Working my way towards Christmas
Dec. 13th, 2012 10:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alpharaposaI hadn't intended to set a trend, but I randomly tweeted about a favorite carol on Monday, then again yesterday, and today I was reminded of another one. So, I'm going to post about them here and maybe keep doing it each day. We'll see.
One of my favorite things about Christmas is the music. We hear a lot of standards on the radio, but both my grandparents and my parents had organs or pianos in the house, so every Christmas included at least a few carols with everybody singing together.
So, the first carol I tweeted was Patapan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patapan). I like it for its lovely tune. It's one I learned first while singing in a church choir.
The second carol I tweeted was The Coventry Carol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coventry_Carol). My whole family once did this a capella for a Christmas service. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aefenglommung is not above drafting the family if he wants some special music on a Sunday.)
The carol for today is The Boar's Head Carol. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boar's_Head_Carol) I've never heard this one in a church. In spite of its reference to the King of Bliss, it's really a secular carol. In medieval times, it was customary to serve a boar's head as the "triumph" of a yuletide feast. It wasn't always a real boar's head, either. Clever chefs would construct great platters in the shape of a boar's head if an actual boar's head wasn't available or if the feast fell on a "meatless" day. So, it's a song about a how great a big meal is for Christmas.
This song is one I remember my dad singing to himself while prepping food in the kitchen. Sometimes he'd sit down at the piano or organ and belt out the whole thing, just for fun. The macaroni Latin in it is lots of fun to sing.
One of my favorite things about Christmas is the music. We hear a lot of standards on the radio, but both my grandparents and my parents had organs or pianos in the house, so every Christmas included at least a few carols with everybody singing together.
So, the first carol I tweeted was Patapan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patapan). I like it for its lovely tune. It's one I learned first while singing in a church choir.
The second carol I tweeted was The Coventry Carol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coventry_Carol). My whole family once did this a capella for a Christmas service. (
aefenglommung is not above drafting the family if he wants some special music on a Sunday.)The carol for today is The Boar's Head Carol. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boar's_Head_Carol) I've never heard this one in a church. In spite of its reference to the King of Bliss, it's really a secular carol. In medieval times, it was customary to serve a boar's head as the "triumph" of a yuletide feast. It wasn't always a real boar's head, either. Clever chefs would construct great platters in the shape of a boar's head if an actual boar's head wasn't available or if the feast fell on a "meatless" day. So, it's a song about a how great a big meal is for Christmas.
This song is one I remember my dad singing to himself while prepping food in the kitchen. Sometimes he'd sit down at the piano or organ and belt out the whole thing, just for fun. The macaroni Latin in it is lots of fun to sing.
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Date: 2012-12-13 06:28 pm (UTC)Meanwhile, we're doing a whole hog at the Winter Rendezvous next month, and I want to take the head and prepare it separately for the crackerbarrel Saturday night. I also intend to teach the Venturers at least the refrain and we'll bring the boar's head in with high ceremony and do the whole song.
Caput apri deferro, redens laudes Domino = "Here I come with a pig's head, praising God." That'll preach; it's got bacon in it.