CD 2: Hark, Ye Shepherds!
Hark, Ye Shepherds
VRS-1062, original LP cover
The universality of Christmas and the special place it holds in people's hearts are apparent in the wealth of folk and popular song it has inspired, with each age adding to the tradition. Christmas carols hold a two-fold interest: both as a celebration of the season, and also as a musical revelation when performed by a group like Alfred Deller and the Deller Consort. The aim of such interpretation is not merely to invest the songs with beauty, but to recreate a sense of history.
The history itself is a remarkable one, beginning perhaps in the 13th century when St. Francis and his followers built a crib on the day of the Nativity and danced about it, singing songs. From this stemmed the popular "mystery plays" in towns and villages on the Nativity story, and from these plays in turn came a wealth of French, German and English carols. In the early 16th century, some of this music began to be collected and printed. On the present program, Joseph Dearest and Sir Christémas are little "dialogue" carols or playlets which belonged to these old mystery plays. At the other historical extreme are Joy to the World and Hark! the Herald Angels Sing, stemming from the 18th and 19th century hymn and oratorio tradition. Most of the others are folk songs, many far older than the time they were written down would indicate. Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming was arranged by Michael Praetorius in 1609, but was then at least a century old. In the 17th century, The Old Year Now carol words were printed for the most popular of Elizabethan songs, Greensleeves. Collected fairly recently, by Ralph Vaughan Williams, was one of the most haunting of all old English folk songs, Down in Yon Forest. Taken down from the lips of a Czech peasant girl, in 1921, was the enchanting old Christmas song, From Out of a Wood. The less familiar version here presented of Here We Come A-Wassailing comes from Yorkshire.
Originally released as Vanguard/The Bach Guild VRS-1062