This place is real quiet today; Zina must be working!
OK, so discuss amongst yourselves:
Without going into those (gag!) Celtic Christmas CDs where you take some Yule music, mix in some mournful low whistles and throw in a couple of harps for good measure...
How does your session deal with the Christmas season? Do you throw in some carols at the end of the session? Are there any Christmas-inspired IrTrad tunes?
Hey Glauber,
Here in Helena we stop sessioning for a week. But leading into Christmas, we usually get a few renditions of Good King O'Wenceslas, Greensleeves, and Christmas in Killarney (the latter of which I will post here if I can eke out some time).
Otherwise, the music stays the same, and the spirit of the season warms the socializing up a notch.
We too stop sessioning -- everybody is too busy, out of town, whatever. I think I'll learn Christmas Eve this year, though. I keep meaning to do so every year, but haven't yet!
Here in Barcelona we'll probably have a couple of sessions more before the Christmas break.
Zina, you definitely have to learn Christmas Eve. What a great tune!. It's one of my favourites ever.
Surprisingly enough, these Christmas are being warmer in Ireland than here (so far), as we got struck
by a terrible cold wave coming from Siberia. It has even snowed here (at sea level, in the Mediterranean)
which is not very common, I tell you.
Anyway, I'm sure it's always pretty worse in the States or Canada, isn't it Kerri???
BTW, Glauber, we were in Ireland for the holidays last year -- Christmas in Ireland is kind of like Christmas just about anywhere else, insofar as I can see! I can still picture Corofin and Ennis with the Christmas lights up on the main streets -- it reminded me of the rural downtowns you'd see in the States in the 60's. (Only with more pubs. *grin*)
Of course, we were there for the first real snow in 18 years. That was kind of funny -- we didn't think anything of it, until we noticed that the kids in the street sure seemed awfully excited by the opportunity to throw snowballs and such (here in Colorado it's hardly an unusual thing to have a snowball fight), and then in the pubs we started hearing news reports pleading with people to go check on elderly neighbors.
The thing about snow in Ireland is that the roads aren't built for it (too narrow and shallow ditches on both sides to deal with runoff, awkward when people are pulled over to the side of the road and the ice all over), and they don't keep tires in good enough shape to deal with it, because usually they don't have to. The final night before the snow and ice all melted, we had to park at the bottom of the "mountain" and walk three-quarters of the way up to our cottage. I walked up alone the first time, and it was very spooky -- suddenly I knew exactly why there are so many legends about fairies and elves and monsters and all that. Nothing as spooky as walking up an unlit country road in Ireland past midnight, surrounded by the sound of running water and rustiling in the hedgerows and walls, and spooky shapes of trees looming at you. I firmly told myself that the stars were beautiful and that the wildlife was blessed not to be in the States and kept walking.
My husband actually took a picture one morning that doesn't look like it's a picture of anything, because he was so astounded that the snow went away overnight. Of course, here in Colorado, snow often disappears in a day or so, but only during the day -- our night times are the freezing times!
Hey, does anyone know what the two slip jigs that "Druid Stone" plays with Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring are? A friend of mine heard it on the radio, but wasn't able to catch more than that it was a band called Druid Stone.
Zina
P.S. Will, do you have a transcription of your setting of Christmas Eve?
Christmas (or The Little Bodhran Player Boy)
Christmas (or The Little Bodhran Player Boy)
This place is real quiet today; Zina must be working!
OK, so discuss amongst yourselves:
Without going into those (gag!) Celtic Christmas CDs where you take some Yule music, mix in some mournful low whistles and throw in a couple of harps for good measure...
How does your session deal with the Christmas season? Do you throw in some carols at the end of the session? Are there any Christmas-inspired IrTrad tunes?
More broadly, how is Christmas in Ireland?
g
# Posted on December 14th 2001 by glauber
Re: Christmas (or The Little Bodhran Player Boy)
Hey Glauber,
Here in Helena we stop sessioning for a week. But leading into Christmas, we usually get a few renditions of Good King O'Wenceslas, Greensleeves, and Christmas in Killarney (the latter of which I will post here if I can eke out some time).
Otherwise, the music stays the same, and the spirit of the season warms the socializing up a notch.
Will
# Posted on December 14th 2001 by Will Harmon
Re: Christmas (or The Little Bodhran Player Boy)
Pbbbbbblt to you. *grin*
We too stop sessioning -- everybody is too busy, out of town, whatever. I think I'll learn Christmas Eve this year, though. I keep meaning to do so every year, but haven't yet!
Zina
# Posted on December 14th 2001 by Zina Lee
Re: Christmas (or The Little Bodhran Player Boy)
Here in Barcelona we'll probably have a couple of sessions more before the Christmas break.
Zina, you definitely have to learn Christmas Eve. What a great tune!. It's one of my favourites ever.
Surprisingly enough, these Christmas are being warmer in Ireland than here (so far), as we got struck
by a terrible cold wave coming from Siberia. It has even snowed here (at sea level, in the Mediterranean)
which is not very common, I tell you.
Anyway, I'm sure it's always pretty worse in the States or Canada, isn't it Kerri???
Toni
# Posted on December 15th 2001 by Toni Ribas
Re: Christmas (or The Little Bodhran Player Boy)
Will, would you mind posting Christmas Eve? I'd like to hear your setting of the tune.
We just got snow last night -- not too bad where we were (maybe three or four inches), but much worse uphill from here.
Zina
# Posted on December 16th 2001 by Zina Lee
Christmas in Ireland
BTW, Glauber, we were in Ireland for the holidays last year -- Christmas in Ireland is kind of like Christmas just about anywhere else, insofar as I can see! I can still picture Corofin and Ennis with the Christmas lights up on the main streets -- it reminded me of the rural downtowns you'd see in the States in the 60's. (Only with more pubs. *grin*)
Of course, we were there for the first real snow in 18 years. That was kind of funny -- we didn't think anything of it, until we noticed that the kids in the street sure seemed awfully excited by the opportunity to throw snowballs and such (here in Colorado it's hardly an unusual thing to have a snowball fight), and then in the pubs we started hearing news reports pleading with people to go check on elderly neighbors.
The thing about snow in Ireland is that the roads aren't built for it (too narrow and shallow ditches on both sides to deal with runoff, awkward when people are pulled over to the side of the road and the ice all over), and they don't keep tires in good enough shape to deal with it, because usually they don't have to. The final night before the snow and ice all melted, we had to park at the bottom of the "mountain" and walk three-quarters of the way up to our cottage. I walked up alone the first time, and it was very spooky -- suddenly I knew exactly why there are so many legends about fairies and elves and monsters and all that. Nothing as spooky as walking up an unlit country road in Ireland past midnight, surrounded by the sound of running water and rustiling in the hedgerows and walls, and spooky shapes of trees looming at you. I firmly told myself that the stars were beautiful and that the wildlife was blessed not to be in the States and kept walking.
My husband actually took a picture one morning that doesn't look like it's a picture of anything, because he was so astounded that the snow went away overnight. Of course, here in Colorado, snow often disappears in a day or so, but only during the day -- our night times are the freezing times!
Zina
# Posted on December 16th 2001 by Zina Lee
Re: Christmas (or The Little Bodhran Player Boy)
Hey, does anyone know what the two slip jigs that "Druid Stone" plays with Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring are? A friend of mine heard it on the radio, but wasn't able to catch more than that it was a band called Druid Stone.
Zina
P.S. Will, do you have a transcription of your setting of Christmas Eve?
# Posted on December 17th 2001 by Zina Lee