| Author | Topic: Add: Nowell and Nowell! | |
| dmcg | Posted - 03 Dec 05 - 10:27 am | |
"Nowell and Nowell" the angels did say, While shepherds there in the fields did lay; Late in the night a-folding their sheep, A cold winter's night both cold and deep. (Chorus) Nowell and nowell! Nowell and nowell! Born is the King of Isreal! Nowell and nowell! Nowell and nowell! Born is the King of Isreal! And then there did appear a star Whose glory then did shine shine so far; Unto the earth it gave a great light And there it continued a day and a night. And by the light of that same star Three wise men came from country far To seek a King was their intent And to follow that star wherever it went. The star drew near unto the north-west O'er Bethlehem city it took its rest And there it did both stand and stay, Right over the house where our Lord lay. Then entered in those wise men three, With reverence, upon their knee, And offered up, in his presence, Both gold and myrrh and frankincense. Between an ox-manger and and an ass, Our blest Messiah's place it was; To save our souls from sin and thrall, He is the Redeemer of us all. Source: Oxford Book of Carols, OUP, Ed. Percy Dearmer, R Vaughan Williams, Martin Shaw Notes: Tenor is melody line. Constructed by the editors as 'a conjectural recreation of a gallery setting based on another, and probably older, version of the tune in three older publications.' It was adapted from the Journal of the Folk-Song Society, 5. My annual task of persuading my local Church group to try a different carol led to us picking this one this year. As I had to type it up anyway, I've posted it here as well. | ||
| masato sakurai | Posted - 03 Dec 05 - 03:32 pm | |
Roud number 682, which includes "The First Nowel." | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 03 Dec 05 - 11:21 pm | |
The song was noted by Cecil Sharp and Bartle Symons at Camborne, Cornwall [19 May 1913], and was printed in The Journal of the Folk-Song Society, V (18) 1914, 26-7. Bartle Symons had taken down the words from Mr James Thomas; they were, it seems, "substantially the same" as those he had learned as a boy from a Mr Spargo, who was at the time "70 or 80 years of age". Sharp noted the tune from Mr Symons' singing. Mr Thomas' words were as follows: Nowell and Nowell, the angels did say, While shepherds there in the fields did lay; Laying in one night and folding their sheep, A cold winter's night both cold and bleak. Nowell and Nowell, Nowell and Nowell, Born is the King of Isreal. Nowell and Nowell, Nowell and Nowell, Born is the King of Israel. And then there did appear a star To wise men three in country far; And to the earth it gave a great light, And there it continued a day and a night. The star it shone in the North-West; O'er Bethlehem city it took its rest; And there it did both stand and stay Right over the house where our Lord lay. There entered in those wise men three With reverence upon their knee, And offered up in rich potence Both gold and myrrh and frankincense. Betwixt an ox-manger and an ass, There our blessed Messiah was; To save our souls from sin and troll He is the Redeemer of us all. Nowell, etc. Various members of the editorial board of the Journal commented upon the tune; Lucy Broadwood noted that "the F at bars five and nine give an unusual character to the tune, more often to be found in German than British folk-song". She added: "The air recalled a traditional Watchman's song learnt by me as a child from a native of Magdeburg in Bavaria, where it was sung nightly. Since writing the above I find in Carl Engel's The Study of National Music (p 294), another air to a German village watchman's song, which has also a distinct likeness to that of Mr Sharp's 'Nowell, Nowell.' W Howitt quotes this in Rural and Domestic Life of Germany (1842), and gives his own versified translation of the text. Can he have imported the Germn air? The Howitts interested themselves in folk-song and carols." | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 04 Dec 05 - 10:00 am | |
Thanks for that, Malcolm. When I introduced this song on Friday, I said it was from Cornwall. When someone asked how I knew that I looked at the OUP notes, and it doesn't say so. I presume someone told me at some time and I squirrelled it away in memory, but its nice to have it confirmed! | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 16 Dec 05 - 10:45 pm | |
I was asked last week what 'troll' meant and I admitted I didn't know. Tonight the person who had asked me told me she had looked it up and it appears to be related to trawl and in this context may well mean 'temptation'. | ||
| Jon Freeman | Posted - 16 Dec 05 - 11:06 pm | |
And how long have you been on the Internet, Dave? ;-) (they don't get their name from the mythical beasty). Can't make a better guess than "temptation". | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 16 Dec 05 - 11:17 pm | |
I'd always thought of Internet Trolls as being named from the mythical beasts - after all, they can certainly be sufficiently unpleasant! (Having seen the Wikipedia entry, my defence is that I've been reading about Nordic legends all my life but have never, ever, been sport fishing!) Edited By DMcG - 16 Dec 05 - 11:22 pm | ||