TWELVE TUNES OF CHRISTMAS!
Tunes on this page use pdf format for which you will need acrobat reader or one of the other programmes that read pdfs. We used PDF Creator to create the pdfs on this page a free programme which can read and write pdf documents. We have also provided the tunes in abc format. If you are unfamiliar with abc read this short guide to abc from John Messenger.
The videos aren't always precisely the same as the dots - that's what makes folk music folk music - but are there to give an idea of the tune for those who like to work that way.
If you find the video is too fast to play along with, you can always use the YouTube controls to slow it down.
As these carols are so well known, the video clips are mainly chosen to add extra interest.
01 In Dulci Jubilo
- abc
- A setting by Bach sung by The Sixteen. The video displays the sheet music for the four parts.
Comments: None yet
02 Gaudete
- abc
- Steeleye Span (who else?) from 35th anniversary tour
- Steeleye Span from original Below the Salt album in 1972.
Comments: None yet
03 Nos Galan
- abc
- played on fiddle that makes it nice and up tempo rather than the slower choral versions
Comments: None yet.
04 God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
- abc
- Pentatonix with an a capella version
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05 Good King Wenceslas
- abc
- Morris Dancers at Conwy
- The Beatles version from 1962!
Comments: This tune was originally a spring carol, a Burgundian basse danse. Thinking of it as a dance tune brings it alive.
06 I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In
Comments: None yet.
07 O Little Town of Bethlehem
Comments: This tune works well as a dance tune (as all carols are, of course) but we haven't yet found a video clip that takes that approach.
08 The Holly and the Ivy
- abc
- Canadian folksingerJesse Ferguson with chords and lyrics supplied
Comments: None yet.
09 The Coventry Carol
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10 Ding Dong Merrily On High
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11 O Tannenbaum
- abc
- Sung by Nana Mouskouri
Comments:
Nana Mouskouri was a Greek singer who became a spokesperson for UNICEF in 1993 and was elected to the European Parliament as a Greek deputy from 1994 to 1999. Mouskouri's first U.N. mission took her to Bosnia to draw attention to the plight of children affected by Bosnian war. She went on to give a series of fund-raising concerts in Sweden and Belgium.
In 2015 she was awarded the Echo Music Prize for Outstanding achievements by the German music association Deutsche Phono-Akademie.
12 The Sussex Carol
- abc
- Sung by Maddy Prior
- Performed by Kerfuffle (Sam Sweeney.Hannah James,Jamie Roberts,Tom Sweeney).
Comments:
None yet.
Some Christmas Traditions
