have religion in Ireland?
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by showaddydadito
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Thanks Lazyhound, that's interesting. The choir I'm with have been singing the Yorkshire Wassail which sounded folky to me. Then I found out it came from Vaughan Williams' collection.
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by All Moldy
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
The mix seems to work pretty well on the Chieftains' "The Bells of Dublin" album. I'm wondering whether or not to try anything like that in the session I host. It seems seasonally appropriate, but I'm not really sure what to do.
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by jasonb
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
The BBC did a very good programme last year called "The Truth about Carols". It's repeated next Sunday at 7 on BBC4. From what I remember, it covered the history very well and includes recent footage of the Sheffield pub carol tradition. Well worth a look.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00gbgt3
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by Lynn W
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
As lazyhound said, the carols that were mixed in with the usual trad tunes at that English session fitted in very well.
It might be worth noting that the carols were played on that evening at the request of the pub management. They look after us very well there, so worth doing for that reason alone!
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Years ago, I brought a few well known Carols to a session and one of them was the daughter of the banjo player!
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by strayaway
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
......and the other one was her mother!!!!
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by strayaway
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Proselytism again?
Keep the sessions religion free, please.
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by Dawros Frog
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
My Xmas youTube has three trad tunes:
Branle de l'Official - 14th C French
Nos Galan - 16th C Welsh
Tempus Adest Floridum - 13th C Swedish/Finnish
You may think they are something else.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZVSD_ijtP8
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by goldfrog
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Oh Little Town of Bethlehem is sung to the tune Forest Green (in the UK and Ireland) by Vaughan Williams.
I've always liked The Wexford Carol.
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Great stuff goldfrog!
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by RockyRoader
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
We're doing this in our sessions lately, but will stop after the Christmas season (obviously). For one of ours we play a carol (can't remember which one) and then go to Kesh and back to the carol a couple of times. It's pretty cool, actually...
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by plunk111
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
At the session I mentioned, our occasional singer (a professional, so she's pretty good) sang Holy Night in German ("Heilige Nacht ...") a capella, and said afterwards that it's very difficult to find an English version that is both accurate and sings properly.
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
I try to never hear Christmas carols. I did hear While Shepherds Watched on the Today programme this morning, sung to the tune of Ilkley Moor. Worthy of Sorry I Haven't a Clue it was. It was so bad it was almost good.
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by Steve Shaw
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
I've been throwing carols into sets on the fiddle for myself around the house this month. Plunk's right. It's sort of refreshing to drop a carol in between a couple tunes, and alot of carols play nice in D or G.
I like how for 3 or 4 weeks a year I have an extra 20 or so tunes I know. I forget them all by January and have to learn them all again next year
this year I learned how to get F naturals and B flats out of a low D whistle so I could play "Angels We have Heard on High" with the kids in my CCD class.
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by Nate Ryan
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Doing a few gig lately and I also throw in a few carols with the reel selection. Wither the punters know the difference...well that's another story. It is Christmas time after all, and after all there is very little difference between 'The Piper in the meadow straying' and 'Deck the Halls'
Favourite carol is 'The Conventry Carol' sung acapella... a haunting melody.
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by Free Reed
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
@Lazyhound
Stille Nacht (Silent Night) is of much later date than other well-known carols (mid nineteenth century) and the lyrics are of known authorship (Father Josef Mohr ) as is the melody (Franz Xaver Gruber) - both Austrians.
Unlike the other commonly-sung carols (which are melodic in nature) the tune is harmonic, and thus is does not sit so well mixed in with normal session tunes, as do the other carols.
Singing it at a session (as opposed to playing it) is of course an entirely different matter. Of course, we both know the singer that you mention, and we also both know that she makes a very fine job of it.
The difficulty fitting the lyrics to the melody arises from the fact the the tune that is used today differs considerably from the composed original.
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
It's been a little tradition for us to do God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen into Morrison's Jig every year. Also my buddy sings Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon this time of year at session. We do all sorts of stuff, little sets of seasonal tunes. I even fiddled Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel the other day. Couldn't figure out what to go into after. Hava Nagila would have been the appropriate chocie in retrospect!
It's fun to play common carols as tunes in G or D. Everyone knows them and can pull them out of their _____ on the fly, good seasonal fun.
Unless you're a Grinch, in which case:
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
If we did play Christmas carols at our local sessions, I would want to play either "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" or "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer".
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
I don't have to play Christmas carols at our local sessions because I get enough playing of Christmas carols when I play with the band at church every Sunday morning.
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
I don't have to play Christmas carols at our local sessions, because I get enough Christmas music *everywhere else*, for the entire six weeks leading up to Christmas.
Honestly - I don't celebrate Christmas, nor wish to. I'm not the only one. There's no shortage of places I could go from November through Christmas if I wanted to hear, sing, or play Christmas music. I don't, and I don't think it's unreasonable to want a single venue, even in the middle of December, where I can play the sort of music I like playing.
-TD&M, whose session last weekend was preempted by carolers
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by Tall, Dark, and Mysterious
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
With just a little tweaking it is possible to play Christmas Eve and Jingle Bells at the same time.
Mike Keyes
http://www.mikekeyes.com
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by mikeyes
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
SWFL Fiddler -- A tune that might go well with the Dreydl Song at an Irish session is Itzikel, a traditional Klezmer freilach (wedding tune). Nice version on Kevin Burke’s “In Concert” album.
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/445
I don’t think the Judaeo-Irish (oirish?) repertoire is terribly vast, unless maybe some Tin-pan alley music hall songs were written by Jewish composers like Yellen and Ager.
I enjoy playing carols but also seasonal chestnuts like, well, “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” or Irving Berlin’s (Jewish btw) “White Christmas”. Not at a session, mind you!
Go mbeannaí Dia dhuit, mazel tov and bless you!
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by fidkid
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Interesting discussion. As a church musician who is fighting off the philistines at the ramparts promoting the infiltration of commercialized Christmas claptrap into Church Christmas celebrations (for those not interested in things religious or liturgical, I humbly ask that you consider this on a broader, conceptual basis), christmas carols in ITM, especially those based in traditional music could very well have a place.
Think about it. ITM was/is a threatened music form which was/is being preserved. Carols and other traditionally based are also threatened by commerical soft rock/christian rock/volkswagen commercial music. So as musicians who are preserving one music form, it would seem incumbent on us to play/preserve a music form, particularly if it is related historically.
On the other hand, I suppose as musicians we are supposed to respect all music even the garish Amy Grantesque efforts. Which begs the question, 'Just because music exists and is valid....do we have to play it in a particular venue vis-a-vis session.
Me thinks I side with those who say...play things in appropriate their settings. Perhaps a session is not the most appropriate place for Carols.
I doubt we would play 'White Christmas' or "I wanna hippopotamus for Christmas" at the offertory of Christmas high mass. Even though we play a few things that come close.
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by zippydw
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Steve - you have it completely wrong - "Ilkley Moor" is sung to the tune of "While Shepherds Watched". THAT is the correct tune for the old carol.
The song "Ilkley Moor" is a much more modern composition which pinched the old traditional tune, meanwhile I blame "Hymns Ancient and Modern" for putting a perfectly good traditional carol to a crap 19thc tune.
And in Sacred Harp we sing Sherbourne, which is "While Shepherds Watched" to yet another tune.......
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Played jingle bells in the middle of the ballyvourney jig set for the set dance on Sunday (Lazy, your wife left before then). Hello Mum!
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by tlittlewazzock
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Zippy, may I suggest that you play "Pennies From Heaven" or "Money" by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd during the offertory. Now that would really shake things up.
But if someone wants a hippopotamus, they will have to go to the nearest zoo and/or Africa.
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
I'm an occasionally practising Jew, and I enjoy playing Christmas carols in sessions (my local session is predominantly English, despite being in the middle of Wales) as much as the next man. Religion doesn't come into it; they're just nice tunes that everyone knows, and it's a bit of fun. I'd be just as happy playing Ma'oz Tzur (a song which traditionally accompanies the lighting of the Chanukkah candles), except that nobody else knows it (although, it's actually a German folk melody, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a Christian hymn or carol to the same tune).
Goldfrog - One of my fellow session-goers has pointed out that those three are traditional dance tunes. We all knew about the Welsh one already, of course ("Nos Galan" is Welsh for "New Year's Eve"). I've heard also that God Rest Ye merry Gentlemen is an old French Bourrée.
Conán - Yes, The Wexford Carol is a beautiful tune, worthy of being played all year round.
I suppose, though, that whilst many of these carol tunes fit, quite comfortably, stylistically speaking, into an English session, the same is perhaps not so true of an Irish session. Irish dance music is, on the whole, more 'notey' than its English counterpart and relies on that for its light and fluid rhythm. Since Christmas carols are made to be sung by the masses and are consequently relatively simple, lending themselves more to the heavier rhythms most readily associated with traditional English music and dance (which I have come to love during my 3 years in isolation from an Irish music scene).
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Littlewazzock - Jingle Bells works great with Klezmer. I'd probably stop short of inflicting it on an Irish session, though.
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
...and Sleigh Ride is another good klezmer one.
# Posted on December 15th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Sorry - the last sentence of my first post is not a proper sentence. But you know what I mean, anyway.
# Posted on December 16th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Oh, right, Pete. Point assimilated! Blush emoticon...
# Posted on December 16th 2009 by Steve Shaw
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
I heard that On Ilkley Moor Baht 'At was made up by a group of singers in Yorkshire, to amuse themselves on a bus ride, on their way to a carol concert. So the story goes.
# Posted on December 16th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
It was a late 19thC West Riding chapel choir, who had been out on Rombald's (Ilkley) Moor on their annual treat. On the way back in the chara, they put silly verses to the Hymn tune "Cranbrook", one of many in those parts used for "Shepherds", and the new creation caught on!
Greeting from God's Own County to all lovers of Irish Music (yes, I like Tommy Moore too!).
Chris.
# Posted on December 16th 2009 by Ebor_fiddler
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
God's own country indeed. All you need in England is the Yorkshire Dales and the north Cornwall coast. And a few Irish tunes of course. Ah, no wonder I'm mellowing with age.
# Posted on December 16th 2009 by Steve Shaw
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
But I see you typed "county", not country. Faux pas, old chap. If it's counties you want to ascribe to the Almighty, then you're on the wrong side of the Pennines I fear. The grimy side, in fact.
# Posted on December 16th 2009 by Steve Shaw
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
OPC, how can anyone not know?? Jingle bells is a traditional slide, robbed by James Lord Pierpont on his 1855 visit to Kerry.
# Posted on December 16th 2009 by tlittlewazzock
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Sounds like a polka to me...?
# Posted on December 16th 2009 by Steve Shaw
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
@Steve Shaw
You failed to spot Gavin's sublety ...
Jingle Bells ---> sleigh ----> slide
Get it now?
# Posted on December 16th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Totally unintentional. We've always played it in the middle of a slide set for the dancers.
# Posted on December 16th 2009 by tlittlewazzock
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Piper Through the Meadow Straying http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/1469
# Posted on December 16th 2009 by Threewood
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
As "Father" of this thread I claim the right to tell this little story - it's vaguely related to Christmas and sessions (but not carols).
Back in the English Parliament of the 19th century a Protestant MP with strong anti-Catholic leanings proposed a Bill to banish the word "Christmas" and replace it with "Christ Tide". In the ensuing debate in a Parliamentary session another MP said that he would consider voting for the Bill if the Honourable Member would change his name to "Tomtide Tidey". The Bill was laughed out, as they say, and never got anywhere near the Statute Book.
Not having the time to wade through a century of Hansard, I regret I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the above account.
# Posted on December 17th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Don't forget those "miserable b*ggers" (as a certain Scottish Archbishop Richard Holloway once put it in one of his sermons) the Puritans, who in addition to many political sins, actually DID abolish Christmas! Some of them, about ten years earlier went to a place called Plymouth Rock in the Americas. does anybody know if what happened to them?
# Posted on December 18th 2009 by Ebor_fiddler
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
We always throw in a few carols at this time of year. Last session, I launched into a spirited version of Joy to the World, afterward someone pointed out that I had played it at perfect set dancing speed, polka style! Jinge Bells also makes a nice polka. Later, someone asked what the Wexford Carol was, and I sang a bit. Problem was that I sang it in D, and nearly tore my throat out when I hit the high note, which in D is a high F natural--I do not have the high tenor range I used to have in younger days!
And don't forget Bing Crosby's old cheesy Irish Christmas song--Christmas in Killarney!
# Posted on December 18th 2009 by AlBrown
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Oh, yes - the mb's. They DID abolish Christmas in Massachusetts. "Violators incurred a five shilling fine for feasting, taking time off work or otherwise acknowledging the holiday, which Puritans (ie Miserable B*ggers) regarded as a human invention, tainted by paganism and without scriptural warrant." Miserable B*ggers!
I have a record of the "Jingle Bells Polka" on the CD "Pigeon on The Gate", played on the one-row melodeon.
# Posted on December 18th 2009 by Ebor_fiddler
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
"Father of this thread", lazy hound? - thats rather a grand title!
Does that make you a needle, I wonder .... 
Further to alternative names for Christmas, not to forget the one dreamed up by the politically correct brigade, a couple of years back:
"Winterlude"
Ugh!
# Posted on December 18th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
"Father" in the sense of being the one who started off the thread, yes. But in the Parliamentary sense of longest serving Member ("Father of the House"), no: there is only One here who has rightful claim to that title!
# Posted on December 18th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
@Ebor_fiddler
....Some of them, about ten years earlier went to a place called Plymouth Rock in the Americas. does anybody know if what happened to them?....
I know of at least one who started a line of folks bent on marrying Irish Catholic women, resulting, many years later, in a flock of pale freckled fiddlers who live in my house.
# Posted on December 20th 2009 by tracywag
Re: Christmas carols in sessions
Christmas in Killarney supposedly was written by John Redmond, James Cavanaugh, and Frank Weldon. It was copyrighted in "MCML" by the Remick Music Corporation.
# Posted on December 21st 2009 by fauxcelt