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Bells of Dublin again! I can't seem to find a video of this version, but here's one featuring an ACTUAL BOAR'S HEAD (or reasonable facsimile thereof):



Mainly Norfolk says:

The ancient ceremony of the Boar's Head Carol was performed for many years on Christmas Eve at Queen's College, Oxford, but now on a Saturday shortly before Christmas, when old members are entertained at a “gaudy”. The College Choir processes into the Hall during the refrains, stopping each time when a verse is sung. When the boar's head is set down on the high table, the Provost distributes the herbs among the choir and presents the solo singer with the orange from the boar's mouth.

Does it not just seem like a very Oxford carol? Mainly Norfolk also quotes John Kirkpatrick thus: "Interesting fact: Songs like this which combine workaday English and scholarly Latin are called “macaronic”. Blessed are the pasta makers!"

Sang this in choir last year - the men did the verses and we all chimed in on the chorus. Great harmony parts.

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Here's another entry from The Bells of Dublin. I believe this is the first time so far we've repeated an album; I warn you now that it won't be the last.

I loved Thelma & Louise when it came out. (Still do.) I saw it a bunch of times in theatres and bought the soundtrack. The song I liked best was Marianne Faithfull's Ballad of Lucy Jordan, which I wrote out and memorized. I'd never come across her before (of course I was 17, there were lots of things I'd never come across before). Later, in university, I bought Faithfull: A Collection, which is a fantastic compilation and also has excellent liner notes (I slightly regret mainly moving over to iTunes for my music purchases, because I love liner notes, and not all artists make them available online).

If you listen to Faithfull: A Collection, what's perhaps most striking is the contrast between most of the songs on the album and the last track, As Tears Go By, released when she was 17. Her voice is so clear, almost carefree, compared to the magnificent wrecked growl it became. What a life the woman has had, and good on her for surviving Mick Jagger and a struggle with drug abuse.

Anyway, here she is with the Chieftains, in great form.



She collaborated with them again on their Long Black Veil, singing Love is Teasin' (which, incidentally, has the same tune and some of the same lyrics as The Butcher Boy, which Kirsty MacColl sang for the audiobook version of Patrick McCabe's novel of the same name).

Wikipedia points out that the tune is a variant of "Greensleeves"/What Child Is This. I NEVER NOTICED THIS BEFORE, and this version doesn't play it up. But I kinda see it. Not quite as strong a family resemblance as some. We sing this (surprise!) for choir.

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This lovely tale of a little prenatal miracle really appeals to me. We sang it for choir last year.

Mainly Norfolk says:

The Cherry Tree Carol is a ballad with the rare distinction of being both a Christmas carol and one of the Child Ballads (#54). The song itself is very old, reportedly being sung, in some form, at the Feast of Corpus Christi in the early 15th century. The versions eventually collected by Francis James Child are thought to be a combination of up to three separate carols that merged together through the centuries.

...

Waterson:Carthy recorded The Cherry Tree Carol for their 2006 album Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man. Martin Carthy commented in the album's sleeve notes:

The Apocryphal Gospels are full of all sorts of stories about the Christ Child; stories of miracles performed as a child, and, in the case of The Cherry Tree Carol, pre partum from the womb.

The first time I really became aware of Emmylou Harris, I was driving back to Montreal after a Christmas in Toronto. If you don't drive like a maniac but don't stop, it's about a 5-hour trip. The radio station I happened to be listening to played most of the tracks from Red Dirt Girl and I was blown away; I drove straight to my local music store and bought the CD before I even went home to my apartment.

Her Christmas album, Light of the Stable, was recommended to me several years ago by, of all sources, Real Simple. They were right.

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I slept a lot this weekend and was not wildly productive. I did make it to lostvoice's birthday pub night, also to chamber choir practice. I had fun at the former and think I'm going to enjoy the latter -- it's a nice group (of whom, bizarrely, three people plus me are from my choir and four are from my mother's choir; small world) and the music is tricky enough to be interesting, but not impossible. Granted, we were only doing four parts yesterday, not eight, and when we get to eight I will be all alone at Alto 2, but I have hope. The conductor seems really nice.

[Edit: The reason I slept a lot on Saturday was I went to the Rivoli for monkeycommando's birthday on Friday night and drank a lot and played pool, which I haven't done in far too long. It was great, although Dan and I had something of an arms race of ass-grabbing that, in retrospect, may have been a little disturbing to the casual onlooker. I am not sure why I forgot to mention this in my original post; possibly my brain was searching only the "Saturday" and "Sunday" archives.]

I attempted pot roast, but fear it may have been overcooked. We didn't actually eat it because pariah_ink came over and I'd made it with wine, so that was no good. Jen made curry instead.

Still obsessed by Killer Sudoku.

Books read this week:

The Ill-Bred Bride, Rosemary Edghill, of which more later.
Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth, Chris Ware. Have to admit I only skimmed this -- I may go back and read it properly. Technically impressive and surprisingly moving, but I didn't actually like it very much.
Magic Lessons, Justine Larbalestier.
Jennifer Government, Max Barry, which was uneven but hilarious.
Flirting in Cars, Alisa Kwitney, who has apparently been gone from Vertigo long enough to have written 7!!! books. I liked this one very much. (It also made an inadvertent single-mother diptych with Jennifer Government.) I don't, however, think much of the cover.
The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1, Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi. Fun -- I'll hope the movie is decent.

Friday's house report from my aunt:

Today for lunch, Gill, John, Robin, Dan and I had tuna fish casserole with salad, and bread and cheese. At The House. Cooked in Jen's kitchen. Why would anyone keep the salt and pepper in a cupboard six feet from the ground?

( Read more... )

Friday evening we had our choir recital -- went pretty well, except we were horribly off-key on one of the songs (that one is a problem for us). And it was LONG. There were more kids than last year, I think, mainly piano but some violin; they were all incredibly adorable, but it's a bit of a marathon even when they're doing really short pieces.

Saturday I had a civilized morning lolling about on my pariah_ink's sofa drinking coffee and doing Sudoku and ignoring the piles of boxes scattered all around. Then went and did some Christmas shopping. Then went to my parents' neighbourhood open house -- wasn't really in the party spirit, unfortunately, because I was later than I said I'd be and felt guilty, but it was still fun to catch up with a few people. Wandered home and made another penguin while crankygrrl attempted to make sense of Jen's tax homework.

Around quarter to 10 we all headed west (gotta love taxis) to the TUIAS show at Cameron House, which I've passed but never been into. Fantastic, fantastic show. I would say this even if Panthea wasn't raithen's little sister. ;) Note to self, however: do not drink oatmeal stout, it gives you a crappy hangover.

Sunday I lay in bed and read for ages, then went for brunch, then a marathon of shopping on Queen Street -- it's surprising how much you can get done if you put your mind to it. I am now mostly done. Weird. Also bought groceries and made chicken tikka out of a bottle for dinner.

Did not make it to the gym.

Did not do any work on the house, aside from unpacking the odd box.

A good weekend, though.

(I see I inadvertently discriminated against those of you with children over 18 in that poll. Apologies!) Thank you all so much for the answers and please keep 'em coming!

( Just in case you haven't watched the hockey game yet and care )

I see Maggie the Macaque has picked Edmonton to win. Her record seems pretty solid.

Concert this evening -- we were the guests of the Riverdale Youth Singers, with whom we share a conductor. They were great, and the little ones were OMG so adorable! We were pretty good too, I think.

Choir on a Tuesday feels odd. Tomorrow should be Friday, but it isn't.

Kiwanis was fun! Arrived 7ish at the wrong hall (the Armenian Cultural Centre) and were redirected to the right building, across the street (the Armenian Youth Centre, or high school, or possibly both). In the wilds of nowhere (well, Vic Park and 401, close enough). Warmed up in the hall, waited in the lobby until throngs of children started leaving, went in and sat. Two choirs before us, one children's and one adult, VERY good. We were the last choir to sing, and we did our two songs and the adjudicator (who'd been there since 9 a.m.) gave us our feedback -- basically either stuff we knew about and had done not so well, or stuff that was a choice we'd made and that I guess he didn't like. So that was good. We were first in our class (also only -- there was laughter, but he said the rules were very strict and we needed to achieve a certain mark to be first even if there was nobody else in the competition, and our mark was 86, so that was nice).

And then we came home. Two more practices, then March Break.

So, Friday was my choir concert. More exactly, it was the end-of-term recital for the music school of which my choir is a part. This meant that we were the only adults performing; the other performers were an array of (mostly Asian) small children who were all OMGSOCUTE. Some of them could barely reach the piano keyboard, but they all did their thing -- not that I know much about it, but I thought their pieces were pretty well matched to age and ability, so you'd get one kid doing something very simple with only a couple of hesitations while the next whipped off a little flawless Bach. Which I guess is the point. (They were mostly piano students; we also had one violinist, one vocalist, and the children's choir.) Fun to watch; some were very happy to get up there and bow and do the stage-presence thing, and others sort of dashed back to the audience as soon as they reasonably could.

It was all pretty informal -- before it started our choir spent some time figuring out how to line up to get on and off stage in the right order, and there was a call for audience help moving the piano, and none of us was entirely certain where to sit. We were at St. George the Martyr Anglican Church, which is lovely and a wonderful place to sing. My parents and Jen came and enjoyed themselves very much (at least, they said they did). I think we did well; I spend so much time frantically trying to remember stuff like "OK, breathe like this, aim your voice here, shape the note like this" that it's always hard for me to notice how we're doing while actually in the midst, and it's over terribly fast. But it was fun, as it always is, and it was nice that it was SO relaxed and informal. (Especially compared to Wednesday night, when I did front-of-house for my mother's choir and about 700 people came and the choir alone has to be 200.)

Our program:
Aralo - trad. Georgian
Nana - trad. Georgian
Yedid Nefesh - trad. Jewish
Thula Kizio - trad. Zulu
When the Stars Fall - Stephen Hatfield (with a soloist who hadn't rehearsed with us, but who was incredible)
Shouting, Whispering Sea - Mark Patterson (I think)
Come, Let Us Sing - not sure who the composer is, but it's a fun song which we do with the children's choir (did I mention OMGSOCUTE?)

The rest of the weekend:
Friday night: dinner with parents (Peruvian restaurant); The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with crankygrrl, which made us both very happy (disclaimer: although I read and enjoyed the books as a child, they weren't and aren't favourites in the same way as, for example, the Swallows and Amazons books -- as a result I don't think I bring as many expectations to the movie as I might otherwise. I enjoyed it very much.)
Saturday: took the dog for a walk; started rereading Pride and Prejudice (necessary to reassure myself that it was still there); went over to the house and swept the floors and watched my new window being installed; got parents to drive me out to the wilds of Scarborough to pick up a package which, it turns out, Canada Post didn't leave at that postal outlet at all; dinner with parents (Swiss Chalet); home; bed.
Sunday: socialized a bit with hosts who have returned from frozen North; more Pride and Prejudice; house, vapour barrier (Jen scraped paint off our heat registers); walked over to aunt & uncle's house, meeting real estate agent along the way (he seems slightly horrified that we aren't living in the house yet); admired newly tidy basement and burgeoning Christmas decorations; copied down selections from posted Christmas wish lists; back home for dinner with Italian family who have been in Canada for 6 weeks and were very sweet but had varying amounts of English. Generally more than my Italian, though. My brain kept trying to default to French and then hauling out Spanish words. It's not like I speak Spanish. However, goodwill got us all through.

Christmas cards written: 1 (today at lunch). I had nearly given myself permission to slack off this year and everything.
Number of people for whom I have finished Christmas shopping: 2. I think. Sorta. It would be more, but I'm waiting for some deliveries.
Number of people for whom I am moderately stumped for a present: 2. Hey, that's not so bad.

but before I go, as promised, I shall post the lyrics of the Mozart piece for mrs_cake and pariyal (we are doing the "definitive text" version on p. 2):

( One of my fellow altos did give us a rough translation last week; cut in case she was paraphrasing )

There you have it!