St James Priory, Dec 2024 - Programme
Welcome!
Thanks for joining us. Here are a few practical notes, followed by details of the music we’ll be singing tonight and our other upcoming gigs.
Please consider signing up to our quarterly newsletter to stay informed about our singing.
This gig has a short interval. The bar will be open before the concert and during the interval, but not after the show.
All profits from the bar will be going to the Bristol Soup Run Trust
If you can pay cash, please do. It will speed things up, and our card machine can be slow sometimes. If you don’t have the right change, feel free to round up to help the amazing work that goes on at the Bristol Soup Run Trust 😉
Toilets are available: as you face the stage, the loos are on the left, through glass doors, then turn right.
Thanks
David Siggins, for stepping in to run the bar and saving the day! Nick Hart, Katy Lavinia Cooper, The George & Dragon Singaround Crew
Our committee: Ian, Helen, Louise & Pete
All our families, partners, friends for the support while we prepared for this gig. We couldn’t do it without you xx
Upcoming Heartwood Chorus gigs
Fri 13 Dec 2023, Downend Folk & Roots & Live to your Living Room, supporting A Winter Union
In person tickets are now sold out, but you can join the waiting list
Live-stream tickets are still available
Sun 12 Jan, The Redcatch Wassail
Free! More info here
Thu 3 April, The Mount Without
Details TBC… Save the date!
History of the Priory
Read all about the history of this amazing building.
The Music
Wexford Lullaby
tune: Roud 22086 (Enniscorthy Carol),
words: John Renbourn
arrangement: The Furrow Collective
SATB choir arrangement: Neil Johnson
John Rebourne took the ancient Wexford Carol (here’s a version by Anúna) and wrote more secular words for it for his 1998 album, Traveller’s Prayer. Many of the harmonies we use come from the Furrow Collective’s version
Snow Falls
by John Tams,
arranged by Lady Maisery, Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith,
choral arrangement by Neil Johnson
John Tams wrote Snow Falls for the play and Albion Band's subsequent 1980 album Lark Rise to Candleford. The Lady Maisery, Aldridge & Goldsmith version is taken from their Awake Arise album.
Noël Nouvelet
Anon
arranged by Neil Johnson
a medieval carol from France. This carol describes the nativity scene and the events around it. There's a version in English (Sing We Now for Christmas), though the lyrics are quite changed
Gower Wassail
Arranged by Neil Johnson.
The Gower Wassail was recorded by Phil Tanner in 1936, and you can hear it on the Topic Compilation You Lazy Lot of Bone-Shakers. It is thought that many old songs from the Gower Peninsula survive as the community was so isolated, much like Appalachian music. The Watersons finished their great winter record, Frost and Fire, with their own version.