Auld Lang Syne

The evening of January 31 is the traditional time to sing and hear the song “Auld Lang Syne.” This often-misunderstood song began centuries ago in the highlands of Scotland.

The Scots Musical Museum is a six-volume publication that appeared between 1787 and 1803. Produced in Edinburgh by James Johnson with Stephen Clarke as musical editor, it is considered by many to be the finest collection of Scottish Songs.

The principal contributor to the collection, submitting over 300 of the total 600 published songs, without monetary compensation, was Robert Burns (1759-1796), a poet, lyricist, farmer, and exciseman (customs agent). He was also known as Rabbie Burns, but his writing earned him other names including the Ploughman Poet and the Bard of Ayrshire, where he spent most of his life. Later, Scotland simply called him The Bard. Burns is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and Scotland's favorite son.

In 1788 Burns set down the words to a particular song and sent it to Johnson soon after. Burns wrote that he “collected” the song from an old man who sang it. Johnson was hesitant to publish the “authentic” song because it contained bits of other old folk songs and poems, including one poem written by Robert Ayton (1570-1638) that Johnson had already published in an earlier volume. In addition, Johson probably knew it was not uncommon for a song collector to compose some or all of their “discovered” songs. In spite of all this, Johnson finally published the song in the fifth volume early in 1797. Sadly, Burns had died about six months earlier, but his letters suggest that Burns had seen proofs of the new volume before his death. The song in question was a tribute to remembered friendships and shared times, entitled “Auld Lang Syne.”

The song became popular shortly after it was published, and it spread to other English speaking countries as Scots and other Britons emigrated around the world. The song was often sung as a closing to momentous occasions, including but not limited to dances, commencement exercises and annual associational meetings or conferences. In keeping with this tradition of farewell and remembrance, many also sang it at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day. In Scotland the celebration is called Hogmanay (pronounced “hog-muh-NAY”), meaning the last day of the year.

While “Auld Lang Syne” is still used for various occasions around the world, many in the United States know it only as that song we sing at midnight on New Year's Day. However, that does not lessen the significance of the words and the sentiment they offer.

The pentatonic melody we sing today is not the one that Burns intended. That tune appeared earlier in the collection with the Robert Ayton poem. The final melody is a traditional Scots folk tune just the same, first appearing in print in 1700, but is possibly older by fifty years or more. It is also possible that it began as a dance tune with a much faster tempo.

“Auld Lang Syne” (pronounced “ald lang sign”) is sometimes described as "the song that nobody knows." Even in Scotland it is rarely sung correctly. Most people sing only the first verse and the chorus, with the last line of the verse changed to “and days of auld lang syne.” The Scots words “auld lang syne” literally mean “old long since.” In today's English we would probably say “long ago” or “times gone by.”

Included are three versions of the text. The first is the original text submitted by Burns. The second is an English guide to pronouncing the Scots text. The last is an English translation of the Scots text.

Auld Lang Syne
Collected by Robert Burns

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

Chorus:

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And surely ye'll be your pint stowp!
And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak a cup o'kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

(chorus)

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary fit,
Sin' auld lang syne.

(chorus)

We twa hae paidl'd in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin' auld lang syne.

(chorus)

And there's a hand, my trusty fere!
And gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak a right gude-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.

(chorus)


Auld Lang Syne
(English Pronunciation of Scots Text)

Shid ald akwentans bee firgot,
an nivir brocht ti mynd ?
Shid ald akwentans bee firgot,
an ald lang syn ?

Chorus:

Fir ald lang syn, ma dir,
fir ald lang syn,
Wil tak a cup o kyndnes yet,
fir ald lang syn.

An sheerly yil bee yur pynt-staup!
an sheerly al bee myn!
An wil tak a recht guid-wullae wocht,
fir ald lang syn.

(chorus)

We twa hay rin aboot the braes,
an pood the gowans fyn;
Bit weev wandert monae a weery fet,
sin ald lang syn.

(chorus)

We twa hay pedilt in the burn,
fray mornin sun til dyn;
But seas a'tween us bred hay roard
sin ald lang syn.

(chorus)

An thers a han, my trustee feer!
an gees a han o thyn!
An will tak a cup o kyndnes yet,
fir ald lang syn.

(chorus)


Auld Lang Syne
(English Translation)

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

Chorus:

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!
And surely I’ll buy mine!
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

(chorus)

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

(chorus)

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine (dinner time) ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

(chorus)

And there’s a hand my trusty friend!
And give us a hand o’ thine!
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

(chorus)

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Davy Jones (1945-2012)

December 30 is the birthday of David Thomas "Davy" Jones (1945-2012), English actor, musician, recording artist, performing artist, and businessman best known as a member of the pop rock band, the Monkees, and star of the TV series of the same name. Jones' acting credits include a Tony-nominated role as the Artful Dodger in Oliver! as well as roles in The Brady Bunch film and television series; Love, American Style; and My Two Dads. Jones is considered by some to be one of the great teen idols.

Born in Openshaw, Manchester, England, Jones' television acting debut came in 1961 on the British television soap opera Coronation Street. He also appeared in the BBC police series Z-Cars. After the death of his mother when he was 14 years old, Jones rejected acting in favor of a career as a jockey. He dropped out of secondary school and apprenticed with Newmarket trainer Basil Foster. But even though Foster believed Jones would be successful as a jockey, Foster encouraged Jones to take a role as the Artful Dodger in a production of Oliver! In London's West End. This move changed Jones' life forever. In turn, Jones cared for Foster in his later years, bringing him to the United States and providing him financial support.

Jones performed in Oliver! in London and then on Broadway and was nominated for a Tony Award. On Februarys 9, 1964, Jones appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show with Georgia Brown, who was playing Nancy in the Broadway production of Oliver! This was the same episode of the show in which the Beatles made their first appearance. Jones said of that night, "I watched the Beatles from the side of the stage, I saw the girls going crazy, and I said to myself, this is it, I want a piece of that."





Following his Ed Sullivan appearance, Jones signed a contract with Ward Sylvester of Screen Gems, then the television division of Columbia Pictures. Two American television appearances followed, in episodes of Ben Casey and The Farmer's Daughter.

Jones debuted on the Hot 100 in the week of August 14, 1965, with the single "What Are We Going To Do?" The 19-year-old singer was signed to Colpix Records, a label owned by Columbia. Jones' debut album on the same label, David Jones, followed soon after. In 1967, the album was issued in the UK, in mono only, on the Pye Records label.

From 1966 to 1971, Jones was a member of the Monkees, a pop-rock group formed expressly for the NBC television show of the same name. The series was popular, and remained so in syndication. After the group disbanded in 1971, Jones reunited with Micky Dolenz as well as Monkees songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart in 1974 as the short-lived group called Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart.

On February 23, 1986, MTV broadcast "Pleasant Valley Sunday", a marathon of Monkees television episodes. The event resulted in a wave of Monkeemania not seen since the group's heyday. Jones reunited with Dolenz and Peter Tork from 1986 to 1989 to celebrate the band's renewed success and promote the 20th anniversary of the group. A new top 20 hit, "That Was Then, This Is Now" was released (though Jones did not perform on the song) as well as an album, Pool It!.

Monkees activity ceased until 1996 when Jones reunited with Dolenz, Tork and Michael Nesmith to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band. The group released a new album entitled Justus, the first album since 1967's Headquarters that featured the band members performing all instrumental duties. It was the last time all four Monkees performed together.

In February 2011, Jones confirmed rumours of another Monkees reunion. "There's even talk of putting the Monkees back together again in the next year or so for a U.S. and UK tour," he told Disney's Backstage Pass newsletter. "You're always hearing all those great songs on the radio, in commercials, movies, almost everywhere." The tour, Jones's last, came to fruition entitled, An Evening with the Monkees: The 45th Anniversary Tour.

In 1967, Jones opened his first retail store, called Zilch, in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. After the Monkees officially disbanded in 1971, Jones kept himself busy by establishing a New York City-style street market in Los Angeles, called "The Street". He also collaborated with musical director Doug Trevor on a one-hour ABC television special entitled Pop Goes Davy Jones, which featured new artists the Jackson Five and the Osmonds.

In 1971, Bell Records signed Jones to a somewhat inflexible solo record contract. Jones was not allowed to choose his songs or producer, resulting in several lackluster and aimless records. His second solo album, Davy Jones (1971) was notable for the song "Rainy Jane", which reached No.52 in the Billboard charts. To promote the album, Jones performed "Girl" on an episode of The Brady Bunch entitled "Getting Davy Jones". Although the single sold poorly, the popularity of Jones's appearance on the show resulted in "Girl" becoming his best remembered solo hit, even though it was not included in the album. The final single, "Road to Love," was poorly received.

Jones also returned to theatre several times after the Monkees. He appeared in several productions of Oliver! as The Artful Dodger, and in 1989, toured the US portraying Fagin. Jones also co-starred with Micky Dolenz in Harry Nilsson's play The Point at the Mermaid Theatre, London in 1978.

The continued popularity of his 1971 Brady Bunch appearance led to Jones being cast as himself in The Brady Bunch Movie. Jones sang his signature solo hit "Girl", with a grunge band providing backing, this time with middle-aged women swooning over him. Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork also appeared as judges.

In 2001, Jones released Just Me, and album of his own songs, some written for the album and others originally on Monkees releases. In the early 2000s he was performing in the Flower Power Concert Series during Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival, a yearly gig Jones would continue until his death.

In April 2006, Jones recorded the single "Your Personal Penguin", written by children's author Sandra Boynton, as a companion piece to her new board book of the same title. On November 1, 2007, the Boynton book and CD titled Blue Moo was released and Jones is featured in both the book and CD, singing "Your Personal Penguin". In 2009, Jones released a collection of classics and standards from the 1940s through the 1970s entitled She.

In December 2008, Yahoo! Music named Jones the "Number 1 teen idol of all time". In 2009, Jones was rated second in a list of 10 best teen idols compiled by Fox News.

In addition to his career as an entertainer, Jones' other first love was horses. Training as a jockey in his teens, Jones later said "I made one huge mistake. When the Monkees finished in 1969–70, I should have got away from Hollywood and got back into the racing game. Instead, I waited another 10 years. Everyone makes mistakes in life and for me that was the biggest." He held an amateur rider's license and rode in his first race at Newbury for trainer Toby Balding.

On February 1, 1996, Jones won his first race, on Digpast, in the one-mile Ontario Amateur Riders Handicap at Lingfield. Jones also had horse ownership interests in both the U.S. and the U.K., and served as a commercial spokesman for Colonial Downs racetrack in Virginia. In tribute to Jones, Lingfield Park announced that the first two races on the card for March 3, 2012 would be renamed the "Hey Hey We're The Monkees Handicap" and the "In Memory of Davy Jones Selling Stakes" with successful horses in those races accompanied into the Winners' Enclosure by some of the Monkees' biggest hits. Plans were also announced to erect a plaque to commemorate Jones next to a Monkey Puzzle tree on the course.

On the morning of his death, Jones went to tend his 14 horses at a farm in Indiantown, Florida. After riding one of his favorite horses around the track, he complained of chest pains and difficulty breathing and was rushed to Martin Memorial South Hospital in Stuart, Florida, where he was pronounced dead of a severe heart attack due to atherosclerosis.

A private funeral service was held at Holy Cross Catholic parish in Indiantown, Florida. The three surviving Monkees did not attend in order not to draw more attention to the grieving family. Instead, the group attended memorial services in New York City as well as organizing their own private memorial in Los Angeles along with David's family and close friends. In addition, a public memorial service was held in Beavertown, Pennsylvania, near a church Jones had purchased for future renovation.

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Bernard Cribbins (born 1928)

December 29 is the birthday of English character actor, voice-over artist and musical comedian, Bernard Cribbins, OBE (born 1928). Cribbins came to prominence in films of the 1960s, and has been in work consistently since his professional debut in the mid-1950s. 

  

Cribbins is particularly well known to British audiences as the narrator in The Wombles, a BBC children's television program that ran for 40 episodes between 1973 and 1975. He also recorded several successful novelty records in the early 1960s and was a regular and prolific performer on the BBC's Jackanory from 1966 to 1991. Having appeared as Tom Campbell, a companion to Dr. Who in the 1966 feature film, Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D., Cribbins may be best known for his role, four decades later, as Wilfred Mott, a companion to television's Tenth Doctor. 

Born in Derker, Oldham, Lancashire, Cribbins served an apprenticeship at the Oldham Repertory Theatre, taking a break during his years of study to undertake national service with the Parachute Regiment in his late teens. 

Cribbins made his first West End theatre appearance in 1956 at the Arts Theatre, playing the two Dromios in A Comedy of Errors, and co-starred in the first West End productions of Not Now Darling, There Goes the Bride and Run for Your Wife. He also starred in the revue And Another Thing, and recorded a single of a song from the show, titled "Folksong". 

  

In 1962 he recorded two comic songs, "The Hole in the Ground", in which an annoyed workman eventually buries a harasser, and "Right Said Fred", in which three workmen struggle to move an unspecified heavy and awkward object (possibly a grand piano) into or out of a building. Both were produced by George Martin for Parlophone, with music by Ted Dicks and lyrics by Myles Rudge. "Hole in the Ground" reached the top ten in the UK Singles Chart. 

Cribbins' later theatre credits include the roles of Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls at the National Theatre, Moonface Martin in Anything Goes with Elaine Paige at the Prince Edward Theatre, Alfred P. Dolittle in My Fair Lady at the Houston Opera House, Texas, and Watty Watkins in George Gershwin's Lady, Be Good at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and on tour. He has also appeared in numerous pantomimes.

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Roebuck "Pops" Staples (1914-2000)

December 28 is the birthday of Roebuck "Pops" Staples (1914-2000), American gospel and R&B musician. Staples was a songwriter, guitarist and singer, and considered by many to be a pivotal figure in gospel music in the 1960s and 70s. Staples was the patriarch and member of singing group The Staple Singers, which included his son Pervis and daughters Mavis, Yvonne, and Cleotha. The Staple Singers are best known for their 1970s hits “Respect Yourself”, “I’ll Take You There”, “If You’re Ready (Come Go with Me)”, “Let’s Do It Again.” 

Staples was born on a cotton plantation near Winona, Mississippi, the youngest of 14 children. He heard, and began to play with, local blues guitarists such as Charlie Patton, who lived nearby, Robert Johnson, and Son House. Staples dropped out of school after the eighth grade, and then sang with a gospel group before marrying and moving to Chicago in 1935. 

There Staples sang with the Trumpet Jubilees while working in the stockyards, in construction work, and later in a steel mill. In 1948, he and his wife, Oceola, formed The Staple Singers to sing as a gospel group in local churches, with their children. The Staple Singers first recorded in the early 1950s for United and then the larger Vee-Jay Records, with songs including 1955's "This May Be the Last Time" (later covered by The Rolling Stones as “The Last Time”) and "Uncloudy Day". 

In the 1960s, the Staple Singers moved to Riverside Records and, later, Stax Records, and began recording protest, inspirational and contemporary music, reflecting the civil rights and anti-war movements of the time. The group gained a large new audience with “Respect Yourself” (which featured Pops, nearly 57 at the time, on lead on the long version for more than two minutes), the 1972 US # 1 hit “I’ll Take You There”, “If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me)”, and other hits. “Let’s Do It Again” topped the Hot 100 on his 61st birthday, on December 28, 1975. Pops Staples also recorded a blues album, Jammed Together, with fellow guitarists Albert King and Steve Cropper. 

In 1976, Staples also appeared in the movie documenting The Band's final concert, The Last Waltz (released in 1978). Pops Staples shared vocals with his daughters and with Levon Helm and Rick Danko on "The Weight." The group appeared in the concert on stage, but their later performance, shot on a soundstage, was used in the final film. It is considered by some fans as the definitive version of the song. 

After Mavis left for a solo career in the 1980s, Pops Staples began a solo career, appearing at international "blues" festivals (though steadfastly refusing to sing the blues), and tried his hand at acting. His 1992 album Peace to the Neighborhood won a Grammy nomination, and in 1995 he won a Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy for Father, Father. 

In 1986, Staples played the role of Mr. Tucker, a voodoo witch doctor, in the Talking Heads film True Stories, during which he performed the song "Papa Legba". Staples appears as himself in the 1997 Barry Levinson film  Wag the Dog, singing "Good Old Shoe" with Willie Nelson. 

In 1998, Staples received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1999 the Staple Singers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

Staples died after suffering a concussion in a fall at his home, just nine days short of his 86th birthday. After his death, his daughters Yvonne and Mavis gave one of his guitars to country and gospel musician Marty Stuart. 

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Anna Russell (1911-2006)

December 27 is the birthday of Anna Russell (1911-2006), English–Canadian singer and comedienne. Russell gave many concerts in which she sang and played comic musical sketches on the piano. Among her best-known works are her concert performances and famous recordings of The Ring of the Nibelungs (An Analysis) – a humorous 30-minute synopsis of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen – and (on the same album) her parody How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera.

Born in Maida Vale, London, England, as Anna Claudia Russell-Brown, she was educated at St Felix School at Southwold, Suffolk, at Harrogate College and in Brussels and Paris. She studied at the Royal College of Music. Russell had a difficult childhood, and particularly a difficult relationship with her mother. Russell was twice married and divorced, first to John Denison and second to artist Charles Goldhamer.

Russell's early career included a few engagements in opera as well as appearances as a folk singer on BBC radio in 1931. Russell's mother was Canadian, and the family returned in 1939 to Toronto, after her father's death, where she began to appear on local radio stations as an entertainer. By 1940, she began to find success as a soloist, a parodist, and a comedienne.

Russell became known for her deadpan humor, including her disbelieving emphasis of the absurd in well accepted stories and her mockery of pretension. For example, in her humorous analysis of Wagner's Ring cycle, she began by noting that the first scene takes place in the River Rhine: "In it!!" After pointing out that a character in the Ring Cycle is the first woman that Siegfried has ever met who is not his aunt, she pauses and declares, "I'm not making this up, you know!" This phrase also became the title of her autobiography, published in 1985. At the end of her monologue she sings the Rhinemaidens' leitmotif and declares, "You're exactly where you started, 20 hours ago!" Besides her Ring and Gilbert and Sullivan parodies, Russell was famous for other routines, including "Wind Instruments I Have Known", and parodies of Lieder ("Schlumpf"), French art songs ("Je ne veux pas faire l'amour" and "Je n'ai pas la plume de ma tante"), English folk songs ("I Wish I Were a Dicky-Bird" and "Oh How I Love the Spring"), and English music-hall songs ("I'm Only A Faded Rose"); even stretching to blues and jazz ("(I Gave You My Heart and You Made Me) Miserable").

Perhaps the apotheosis of Russell's Wagner Ring parody came during the celebrations of the Cycle's 100th Anniversary in 1976 when Wolfgang Wagner held a dinner and musical soiree featuring lighter entertainment based on his grandfather's music. The program included some Chabrier adaptations into waltzes and polkas, and was capped by playing Russell's Ring send-up for his guests.

Russell composed, wrote, and performed her own material for Columbia Records, was the author of The Power of Being a Positive Stinker (1955) and the Anna Russell Songbook (1958), and was the President of the B & R Music Publishing Company. She received the Canadian Women's Press Club Award in 1956 as the best Canadian comedy writer of the year. Giving advice on how to be a successful singer, she quipped that although a glorious voice was important, "it helps to be an independently wealthy, politically motivated, back-stabbing bitch."

Russell retired to Unionville, Ontario, Canada, in the late 1960s, living on a street named after her, but she went on several "farewell" tours in the 1970s and 1980s, including one-woman shows at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Carnegie Hall parodying opera divas who did the same. In 1980 she played Helga ten Dorp opposite Charles Dennis's Sidney Bruhl in Deathtrap at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario.

In her last years she moved to Australia, to be cared for by Deirdre Prussak, a fan who became Russell's close friend for over 50 years. Russell and Prussak had developed a kind of mother-daughter relationship. Russell died in Rosedale, New South Wales, near Batemans Bay. Prussak was the author of Anna in a Thousand Cities, a memoir of Anna Russell's life.

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Good King Wenceslas

December 26 (December 27 in the east) is celebrated as the feast day of Saint Stephen ( died c. 34). Stephen was a deacon in the early church at Jerusalem and the first documented martyr of Christianity, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. The popular carol "Good King Wenceslas" tells the story of a royal braving harsh winter weather to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen.

In the late sixteenth century in the western Finland town of Turku, the rector (principal) of the Cathedral School of the local Catholic diocese took on the task of collecting, preserving and perpetuating the late medieval (thirteenth century) Latin songs that were still sung during his century in the Finnish cathedral schools. The name of the man was Jaakko Finne (or Jaakko Suomalainen), who was also a hymnist and who wrote under the Latinized penname Jacobus Finno (ca. 1540-1588). The collected songs were finally ypublished in 1582 with the funding of a Finnish student named Theodoric Petri of Nyland, a member of an aristocratic family who was known by other names, but is remembered in print as Theodoricus Petri Nylandensi (ca. 1560- ca. 1630).

The song collection became known simply as Piae Cantiones, but its full title was Piae Cantiones ecclesiasticae et scholasticae veterum episcoporum (Devout ecclesiastical and school songs of the old bishops). The collection included 74 songs that give insight to medieval Catholic culture. The origin of the songs and melodies varies and most of the songs are religious in nature, but some are secular school songs. One such school song, by author unknown, was called “Tempus Adest Floridum,” Latin, meaning “Now Come the Flowers.” The song celebrates the coming of spring, the warming of the earth and the blooming of the flowers.

Tempus Adest Floridum

Tempus adest floridum, surgent namque flores
Vernales in omnibus, imitantur mores
Hoc quod frigus laeserat, reparant calores
Cernimus hoc fieri, per multos labores.

Sunt prata plena floribus, iucunda aspectu
Ubi iuvat cernere, herbas cum delectu
Gramina et plantae hyeme quiescunt
Vernali in tempore virent et accrescunt.

Haec vobis pulchre monstrant Deum creatorem
Quem quoque nos credimus omnium factorem
O tempus ergo hilare, quo laetari libet
Renovato nam mundo, nos novari decet.

Terra ornatur floribus et multo decore
Nos honestis moribus et vero amore
Gaudeamus igitur tempore iucundo
Laudemusque Dominum pectoris ex fundo.

In 1853 a new collection of Christmas songs was published by hymnist John Mason Neale (1818-1866) and minister and chorister Thomas Helmore (1811-1890). The collection was entitled Carols for ChristmasTide and included a carol by Neale that he may actually have written a few years earlier. The text was a tale of a young man named Václav (pronounced “VAHT-slaf”), who was the son of Duke Vratislav I of Bohemia. Václav was born around 907 in Prague, Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic). Christianity spread through Bohemia during his reign as duke, which began about 924 or 925 when he assumed the throne at the age of eighteen. On September 28, 935, Václav was murdered on his way to church in a plot organized by his younger brother, Boleslav, who succeeded him as duke. Numerous saintly stories about Václav circulated following his death, as well as a few miracles that were attributed to his name. Václav was later venerated as a saint in both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, and there is a major shrine to him at St Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

The carol takes place in the Bohemian bitter cold of December 26, the feast day of Saint Stephen, whose stoning is recounted in the Acts of the Apostles (the Book of Acts in the Bible). Neale set his new carol text to the tune of the old medieval Latin school song “Tempus Adest Floridum.” And rather than use his Czech name of Václav, Neale called him the name by which he was better known in the west—Wenceslas.

Good King Wenceslas

by John Mason Neale

Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen,

When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even.

Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel,

When a poor man came in sight, gathering winter fuel.

“Hither, page, and stand by me, if you know it, telling,

Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?”

“Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain,

Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes’ fountain.”

“Bring me food and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither,

You and I will see him dine, when we bear them thither.”

Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together,

Through the cold wind’s wild lament and the bitter weather.

“Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger,

Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer.”

“Mark my footsteps, my good page, tread now in them boldly,

You shall find the winter’s rage freeze your blood less coldly.”

In his master’s steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted;

Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.

Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,

You who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing.

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Handel and Haydn Society

December 25, 1815, marked the first performance of the Handel and Haydn Society. The Society, familiarly known today as H&H, is an American chorus and period instrument orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Founded on March 24, 1815, by a group of Boston merchants and musicians, H&H's purpose was "to promote the love of good music and a better performance of it." The founders were Gottlieb Graupner, Thomas Smith Webb, Amasa Winchester, and Matthew S. Parker. They described their aims as "cultivating and improving a correct taste in the performance of Sacred Music, and also to introduce into more general practice, the works of Handel, Haydn, and other eminent composers."

The Society premiered on Christmas Day, December 25, 1815, at King's Chapel (then Stone Chapel), with a chorus of 90 men and 10 women. The early chorus members were middle class tradesmen drawn from the choirs of local churches. Only men could be members, while a far smaller number of women were invited to participate. In its early decades, the Society hired what musicians it could afford and used unpaid amateurs to complete the orchestra or sometimes substituted organ for orchestra.

Jonas Chickering, at the start of his career as a piano manufacturer, joined the Society in 1818 at age 20 and later became its president. The Society was also an early promoter of composer Lowell Mason, publishing his first collection of hymns in 1822 and later electing him as the group's President. Profits from the sales of that hymnbook, and a second collection of sacred music, subsidized the Society for several decades.

The Handel and Haydn Society has given a number of notable American premieres, including Handel's Messiah in 1818, and the second U.S. performance of Haydn's The Creation in 1819. The Society also sponsored the first American publication of an edition of Messiah in 1816. It presented the U.S. premieres of musical settings by many baroque and classical composers, including Mozart and Bach.

Membership from the start and well into the 20th century was limited to men, though the chorus, which was first dominated by male voices, was soon roughly balanced between male and female.

Poster for the annual Christmas oratorio, the Messiah, at the Boston Music Hall,

held on Sunday evening, December 30, 1860.

In 2015, the Handel and Haydn Society plans to celebrate its bicentennial, beginning with its 161st annual performances of Handel's Messiah in December 2014 and closing with Messiah in December 2015. Throughout the year, the Society plans to present exhibits, lectures, free concerts, and more designed to showcase its rich history and future plans.

The Handel and Haydn Society maintains a publicly accessible online searchable archive of its performances and artist history. All performances and artists from 1815 to the present can be accessed.

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Silent Night

December 24, 1818, saw the first performance of "Silent Night" in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.This beloved carol was two years in the making.

In 1816 a young Austrian priest named Father Josef Mohr (1792 - 1848) wrote in the German language a beautiful six-stanza poem on the birth of the Christ child. At that time Mohr was assigned to a pilgrimage church in the Alpine town of Mariapfarr, not far from the home of his grandfather. While we do not know what inspired Mohr to write his poem, we do know he took the poem with him when he was transferred to the village of Oberndorf the following year (1817).

Early on December 24, 1818, Mohr traveled quickly from Oberndorf to nearby Arnsdorf, to the home of musician and school teacher Franz Xaver Gruber (1787 - 1863), who lived in the apartment over the town schoolhouse. In addition to his teaching in Arnsdorf, Gruber was the organist and choir director at St. Nikolaus Church where Mohr served as assistant pastor. On this day Mohr showed Gruber his poem. He may have also given Gruber a bit of melody, but we are not certain. Mohr asked Gruber to finish the song and create an arrangement for duet and chorus with guitar accompaniment. The new song had to be ready for performance at Midnight Mass that night. We are not certain why the song had to be ready for that evening, but we have some possible reasons. Some have suggested that the organ was not working, either because of mice-eaten organ bellows or because of rust and mildew caused by periodic flooding of the nearby Salzach River. Others think that Mohr, who dearly loved guitar music, just wanted a new carol for Christmas. Whatever the reason, the song had to come together quickly.

Mohr returned to Oberndorf and Gruber followed several hours later with the finished arrangement. Mohr would sing melody and Gruber would sing a bass harmony. There was not enough time for the choir to learn and rehearse the entire song, so Gruber had the choir echo the duet by repeating the last two stanzas of each verse in four-part harmony. That night, at the Midnight Mass in St. Nikolaus Church, Mohr and Gruber stood in front of the main alter and sang while Mohr played his guitar and the choir echoed. And so the carol “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht!” (Silent Night, Holy Night) was heard for the first time.

Over the next few years Karl Mauracher, a master organ builder and repairman from the Ziller Valley, made several trips to Oberndorf to work on the St. Nikolaus organ. During one of these visits he either found or was given a copy of the carol and he took it home with him. The carol then began its journey around the world as a “Tyrolean Folk Song.”

Two traveling families of folk singers from the Ziller Valley, named Strasser and Rainer, added the song into their performing repertoire. We know from the local newspaper that the Strassers sang the song in a concert in Leipzig in December 1832. It was during this time that several of the melody’s notes were changed, and it evolved into the melody we commonly hear. We also know from a historical plaque that the Rainer Family sang the carol before an audience which included Austrian Emperor Franz I and Russian Tsar Alexander I. In 1839, the Rainers performed “Stille Nacht” for the first time in America, at the Alexander Hamilton Monument outside Trinity Church in New York City.

Although Gruber made attempts during his life to claim authorship of the carol melody, it was thought at various times that the melody was composed by Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven. The controversy was finally put to rest when an arrangement of the song written in Mohr's own hand was found and authenticated. The authorities could plainly see in the upper right hand corner of the first page that Mohr had written, “Melodie von Fr. Xav. Gruber.”

Gruber produced a number of orchestral arrangements of the song during his life. The original guitar arrangement is missing, but five other Gruber manuscripts of the carol exist. The discovered manuscript by Joseph Mohr (ca. 1820) is for guitar accompaniment and is probably the closest to the arrangement and melody sung at Midnight Mass in 1818.

The people of Austria consider the song a national treasure. They traditionally perform it only on Christmas Eve.

"Stille Nacht", scored by Franz Xaver Gruber.

Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht!
by Josef Mohr

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht!
Alles schläft, einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar,
Holder Knabe mit lockigem Haar,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh.

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht!
Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht
Lieb’ aus deinem holdseligen Mund,
Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund’,
Christ, in deiner Geburt,
Christ, in deiner Geburt!

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht!
Die der Welt Heil gebracht,
Aus des Himmels goldenen Höhn,
Uns der Gnaden Fülle läßt sehn,
Jesum in Menschengestalt,
Jesum in Menschengestalt!

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht!
Wo sich heut alle Macht
Väterlicher Liebe ergoß,
Und als Bruder huldvoll umschloß
Jesus die Völker der Welt,
Jesus die Völker der Welt!

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht!
Lange schon uns bedacht,
Als der Herr vom Grimme befreit
In der Väter urgrauer Zeit
Aller Welt Schonung verhieß,
Aller Welt Schonung verhieß!

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht!
Hirten erst kund gemacht;
Durch der Engel Halleluja
Tönt es laut von fern und nah’;
Christ der Retter ist da,
Christ der Retter ist da!

Below is the literal translation of the text from German to English by Bettina Klien.


Silent Night! Holy Night!
Silent Night! Holy Night!
Silent Night! Holy Night!
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon godly tender pair.
Holy infant with curly hair,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent Night! Holy Night!
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord at thy birth
Jesus, Lord at thy birth.

Silent Night! Holy Night!
Brought the world gracious light,
Down from heaven's golden height
Comes to us the glorious sight:
Jesus, as one of mankind,
Jesus, as one of mankind.

Silent Night! Holy Night!
By his love, by his might
God our Father us has graced,
As a brother gently embraced
Jesus, all nations on earth,
Jesus, all nations on earth.

Silent Night! Holy Night!
Long ago, minding our plight
God the world from misery freed,
In the dark age of our fathers decreed:
All the world redeemed,
All the world redeemed.

Silent Night! Holy Night!
Shepherds first saw the sight
Of angels singing alleluia
Calling clearly near and far:
Christ, the Saviour is born,
Christ, the Saviour is born.


Below is an English translation of the hymn found in many western hymnals. Stanzas 1 and 3 were translated from German in 1863 by John F. Young (1820 – 1885). The translator of stanzas 2 and 4 is unknown.

Silent Night, Holy Night!
by Josef Mohr; translated by John F. Young

Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and Child.
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, holy night,
Shepherds quake at the sight;
Glories stream from heaven afar,
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born!

Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love’s pure light;
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.

Silent night, holy night
Wondrous star, lend thy light;
With the angels let us sing,
Alleluia to our King;
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born!

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Severo Bonini (1582-1663)

December 23 is the birthday of Severo Bonini (1582-1663) Italian composer, organist and writer on music. Bonini was born in Florence and became a Benedictine monk. He studied singing with Giulio Caccini (1551-1618). Bonini served as organist in Forlì from 1613 and held a number of other posts before returning to Florence in 1640 where he was maestro di cappella and organist at Santa Trinita church in Florence until his death.

Bonini published several books of music, including motets and madrigals. He wrote music in the new modonic style.

Modony, as the term is used here, is a solo vocal style distinguished by having a single melodic line and instrumental accompaniment. Although such music is found in various cultures throughout history, the term is specifically applied to Italian song of the early 17th century. The term itself is a recent invention of scholars. Compositions in monodic form might be called madrigals, motets, or even concertos (in the earlier sense of "concertato", meaning "with instruments").

Bonini’s treatise Prima parte de' discorsi e regole sovra la musica (1649-1650) is an important source of information on contemporary composers and the rise of monody and opera.

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Christmas Hymns and Christmas Carols

As we have noted here before, Christmas carols are songs or hymns whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas, and which are traditionally sung in the period immediately surrounding the holiday. We here at Musical Diversion invite you to participate in the wonderful tradition of singing these much-loved carols and hymns. Please follow the link below to download Christmas Hymns and Christmas Carols, a collection of over 100 hymns and carols in PDF form. And rest assured that there are no strings attached. No need to register a membership or even enter an email address. Please accept this as our gift to you!

Download Christmas Hymns and Christmas Carols

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Werner "Kurt" von Trapp (1915-2007)

December 21 is the birthday of Werner von Trapp (1915-2007), Austrian-American singer and the second-oldest son of Georg Ritter von Trapp (1880-1947) and Agathe Whitehead (1891-1922). Werner was a member of the Trapp Family Singers, whose lives were the inspiration for the play and movie The Sound of Music. Werner was portrayed as the character "Kurt".

Born in Zell am See, Austria-Hungary, Werner was named after his paternal uncle, who died during World War I. Werner's six siblings were Rupert von Trapp (1911–1992), Agathe von Trapp (1913–2010), Maria Franziska (born 1914), Hedwig von Trapp (1917–1972), Johanna von Trapp (1919–1994) and Martina von Trapp (1921–1951). They, along with his father and stepmother, Maria Augusta von Trapp (1905-1987), comprised the Trapp Family Singers, who inspired the 1959 Broadway musical and the 1965 Academy Award winning Best Picture The Sound of Music. In the family chorus, Werner sang tenor.

Georg and Maria had three children together: Rosemarie von Trapp (born 1928), Eleonore von Trapp (born 1931), and Johannes von Trapp (born 1939).

The Trapps fled Austria after the German annexation of Austria, fearing reprisals resulting from declining to sing at Hitler's birthday party and Georg von Trapp's refusal to accept a commission in the German Navy. The family went to the United States in 1938, settled in Vermont in 1942, and performed throughout the country. Georg Ritter von Trapp died in 1947 and the family eventually ceased performing.

Werner became a naturalized United States citizen while serving in the United States Army, initially serving with the 101st Infantry Battalion and later the 10th Mountain division in Italy during World War II. He then became a dairy farmer before eventually retiring in Waitsfield, Vermont.

Werner married Erika Klambauer in 1948 and had six children: Barbara, Martin, Bernhard, Elisabeth, Tobias, and Stefan.

Werner was the grandfather of Sofia, Melanie, Amanda, and August, the latest incarnation of the Trapp Family Singers.

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Paul Francis Webster (1907-1984)

December 20 is the birthday of Paul Francis Webster (1907-1984), the American lyricist who won three Academy Awards for Best Song and who was nominated for the award sixteen times. His three Academy Awards were won for "Secret Love" (1953), "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing" (1955), and "The Shadow of Your Smile" (1965). And the last of the three also won a Grammy Award for best song of the year.

Webster's first professional lyric was Masquerade (music by John Jacob Loeb) which became a hit in 1932, performed by Paul Whiteman. Webster's first hit was a collaboration in 1941 with Duke Ellington on the song "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)". He won his first two Academy Awards in collaboration with Sammy Fain, and the third with Johnny Mandel. Altogether, sixteen of his songs received Academy Award nominations; among lyricists, Webster is second only to Johnny Mercer in number of nominations (Mercer had 18). In addition to his awards and nominations, a large number of Webster's songs became major hits on the popular music charts.

Webster is the most successful songwriter of the 1950s on the U.K. charts. In 1967 he was asked to write the famed lyrics for the Spider-Man theme song of the television cartoon ("Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can..."). Webster was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.

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Édith Piaf (1915-1963)

December 19 is the birthday of Édith Piaf (1915-1963). Born in Belleville, Paris as Édith Giovanna Gassion, this French singer, songwriter and actress became widely regarded as France's national diva, as well as one of France's greatest international stars. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being Chanson and ballads, particularly of love, loss and sorrow. Among her songs are “La Vie en rose” (1946), "Non, je ne regrette rien" (1960), "Hymne à l'amour" (1949), "Milord" (1959), "La Foule" (1957), "l'Accordéoniste" (1955), and "Padam ... Padam ..." (1951).

Piaf died of liver cancer at age 47. She is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, where her grave is among the most visited. Piaf was denied a funeral mass because of her lifestyle. But on October 10, 2013, fifty years after her death, the Roman Catholic Church gave her a memorial mass in the St. Jean-Baptiste Church in Belleville, Paris, the parish she was born into.

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The Nutcracker

On December 18, 1892 (Old Style, December 6) the first performance of The Nutcracker, a ballet in two acts with music composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). The libretto, written by Marius Petipa (1822-1910), is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It is not certain who choreographed the various parts of the ballet's first production. Petipa began the work in August, but illness prevented him from completing. Lev Ivanov (1834-1901), who was Petipa's assistant of seven years, picked up where Petipa left off. Ivanov is often credited as the sole choreographer of the original production.

On December 18, the ballet was held as a double premiere together with Tchaikovsky's last opera, Iolanta. The performances were held at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. The performance was conducted by Riccardo Drigo (1846-1930), with Antonietta Dell'Era as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Pavel Gerdt as Prince Coqueluche, Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara, Sergei Legat as the Nutcracker-Prince, Timofey Stukolkin as Drosselmeyer, and Vassily Stukolkin as Fritz. The rest of the children's roles, unlike many later productions, were performed by real children rather than adults, all students of Imperial Ballet School of St. Petersburg.

The original production was not a success, but the twenty-minute suite that Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet was. The complete Nutcracker has enjoyed enormous popularity since the late 1960s and is now performed by countless ballet companies, primarily during the Christmas season, especially in the U.S.

Tchaikovsky's score of The Nutcracker has become one of his most famous compositions, in particular the pieces featured in the suite. Among other things, the score is noted for its use of the celesta, an instrument that the composer had already employed in his much lesser known symphonic ballad The Voyevoda.

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Schubert's Unfinished Symphony

December 17, 1865 saw the first performance of the "Unfinished Symphony" (Symphony No. 8 in B minor) by Franz Schubert (1797-1828). Please note that this piece is sometimes renumbered as Symphony No. 7, in accordance with the Neue Schubert-Ausgabe.

Schubert started the piece in 1822, but left it with only two movements known to be complete, even though Schubert would live for another six years. Also surviving is a scherzo movement in a nearly completed piano score, but with only two pages orchestrated.

It has long been theorized that Schubert sketched a finale for the symphony which instead became the big B minor entr'acte from his incidental music to Rosamunde, but the evidence for this theory is circumstantial. One possible reason for Schubert's leaving the symphony incomplete is the predominance of the same meter (three-in-a-bar). The first movement is in 3/4, the second in 3/8 and the third (an incomplete scherzo) also in 3/4. Three consecutive movements in basically the same meter rarely occur in symphonies, sonatas or chamber works of the great Viennese composers. Joseph Haydn's Farewell Symphony has been cited as a notable exception; but its finale, though ending with a 3/8 Andante in which all the instruments drop out one by one leaving two duetting solo violinists ending the work in F-sharp major, starts with an orthodox sonata-allegro in the tonic F-sharp minor in common (i.e., duple) time transitioning after the recapitulation to the unorthodox extended slow 3/8 "Farewell" coda in modified sonata form.

This work is sometimes called the first Romantic symphony due to its emphasis on expressive melody, vivid harmony and creative combinations of orchestral tone color despite the architecturally imposing Classical sonata-form structures of its two completed movements highlighted by the dramatically climactic development section of the first movement based solely on its quietly sinister opening theme.

To this day, musicologists still disagree as to why Schubert failed to complete the symphony; or even whether he did fail to complete it. Some have speculated that he stopped working on it in the middle of the scherzo in the fall of 1822 because it was associated in his mind with his initial outbreak of syphilis, or simply that he was distracted by the inspiration for his Wanderer Fantasy for solo piano which occupied his time and energy immediately afterward; or perhaps a combination of both factors.

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Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

December 16 is the birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), German composer and pianist. Ludwig was a crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music. And he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. His best known compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 concertos for piano, 32 piano sonatas, and 16 string quartets. Beethoven also composed other chamber music, choral works—including the celebrated Missa Solemnis in D major, Opus 123—and songs.

Ludwig was born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of the Holy Roman Empire. He displayed his musical talents at an early age and was taught by his father, Johann van Beethoven (ca. 1739/1740-1792), and by Christian Gottlob Neefe (1748-1798). During his first 22 years in Bonn, Beethoven intended to study with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) and befriended Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792 and began studying with Haydn, quickly gaining a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. He lived in Vienna until his death. In about 1800—at about the age of 30—his hearing began to deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost totally deaf. He gave up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose; many of his most admired works come from this later period of his life (including his Missa Solemnis).

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Child in the Manger

Bunessan is a small village on the Ross of Mull in the south of the island of Mull on the west coast of Scotland. The village name in Scottish Gaelic is Bun Easain, meaning “Foot of the little waterfall,” referring to a waterfall near the village. Bunessan was originally a small community of farmers that practiced the Scottish farming tradition called crofting. In crofting, the landowner or their tenant, called the crofter, worked their holding, the croft, to make a living from the fruit of the land and the fruit of their labors. In many crofting communities the adjacent crofters practiced different endeavors that complemented and benefited each other. Until the 1900s, Bunessan had a mill, weavers and a small fishing fleet.

Not far from Bunessan, in the crofting community of Ardtun, lived Mary Macdonald (1789 – 1872), the daughter of a Baptist cleric. Macdonald wrote songs and poetry in her native language of Gaelic. One of her songs told the story of the birth of the baby Jesus, who was foretold by prophets, announced by angels, lord of all, yet sleeping in a humble feed trough. Macdonald set her words to the tune of a traditional Gaelic melody. She called the song “Leanabh an Àigh” (Child in the Manger).

Leanabh an Àigh
Mary Macdonald (1789–1872)

Leanabh an àigh, an Leanabh aig Màiri
Rugadh san stàball, Rìgh nan Dùl;
Thàinig do’n fhàsach, dh’fhuiling ’n ar n-àite
Son’ iad an àireamh bhitheas dhà dlùth!

Ged a bhios leanabain aig rìghrean na talmhainn
An greadhnachas garbh is anabarr mùirn,
’S geàrr gus am falbh iad, ’s fasaidh iad anfhann,
An àilleachd ’s an dealbh a’ searg san ùir.

Cha b’ionann ’s an t-Uan thàinig gur fuasgladh
Iriosal, stuama ghluais e’n tùs;
E naomh gun truailleachd, Cruithfhear an t-sluaigh,
Dh’éirich e suas le buaidh o ùir.

Leanabh an àigh, mar dh’aithris na fàidhean;
’S na h-àinglean àrd’, b’e miann an sùl;
’S E ’s airidh air gràdh ’s air urram thoirt dhà
Sona an àireamh bhitheas dhà dlùth.

A few decades later, the song was revived by a fellow Scott, Lachlan Macbean (1853 – 1931). Macbean edited The Fifeshire Advertiser, a newspaper in Kirkcaldy. In addition to his day job, Macbean had a passion for resurrecting nearly forgotten Gaelic songs. One of his published collections, entitled Songs and Hymns of the Gael (Edinburgh, Scotland: 1888) included an English translation of Macdonald’s song of the child in the manger. In her memory, Macbean named the song’s melody Bunessan, after the nearby village.

Child in the Manger
Mary Macdonald (1789–1872)
Translated by Lachlan Macbean, 1888

Child in the manger, Infant of Mary,
Outcast and Stranger, Lord of all,
Child Who inherits all our transgressions,
All our demerits on Him fall.

Once the most holy Child of salvation
Gently and lowly lived below.
Now as our glorious mighty Redeemer,
See Him victorious o’er each foe.

Prophets foretold Him, Infant of wonder;
Angels behold Him on His throne.
Worthy our Savior of all our praises;
Happy forever are His own.

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Once in Royal David's City

Cecil Frances Humphreys (1818-1895) was born in Dublin in Ireland and began writing verse while still in her childhood. By the 1840s, she was already known as a hymn writer and her compositions were soon included in the hymnbooks of the Church of Ireland. In addition to her hymns, she also contributed lyric poems, narrative poems and translations of French poetry to Dublin University Magazine under various pseudonyms.

Cecil’s most famous collection was published in 1848, entitled Hymns for Little Children. The following year, Henry John Gauntlett discovered one of Cecil’s texts from the collection and set it to music. The hymn was about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, which was also the birth town of His ancestor, King David. The hymn is called "Once in Royal David’s City".

In 1850, the year after Gauntlett paired words with music, Cecil married Anglican clergyman William Alexander, who would later become Bishop of Derry and Archbishop of Amagh. Mrs. Cecil Frances Humphreys Alexander embraced her duties seriously as a bishop’s wife. But never turned from her love of writing poems and hymns—there are over four hundred hymns to her credit.

Since 1918, King's College, Cambridge has annually presented on Christmas Eve a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, which, through the reading of Bible passages and the singing of hymns and carols, celebrates the birth of Jesus. Since the festival’s beginning, "Once in Royal David’s City" has had the distinction of being played as the festival's processional hymn.

Once in Royal David's City
Cecil F. Alexander, Hymns for Little Children, 1848.

Once in royal David’s city
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her Baby
In a manger for His bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ her little Child.

He came down to earth from Heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable,
And His cradle was a stall;
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Savior holy.

And, through all His wondrous childhood,
He would honor and obey,
Love and watch the lowly maiden,
In whose gentle arms He lay:
Christian children all must be
Mild, obedient, good as He.

For He is our childhood’s pattern;
Day by day, like us He grew;
He was little, weak and helpless,
Tears and smiles like us He knew;
And He feeleth for our sadness,
And He shareth in our gladness.

And our eyes at last shall see Him,
Through His own redeeming love,
For that Child so dear and gentle
Is our Lord in Heav’n above,
And He leads His children on
To the place where He is gone.

Not in that poor lowly stable,
With the oxen standing by,
We shall see Him; but in Heaven,
Set at God’s right hand on high;
Where like stars His children crowned
All in white shall wait around.

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