Lyr Req: Welcome Yule!

Subject: Welcome Yule!
From: Cas
Date: 08 Nov 01 - 02:24 PM

I heard this once on radio done by coventry choir..its beautiful..not run of the mill xmas shmaltz( nothing wrong with shmaltz.. but other joyous stuff can blow you away) I d like lyrics tune and any idea if its on a record somewhere.....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Welcome Yule!
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Nov 01 - 02:34 PM

Here's your chance, guys. I can't find it. I found several new poems with the phrase in it, several CD's to buy with the song on it, and a listing attributed to Trad........but no lyrics.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Welcome Yule!
From: MMario
Date: 08 Nov 01 - 02:50 PM

at least two version out there - I found reference to a recent composition - and to a 15th century carol -= but didn't find any lyrics.

Subject: Lyr Add: WELCOME YULE
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 08 Nov 01 - 05:44 PM

WELCOME YULE

(Text 15th Century; spelling modernised. Tune by S.H. Nicholson.)

Welcome Yule, thou merry man,
In worship of this holy day!
Welcome Yule, Welcome Yule.
Welcome be thou, heaven-king,
Welcome born in one morning,
Welcome for whom we shall sing
Welcome Yule.

Welcome be ye, Stephen and John,
Welcome Innocents every one,
Welcome Thomas, Martyr one:
Welcome Yule.

Welcome be ye, good New Year,
Welcome Twelfth Day, both in fere,
Welcome Saintès lief and dear:
Welcome Yule.

Welcome be ye, Candlemas,
Welcome be ye, queen of bliss,
Welcome both to more and less:
Welcome Yule.

Welcome be ye that are here,
Welcome all, and make good cheer,
Welcome all another year!
Welcome Yule.

in fere:  together.
lief:  beloved.

From The Oxford Book of Carols, ed. Percy Dearmer, R. Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw.  The carol appears in "Sloane MS. 2593, of the beginning of the 15th century or temp. Henry VI.  Another version in the Bodleian Douce MS. 302, the collection of John Awdlay, the blind chaplain, c.1430, printed in Sandys Christmastide, 1852."

The tune is modern, and was composed by Sydney Hugo Nicholson (1875-1947), sometime organist at Westminster Abbey and a prolific composer of church music.  Midis made from the notation in the Oxford book will go to  Mudcat Midis,  and can be heard in the meantime via the  South Riding Folk Network  site:

Welcome Yule  Melody line only, with the first two lines -scored for bass- transposed up one octave; in the final verse, the last two notes change to F and B flat.

Welcome Yule  Full arrangement, played through twice to incorporate the slightly different final bars.  I assume that the italicised section is intended to be repeated as a chorus, but I'm not much used to hymn books and may have misunderstood.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Welcome Yule!
From: GUEST,JohnB
Date: 09 Nov 01 - 12:57 PM

I can't remember where exactly I got it from but you are correct about the italicized "Wolcum Yule" being repeated at the end of each verse. I have not looked/listened to the versions posted, the version we did had a different ending for the last time the chorus was repeated. The only other bit we did different was instead of "lief" in the third verse we sang "beloved". I seem to recollect someone telling me recently that this song is on a Rankin Family Christmas CD. JohnB

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Welcome Yule!
From: masato sakurai
Date: 13 May 02 - 02:27 AM

The Middle English text is in Richard Leighton Greene, The Early English Carols, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1977, no. 7B [pp. 3-4]; John Audelay version is no. 7A). Also composed by John Joubert (on Bristol Bach Choir, Welcome Yule); and by Peter Maxwell Davies (on Elizabethan Singers, Sir Cristemas). The words are quoted in Chambers' The Book of Days, vol. II, p. 735 (Click here).

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Welcome Yule!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 02:45 PM

The midi links with the posting of "Welcome Yule" by Malcolm Douglas cannot be used; the tune is absent from Mudcat midis, and the South Riding Folk Network can't be reached (temporary, I hope!).

Is the midi the same as the one at Hymns and Carols of Christmas?: Welcome Yule

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Welcome Yule!
From: MMario
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 03:00 PM

the mudcat midi page link to the Welcome Yule midi works for me,Q. Did you use the link at the top of the page? or one of the others.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Welcome Yule!
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 07:08 PM

The South Riding site is temporarily offline; I expect that the server company are fiddling about again. As a rule, it's more reliable of access than the Mudcat!

I still live in hope that, one day, somebody will set the MIME types on the Mudcat server so that midis can be played, as they used to be, via non-Microsoft browsers.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Welcome Yule!
From: Ron Davies
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 10:37 PM

It's possible, if Cas is still looking for what he or she heard, that it was a performance of Britten's Ceremony of Carols--- (the Wolcum Yul (sp?) movement.) If so, there are lots of recordings. The whole piece is great.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Welcome Yule!
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 10:51 PM

The midi links mentioned above are now once again active.