Still collecting wassail songs send em on in.

Subject: Folklore: still collecting wassail songs send em o
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 24 Feb 10 - 12:12 PM

Have any good wassail songs. Looking for them still. Send them on in here.

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http://www.cbladey.com/wassong.html

Subject: RE: Folklore: still collecting wassail songs send em o
From: Tradsinger
Date: 24 Feb 10 - 02:26 PM

Here being where?

Subject: RE: Folklore: still collecting wassail songs send em o
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 24 Feb 10 - 09:20 PM

post em here
or
e.mail to
[e-mail]

I have most of the ordinary ones all that are in the DT so check there first.
Many thanks

Conrad

Subject: RE: Still collecting wassail songs send em on in.
From: Tradsinger
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 03:55 AM

If you go to http://www.myspace.com/glosfolk you can hear the Brockweir (Gloucestershire) wassail.

Tradsinger

Subject: RE: Still collecting wassail songs send em on in.
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 11:06 AM

thanks for the tip

Subject: RE: Still collecting wassail songs send em on in.
From: RTim
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 11:36 AM

Wow - Brockweir is pretty remote! I had to look on a map to find it, and I thought I knew the area very well - but it is truely out there!

Gwilym, did you record it, if so, when?

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Still collecting wassail songs send em on in.
From: Tradsinger
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 01:05 PM

The actual recording was made locally by a Mr Simpson in about 1960 and passed on to me. I never met Charlie Williams, but Bob Patten and Andrew Taylor did visit him in the 70s and recorded several songs from him including the wassail. My group Puzzlejug recorded the Brockweir wassail. Follow the 'Let us be Merry' link on http://www.cmarge.demon.co.uk/Properjob/index.html

Enjoy

Tradsinger

Subject: RE: Still collecting wassail songs send em on in.
From: ClaireBear
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 02:07 PM

Do you want only mists-of-time traditional wassails, or would you like, for example, the Berkeley Wassail, which my friend Jon Berger wrote for the wassail in Berkeley, California, that the two of us started about 30 years ago? (Come to think of it, 30 years is mists-of-time traditional by California standards.)

C

Subject: ADD: Homeless Wassail (Ian Robb)
From: RTim
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 02:24 PM

There is also - the Homeless Wassail by Ian Robb

Tim Radford


HOMELESS WASSAIL
Words and Music © Ian Robb 1996


"Wassail, wassail all over the town
Our cup is white and our ale is brown"
But huddled on this iron grate
We poor and hungry curse our fate

CHORUS
No wassail bowl for such as these
No turkey scraps, no ale nor cheese
This Christmas eve our hearts' desire
Is a bottle of gin and a trashcan fire


Good Christian mind, as home you go
With dreams of holly and mistletoe,
That the holly bears a dreadful thorn
For those who wake to a frozen dawn


Oh, where is he, that holy child
Once born of Mary, meek and mild?
And whither peace, goodwill to men
Now and for evermore, amen?


All ye who dine with face aglow
In Reginensi atrio
Pray pause awhile at pleasure's door
And sup some sorrow with the poor


"Wassail, wassail all over the town
Our cup is white and our ale is brown"
This cold and hunger, pain and care
Sweet Jesus Christ, it's hard to bear!

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Finest Kind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFI1x3vc264

Nowell Sing We Clear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e6GuLbbX-I

Subject: RE: Still collecting wassail songs send em on in.
From: ClaireBear
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 02:30 PM

#1 PEASANT* -- did you truly mean veizon.net, or did you mean verizon.net?

Subject: RE: Still collecting wassail songs send em on in.
From: Susan of DT
Date: 26 Feb 10 - 07:21 AM

Conrad: There are 15 wassail songs in the DT, mostly with filenames beginning with "wass":
   WASSAPPL Apple Tree Wassail
   WASSBELY Belly Wassail
   WASS12   Carol for the Twelfth Day
   WASSCORN Cornish Wassail
   WASGLOUC Gloucestershire Wassail
   WASSGOW Gower Wassail
   WASSBUD Here We Come a Wassailing
   WASSCOME Here We Come a Wassailing (2)
   WASSUMNR The Haywood Sumner Wassail Song
   HOMEWASS Homeless Wassail
   HUMBWASS Humboldt Wassail Song
   WASSFOX Old Fox Wassail
   WASSOMER Somerset Wassail
   SOUTHWAS Southrepps Wassail Song
   TWASSAIL The Trucn Wassail Song

Subject: RE: Still collecting wassail songs send em on in.
From: GUEST,#1 PEASANT
Date: 26 Feb 10 - 08:12 AM

yes I have all of the wassails from the DT already

If you have a song that you wrote and would not mind having included in the biggest primary reference on Wassail music and customs and literature......ever published...please feel free to e.mail me the lyrics, simple one line melody notation and the all important permission to publish.

If you have an obscure one please include whatever references you have.

i do not expect any money to come out of this and the book will be maybe three to four volumes- really so cant promise free books maybe a discount or at cost or something- however no doubt much fame.....

send contributions to [e-mail]
also- testimonials concerning your wassail celebrations will also be welcome. Important to provide permissions. The book will cover contemporary practice a growing portion.

Many thanks for your kind assistance. This work has been a long struggle finally seeing the tunnel looking for the end of it.

Conrad

Subject: RE: Still collecting wassail songs send em on in.
From: Cats
Date: 26 Feb 10 - 08:28 AM

Mike O'Connor has written 2 wassail songs, Rillaton Wassail for my trees here and Wassail the Silver apple for my trees at the other house. Try contacting him at Lyngham House music

Subject: RE: Still collecting wassail songs send em on in.
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 26 Feb 10 - 08:32 AM

Thanks for that Charlie Williams link, Tradsinger - absolutely beautiful!

Subject: RE: Still collecting wassail songs send em on in.
From: Tradsinger
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 06:26 PM

Today I visited a chap in Gloucestershire who collected wassails in the early 70s and he has lent me cassette tapes and notes on 3 unpublished versions, 2 from Gloucestershire and one from Wiltshire. They will eventually appear on http://www.gloschristmas.com/ once they have been transcribed.

Tradsinger

Subject: ADD: The Berkeley Wassail (Jon Berger)
From: GUEST,diplocase
Date: 07 Jul 18 - 02:23 PM

THE BERKELEY WASSAIL
(words and music Jon Berger)

With pipe and with fiddle, with drummed with bell,
We sing our Wassail, me boys, to wish you all well.
Long life and good fortune to all who live here --
God bless you and send you a happy New Year.

Through weeds and through snow we have come to your door
A small drop of porter is all we implore
And then we will sing with all proper decorum;
The Yeast and teh barley drive sorrows before 'em.

Some nutmeg and ginger to make us all merry,
Or whiskey or brandy or cyder or sherry.
Strong drink and its virtues our songs will extoll,
So bring us a bottle and fill up our bowl.

Come join in our Wassail and raise up your voice
For now is the season to sing and rejoice,
And number your blessings, the great and the small
Good friends and companions the greatest of all.


As scored, the final line is sun canon-like, with the men beginning (bless you and send you a happy new year, God bless you and send you a happy new year. God.). They are joined after a bar by the altos (bless you and send you, God bless you and send you a happy new year). The sopranos come in after a bar (bless you and send you happy new year) so that all three parts are singing that phrase together to end the song.

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Casey - "drummed"??? -Joe-