A few years back I was in a great group called Leafy Greens & Mutton, and we did mostly period music.
We had a nice setlist of Yule pieces which I researched for our flyers and concert programs, and before Geocities really does go dark, I thought I’d add it here:
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A Carol Bringing In the Boar’s Heed
Lyrics by: Wynkyn de Worde. Unfortunately, only the last page of Jan van Wynken’s “Christmas Carolles”, printed in 1521, survives, but it includes portions of this carol, which appears in many different forms in later publications. This song is traditionally sung during the Christmas Feast at Oxford
Good King Wenceslas
This story owes its popularity to the popular melody, which is actually that of a Spring carol, “Tempus Adest Foridum” (“Spring has unwrapped her flowers”). Although the lyrics were evidently written by J.M. Neale in 1853, the melody appears in the Swedish “Piae Cantiones” of 1582.
In a Manger He Is Lying
Polish Carol, 16th Century
Lo How a Rose
Es Ist Ein Ros, 15th Century German carol, Translator Unknown; Arr. by Michael Praetorius, 1609
The Holly & the Ivy
This popular melody and text were recorded in Mowbray’s Christmas Carols in 1861, but he claimed that it appeared in “an old broadside, printed a century and a half since” (roughly 1710). It is apparently much older even than that; the phrase “the merry organ” appears in Chaucer’s “Nonne Preestes Tale”, and holly and ivy are common motifs in pagan celebrations which predate the Christian influence in Europe.
In Dulci Jubilo
Words: Nun singet und seid froh, attributed to Heinrich Suso (ca. 1295-1366). Folklore has it that Suso, hearing angels sing these words, joined them in a dance of worship. Translation from The Oxford Book of Carols, 1928; Music: “In Dulci Jubilo,” 14th Century German melody
There Comes a Vessel Laden
1608, Andernach Gesangbuch
Covertry Carol, Luly, lulay
One of the most haunting of the carols written in the minor key, Coventry Carol was sung in the pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, a mystery play put on by local guilds in Coventry, in the 15th century. The most familiar text is that of Robert Croo (which we sing), written in 1534. The Coventry Plays are recorded as having been witnessed by Margaret, Queen of Henry VI, as early as 1456, by Richard III in 1484, and by Henry VII in 1492.
Tommorow Shall Be My Dancing Day
The New Oxford Book of Carols suggests that the song was originally part of a medieval Mystery Play. (It is also cited by some sources to be of the 19th century.) This carol appears in Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern by William Sandys in 1833, and in many broadsides of that period. However, most historians date the text from before the 17th century.
Wassail Wassail
Gloucestershire Wassail, traditional English, but at least some verses are believed to be from the middle ages
Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella
French Provençal Carol by Émile Blémont; French Tune adapted by Seguin from Charpentier (late 1600s)
I Saw Three Ships
This song appears in John Forbes’ Cantus, 2nd. ed, and is also known as “As I Sat On A Sunny Bank”. It probably dates from the 16th century.
Riu Riu Chiu
Text by Mateo Felcha the elder,
Spanish Traditional, 16th Century
The Old Year Now Away Has Fled
Words: English Traditional, From a Black Letter Collection, 1642, Ashmolean Library, Oxford; Tune, Tudor traditional “Greensleeves”
Hey Ho Nobody Home
Traditional Round, Thomas Ravenscroft, published 1609
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
“Veni Emmanuel,” 15th Century French Plain Song melody; Some sources give a Gregorian, 8th Century origin
God Rest You Merry Gentlemen
This melody appears to spring from the Cornwall countryside in England, and the lyrics appear as early as 1770 in the Roxburgh Ballads, but it is apparent from references in earlier texts that the melody (of which there are actually two, though only one is familiar in America) dates from a considerably earlier period. It is commonly considered the “most popular” Christmas Carol in England.