Month: December 2024

Carol of MY year 2024 –

Introduction

Over the past three years I have written a blog about a carol that attracted me in that year’s preparation for Christmas. Two years ago, it was ‘What sweeter music’ (words by Robert Herrick and music by John Rutter.) Last Christmas it was ‘Tomorrow shall be my dancing day’ words by that great poet ‘Traditional’ and music by John Gardner.

This year I had a bit more time to experience various carols as I was asked to do a parish faith-sharing series called ‘Faith and Music’ at St Stephen’s Pinelands and the December meeting was entitled ‘What sweeter music… than a carol.’

Cover of Piae Cantiones 1582

Why I chose it…

I started watching YouTube videos of Carols and histories of carols to give me a springboard for the presentation. I came across Jeremy Summerly’s various ‘Christmas Lectures’ videos for Gresham College. It appears that he has given an annual lecture on various aspects of carols and music for Christmas for many years now. One of these lectures discussed the 450th anniversary of the publication of Piae Cantiones Ecclesiasticae et Scholasticae Veterum Episcoporum (1582). The title can be basically translated as ‘Pious Church and Scholastic Songs of the Venerable Churchmen’

This publication was from Finland and collected by a Finnish schoolmaster Theodoricus Petri Rutha of Nyland, who taught at the Cathedral school at Turku, Finland. It contained seventy-two songs mostly with just a melody line. It has become a source of many carols and hymns with modern composers arranging the harmonies for us to use today in our worship. In our Hymns Ancient and Modern New Standard we find two hymn tunes sourced from this publication. The tunes are for the hymn ‘Of the Father’s love begotten…’ and secondly, a tune called Personent Hodie used for modern words ‘Long ago, prophets knew…’, an Advent Hymn.

Among the carols are ‘Up!  Good Christian folk and listen’ with the words by G. R. Woodward but the melody adapted from Piae Cantiones, and ‘Good King Wenceslas’ with words by J. M. Neale and the music was that for a Spring Carol also found in Piae Cantiones.

It is amazing how one book of tunes from an obscure town of Turku in Finland and collected by a schoolmaster has played such an important role in English hymns and carols. One of the tunes written out in harmony but only for the chorus (not the verse) of the carol I’ve decided to make ‘My Carol for the Year 2025’ mainly because researching it for my Faith and Music presentation at St Stephen’s Pinelands early in December has opened so many doors for me on the history of carols.

MY carol for 2024

The name of the carol I’ve chosen is ‘Gaudete’ [Rejoice]. In my introduction to the Faith and Music presentation I was trying to define what a carol was. The Oxford Book of Carols defined Carols as being ‘simple, hilarious, popular and modern’. These terms need a bit more explanation:  

Simple – this implies that a carol should be spontaneous and direct in what it says to us. This often leads to them rambling on like folk-ballads tended to do.

Hilarious – this is a strange use of the word but an archaic meaning is ‘boisterous and merry’. This also points to the word ‘carol’ being derived from the Latin and Old French word meaning ‘to dance’. This is where ‘Gaudete’ comes in for me. With its syncopation one cannot but help feeling the need to dance when it is sung in a vigorous way (see below for examples).

Popular – this means that carols were sung by all people, not just the choir and the clergy. Most often carols were sung by the common people going from door-to-door singing carols in the wassailing tradition, usually ending up in the local pub.

Modern – With Piae Cantiones being published in 1582, this seems to be a contradiction but The Oxford Book of Carols (TOB), using rather gender-specific language, typical of its era, TOB was first published 1928. It says that carols are ‘always modern, expressing the manner in which ordinary man at his best understands the idea of his age, and bringing traditional conservative religion up to date.’

Does ‘Gaudete‘ fulfil the requirements of being ‘simple, hilarious, popular and modern’? I think it does – if one performs it in a suitable way. Here we need to look at the words and the music separately.

The words

Latin
Gaudete, gaudete!
Christus est natus
Ex Maria virgine, gaudete!

Tempus adest gratiæ
Hoc quod optabamus,
Carmina lætitiæ
Devote reddamus.
Gaudete, gaudete!
Christus est natus
Ex Maria virgine, gaudete!  

Deus homo factus est
Natura mirante,
Mundus renovatus est
A Christo regnante.
Gaudete, gaudete!
Christus est natus
Ex Maria virgine, gaudete!  

Ezechielis porta
Clausa pertransitur,
Unde lux est orta
Salus invenitur.
Gaudete, gaudete!
Christus est natus
Ex Maria virgine, gaudete!  

Ergo nostra contio
Psallat iam in lustro;
Benedicat Domino:
Salus Regi nostro.
Gaudete, gaudete!
Christus est natus
Ex Maria virgine, gaudete!		English
Rejoice, rejoice!
Christ is born
Of the Virgin Mary – Rejoice!

The time of grace has come—
What we have wished for;
Songs of joy
Let us give back faithfully.
Rejoice, rejoice!
Christ is born
Of the Virgin Mary – Rejoice!  

God has become man,
With nature marvelling,
The world has been renewed
By the reigning Christ.
Rejoice, rejoice!
Christ is born
Of the Virgin Mary – Rejoice!  

The closed gate of Ezekiel
Is passed through,
Whence the light is risen;
Salvation has been found.
Rejoice, rejoice!
Christ is born
Of the Virgin Mary – Rejoice!  

Therefore, let our assembly
Now sing in brightness
Let it bless the Lord:
Salvation to our King.
Rejoice, rejoice!
Christ is born
Of the Virgin Mary – Rejoice!  

This carol is in Latin and not macaronic, where Latin phrases are introduced into a carol in the vernacular language, as for example, ‘In dulci jubilio, Let us our homage show.’ The Latin phrases, however, are all very well-known likely to be understood easily even by the uneducated person having heard them regularly in the liturgy. Thus, it is simple and popular and the music (see below) makes it hilarious and modern.

The Music

As far as the music goes, I’ve said already that the Piae Cantiones had 72 melodies and very few written with harmonies. Gaudete was one of the few that did. (See picture of score, showing the score with separate parts.) Unfortunately, there is no music given in Piae Cantiones for the verses. The YouTube channel, Early Music Sources by Elam Rotem gives a very good and interesting exploration of the early sources for the chorus as well giving examples of verses used by performers. Use this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aab7TvfDEKE if you want to see where the tune first arose. Basically, a choir planning to sing today would have to find a suitable version to express the joyfulness of this carol.

Gaudete from Piae Cantiones 1582

I was looking for a version to play for the Faith and Music group.

Version 1: In my CD collection I had a CD I bought at Portsmouth Cathedral with their choir under Dr David Price. Their version of Gaudete was arranged by Luke Fitzgerald who brings in percussion and the organ to express the celebratory nature of the carol. This is close to what I think fulfils the definition of simplicity, hilarity, popularity and being modern.

From CD Verbum Caro Factum Est Choir of Portsmouth Cathedral Director David Price (Herald CD HAVPCD407 2018)

Version 2: However, the one I chose to play to the group was a version by the British folk-rock group Steeleye Span from the 1970s and 80s. It became very popular reaching the Top40 charts – one of the only two Steeleye Span had- the other was ‘All around my hat’. This version of Gaudete has simple harmonies and the singing by the soloist, Maddy Prior and the rest of the group, has a ‘roughness’ and ‘boldness’ giving a ‘in-your-face’ feel to it.  The words are also pronounced in a ‘non-liturgical Latin’ or ‘Italianated Latin’  way making it sound more ‘popular’ – of the people, rather than ‘of the choir and educated clergy.’

Taken from one of many online Youtube videos Steeleye Span – live performance.

Which one do you like most? Which version is truly a carol? Feel free to message me in the comments.

While searching I came across a parody version entitled Crudité rather than Gaudete and if you listen carefully to the words, pre-dinner snacks are more to the fore than rejoicing over the birth of Jesus! This version perhaps uses the definition of ‘hilarious’ in its modern rather than archaic way!

Found on YouTube. Song by Blanche Rowen and Mike Gulston

Wet or Dry

The Pratts have done a different thing from most people. After eight years of retirement in the seaside suburb of Fish Hoek, we have moved nearer the city, to Pinelands.

We were warned by friends that Pinelands was ‘dry’. Having lived in Fish Hoek since 1957 (with a gap from 1994 to 2016 while serving as a priest) I knew exactly what that meant, what with the ’Defenders of Fish Hoek’ and all that! Another friend told us how she had heard that Pinelands was dry and had wondered why the infamous Western Cape winter rains didn’t reach Pinelands while soaking Newlands a mile or two nearer the mountains! Then the Pinelandians or is it Pinelanders had to explain to her that there had been, up to the formation of the uni-city in the late 1990s, no shops or restaurants serving alcohol.

In Fish Hoek that situation has now completely reversed. All the supermarkets in Fish Hoek have their adjacent bottle stores and most of the restaurants are licensed. Here in Pinelands they have only gone halfway. The restaurants serve alcohol but there are still no off-license or bottle stores within the old Pinelands municipality boundaries, though there are many just ‘over the border’ in Maitland and Mowbray and maybe at other sites I haven’t discovered yet.

Living Fish Hoek from the late-1950s I knew that ‘dry’ meant no sale of alcohol. I first came across it while in Wynberg Military Hospital to have my tonsils out aged ten years old. In the waiting room there was a sign saying that the SADFI Canteen was a dry canteen.  I had to ask my parents what that meant. SADFI or South African Defence Force Institute was a shop or store selling all manner of goods to service personnel and their families living or working in the military camp. As thius was a ‘Dry Canteen’ no alcohol would have been sold.

Although I knew what ‘dry’ meant I wondered if there was an opposite? Could a canteen selling alcohol be called a ‘wet canteen’? I discovered that there was. The term ‘wet’ was used to describe stores which had alcohol among the items for sale.

Many years later I came across these terms, ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ while researching my master’s thesis. The subject was the Anglican Church’s mission to the Muslim in the Western Cape. Although over the years many priests had been asked to take on this task by the Bishop of Cape Town, many saw a greater need elsewhere in the diocese. A good example were the Cowley Fathers (SSJE- Sacred Society of St John the Evangelist). They had been asked to come to the Cape to do the mission work among Muslims but found that little of no work was being done among the migrant Xhosa men working as stevedores at the docks or those constructing the dams on top of Table Mountain. Thus, the Cowley fathers re-directed their efforts in this direction.

In my research I had to ensure that there wasn’t any Muslim mission work being done by individual Cowley Fathers. I came across a reference to one father who had given evidence to the Cape Colonial Government Commission on the drunkenness of the so-called ‘Coloured’ people and other indigenous people in the Colony. In this Blue Book Report the Cowley Father giving evidence spoke about large number of ‘Wet Canteens’ in the poorer areas enabling easy access to alcohol for lowly paid workers. Having previously had the knowledge about ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ I knew what a Wet Canteen was and that it was not a bar through which a river flowed!

I wonder how much longer Pinelands will remain ‘dry’? I am told that a mall containing a Checkers supermarket is being built on the old Conradie Hospital site. This is just out of Pinelands but if customers want to purchase liquor as well as groceries I wonder how many will stop grocery shopping at the local Pick n Pay or Spar and drive to Conradie Park and kill two birds with a one-stop-shop. This could lead to a loss of trade, force these supermarkets also applying for a grocery store liquor licenses. Personally, I have no problem but let’s see how it all develops.