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blackcatnamedOlivia's avatar

I'm glad I didn't listen to this till after Christmas, on a dark, rainy, windy day - most of these while beautiful are also sad or mournful. They put me in mind of how I am an orphan in my family, as the four people I knew from birth are all dead, as is my husband. This I never suspected would be, though some wise soul from one of the old cultures represented here would have laughed at me and said, "what did you think would happen, you being the youngest?" But the Scots Gaelic tune is my favourite, since I can imagine ancestors singing something like it.

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Moe Dodson's avatar

We feel it too - go well in this world

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Luke Dodson's avatar

Thank you, Olivia, for sharing what must have been some very profound and poignant reflections. You're right, "Gaudete" is probably the only one here that isn't sombre to a degree, even the first and last are (sort of) lullabies - which made me realise that one needs shade (or 'sombra') to sleep, so a lullaby is 'sombre' by nature.

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Jack Trent's avatar

I learned this from a piece of written music. Bizarre. Potter: "People do that sort of thing, I suppose." It was natural. Fifty singers helped. Peace. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo5osogX7Wk

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Jack Trent's avatar

Thank you for putting this list together. English choirs, Celtic bards. I don't need much else at Christmas when I am serious. Let's skip over the Lutheran thing for a bit.

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Kate Ledogar's avatar

Looking forward to listening to these - and thank you for "desacralized", a new one for me!

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Rachel's avatar

These are lovely. Thank you, Luke. Gaudete and Coventry Carol are old friends, the folk tunes are quite new to me. So much beautiful music I've never found.

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Coincidentia Oppositorum's avatar

For me this might be the biggest banger out of the English carols:

https://youtu.be/cdsZhW63V50

And then there's the Welsh:

Hela'r dryw (the hunting of the wren)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnKE-cVCrt8

Mari Lwyd - not strictly Christmas, though for me the assorted European winter mumming traditions are all much of a muchness.

https://youtu.be/-nlqIhJnQrc

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Luke Dodson's avatar

Great songs! I'd say Mari Lwyd is close enough - Christmas traditionally was more of a season peppered with lots of little celebrations than the "here's 3 days off work and some tinsel" anticlimax that it sadly is now.

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Moe Dodson's avatar

Funny how what sounds beautiful and deep is called dissonance by modern musical experts, innit?

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Welkyn's avatar

"Last Christmas I gave you a cold

But the very next day it just went away.

This year, to sate several peers,

I'll give you the 'rona special..."

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