A few years ago I put up Christmas music as done by regular folk. I don't know what I'm going to do this year or when I'll start, but this seems a fun start, even if Advent is over two weeks away. No one much remembers Steeleye Span anymore but a few eccentric Boomers and assorted fanatics, but they brought this song out from obscurity and it has been covered by many since. Piae Cantiones was first published in 16th C Finland, though "Gaudete" may be older.
If you want to hear some fun Christmas music, look into Parang, which is idiomatic music written in Spanish but originating in the island of Trinidad, in the West Indies.
ReplyDeleteA choir on the stairs! I love it!
ReplyDeleteOh, and the fact that they're so hip-looking but singing these old motets tickles me pink.
ReplyDeleteThe bell choir I'm in is working up an arrangement of this. Quite a coincidence.
ReplyDeleteThe piece has something of a cult following. Including me.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of the acoustics of a stairwell before. But then I didn't think about the acoustics of a cave, or of the gullies in Turkey Run, or ...
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