songs about the Three Kings

Subject: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 10:00 AM

As I mentioned in the current thread abt 'Twelvetide,' our gang has a tradition of the Three Kings party, which is held on January 1st.

We need more songs about the Three Kings [or Magi]. I'd appreciate references or links to any unusual ones that you know. I already have these:

March of the Three Kings - Provencal tune, 13th C.
The Golden Carol of Melchior, Gaspar and Balthazar - trad. English
Songs of Thankfulness and Praise - Jakob Hintze
Star in the East - shape note
What Star is this? - Praetorius
Christ Child Lullabye - from the DT

[I used to think that 'gs of Thankfulness and Praise' was a rather dull tune, until I realized that it could be done as a peppy
Baroque instrumental.]

Thanks for any new songs you may know.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: MMario
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 10:06 AM

To the tune of 'We be soldiers three"

We be wisemen three
Pardonnez moi, je vous en prie
Lately come forth, from out of the East
In search of the babe in the manger

Gifts we bear and gladly bring
Pardonnez moi, je vous en prie
Gold is first, to crown him a king
The babe that is laid in the manger

Frankinscense to offer have we
Pardonnez moi, je vous en prie
For the Son of God and Virgin Marie
The babe that is laid in the manger

Myrhh is third and last of the three
Pardonnez moi, je vous en prie
Fortelling his death, though sinless he be
The babe that is laid in the manger

Sing Hossanah Earth, sky and Sea
Pardonnez moi, je vous en prie
For born today in Beth'lem city
The babe that is laid in the manger.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: nutty
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 01:56 PM

Three kings from Persian lands afar
To Jordan followed the pointed star

just Google for more info.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: Rog Peek
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 02:04 PM

We three kings of orient are
One on a bike and one in a car
One on a scooter, blowing his hooter
Smoking a great cigar-ar

Star of wonder..........

Rog

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: PoppaGator
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 03:29 PM

We three kings of orient are
Smoking on a rubber cigar
It was loaded
It exploded..

Sorry, couldn't resist. I've heard this all my life, in various regions of the US, but never heard any words to complete the verse.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: MMario
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 03:32 PM

We three kings of orient are
Smoking on a rubber cigar
It was loaded
It exploded..
Now there are two of us.

We two kings of orient are
Smoking on a rubber cigar
It was loaded
It exploded..
Now there are two of us

I, One king of orient am
Smoking on a rubber kaazaam
It was loaded
It exploded...

. . .

. . .

Si-lent Night.
Ho-o-ly night... ... ...

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: Leadfingers
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 03:38 PM

There is always the original 'We Three Kings of Orient are' , as opposed to the parodies posed above - OR you could do a set of parody verses and add :-
We Four lads from Liverpool are
Paul in a bus and John in a car
George on a scooter , bipping his hooter,
Following Ringo Starr

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: Rog Peek
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 04:01 PM

You lot don't need much to get you going do you?

Rog

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 06:23 PM

Thanks, MMario and nutty.

Of course, the well-known 'We three kings of Orient are' is in my collection. I forgot to mention it.

I found a site which gives the lyrics for quite a few songs, but no MIDI. Lyrics alone aren't much use.

As for the parodies, I don't do parodies. Parodies are to poetry what graffiti is to architecture.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: Padre
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 10:18 PM

Here are some from the Hymnal 1940 of the ACC:

1) 'What star is this with beams so bright' [Tune - Puer Nobis by Michael Praetorius] The second and third verses make reference to the kings:

True spake the prophet from afar, who told the rise of Jacob's star;
And eastern sages with amaze upon the wondrous token gaze

The guiding star above is bright; within them shines a clearer light
And leads them on with power benign, to seek the giver of the sign

2) 'From the Eastern Mountains' [ Tune - Valour by Arthur H Mann]

From the Eastern mountains pressing on they came,
Wise men in their wisdom to his humble home;
Stirred by deep devotion hasting from afar
Ever journeying onward, guided by a star

3) 'Saw you never in the twilight' [Tune - Chartres a 15th century French melody]

If you want to hear midis ofthese songs, go to www.cyberhymnal.org where you can search by title or name of the tune

Padre

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: john f weldon
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 10:21 PM

...we sang..

"Now we're on our way to Mars...."

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: john f weldon
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 10:25 PM

Oh Leeneia...

Parodies are to poetry, etc....

You prefer the "originals" to the Lewis Carroll versions?

All poetry is parody of forgotten originals!

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: Joe_F
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 10:26 PM

N.B. There is no scriptural authority for the Magi being kings, or for there being three of them. If you want to write a song with some other number & occupation (the scholarly consensus seems to be that they were astrologers), you will not be committing the slightest heresy.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: Kent Davis
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 10:34 PM

"Beautiful Star of Bethlehem" is a lovely song that refers to the Magi, but is really about the one whom they sought: thread.cfm?threadid=42167#611258
Kent

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 05:32 AM

We Three Kings of Leicester Square
Selling ladies' underwear
How fantastic
No elastic
7/6 a pair.

For readers under the age of 50 it's pronounced Seven and Six, equates to 37.5 pence, and was a lot of money for underwear in those days. You could probably get a pair filled for not much more.

Let us not be so obsessed with the three kings that we forget the three wise women:
Three wise women went down to Bethlehem (tris)
To see the baby king.

The first wise woman took two gross of Pampers Dry

The second wise woman too cotton buds and baby wipes

The third wise woman took a voucher from Mothercare

The first wise woman said 'What bloody use is Frankinsesne?'

The second wise woman said 'Cowsheds aren't hygenical'.

The third wise woman said 'Joseph, get up off your arse' etc

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: kendall
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 06:35 AM

My mind just went back 65 years ago when my Sunday school teacher said something that turned me away from being a Baptist. I mentioned the 3 kings, Balthazzah, Casper and Melchior. She said "We don't believe they had names."
Ridicluous.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: Surreysinger
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 07:56 AM

"Three Kings from Persian Lands Afar" - setting by Peter Cornelius, was one carol which we sang at school every year and which I absolutely adored (and still do).

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: john f weldon
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 09:01 AM

"We Three Kings of Orient Are" (according to my dictionary, that's East Asia)
The Bible specifies that they saw the star in the east.
Presumably they were headed for Hawaii.

"Bearing gifts we travel so far"
If they actually started West of Bethlehem, they couldn't have come from too far, unless they travelled by boat.

"Persian Lands Afar" - wrong direction, again!

I like the fact the "I Saw Three Ships" was once about an expedition to retirieve the skulls of the three wise men. Can we get ahold of these skulls, do a little DNA analysis and find out where they really came from?

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 09:04 AM

The Bible specifies that they saw the star in the east.
Presumably they were headed for Hawaii.

Much like the ship in Bold Princess Royal in which "boldly from Yarmouth to the westward sailed we". Goes straight through Birmingham!

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 10:04 AM

Thanks for the new songs, such as Beautiful Star of Bethlehem and Kings from Persian Lands. I haven't found of MIDI of that one, just observations that the tune resembles "Wie Schoen Leuchtet."

Like most people posting, I'm aware that "Kings" is not correct as far as scripture goes. I guess that just shows that a good song [We Three Kings of Orient Are] outweighs a book in public memory.

When I was a kid, I thought the visit of the wise men meant that the rich and powerful nations of the world bowed down to little Jesus. But now I picture the wise men as intellectuals who had grown discontented with superstition. They had come to realize that watching the sky or studying the entrails of sacrifices does not predict the future. Neither were they a way of preserving a society. By visiting Jesus, they took the first step in their search for something better. Unfortunately, they didn't hang around to see what came next.

Who was it that wrote a poem about that, the one that ends "I should be glad of another death?"

Another aspect of that is that I assume they came from one of these ancient city-states that are still famous for their brutal warfare. I realize that by Jesus' time the Romans were top dog, but no doubt the memory of the cruel wars of the Babylonians and Assyrians still lived.
======
And to all you smartalecks -- saying 'We have seen his star in the East'doesn't require that the star move east. I have seen the moon in the east many times and have yet to see it move eastfrom there.

Given the vageries of ancient language, it could also have meant, 'We saw his star while we were in the east,' i.e. Mesopotamia.

But as my husband's aunt, the good nun, would say, 'It's all legend.'

Now to go download some of the songs mentioned above.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 10:13 AM

Parodies are to poetry what graffiti is to architecture

Oh, oh - one of the best parodies of starsinger´s songs is by Johann W. Goethe [the most famous German poet].
(Over here three singers with a star go from house to house singing and signing the doors with a blessing on Jan 6 = Epiphanias, collecting goodies for themselves and money for the poor).

Just probe of a stanza:

We holy three kings are coming here,
We are just three and never four.
And if to us three a fourth king were,
So were a holy threeking more.

Found it always funny

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: john f weldon
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 11:00 AM

By the way, I'm a great fan of Christmas and its songs. A wonderous mixture of Old and New Testament, with a hefty dose of pre-Christian animism, a dash of Druidism, and a pinch of word-of-mouth Gnosticism, and who knows what else.

I love the way songs and stories adapt and change and are given new (sometimes personal) interpretations. It's all jolly good fun.

And if I chose to sing:
We Three Kings of Glory and Tar, Puffing On a Rubber Cigar, It was Loaded And Exploded, Now we're on our way to Mars!

...I feel that somewhere there's a theologian who can explain why this actually makes perfectly good sense!

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: Snuffy
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 11:41 AM

"This star drew nigh to the north-west,
O'er Bethlehem it took its rest,
And there it did both stop and stay,
Right over the place where Jesus lay"

(The First Nowell)

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: john f weldon
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 12:00 PM

I hope they listened to THAT verse; they might have ended up in the right place.

Oh, Kipling was a little strange with his Geography in "Road to Mandalay", too.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 12:05 PM

just sang with a choir a wonderful and easy to sing song and arrangment, but I don't have the music any more. I believe it was called "Wise Men From the East". I'll see if I can dredge up any information.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 12:20 PM

Monarchs from the East. You can hear the whole thing at the site below, but ignore the cheesy narration at the front and the overblown performance. It would work even better in a more folky style.


go to #6 and 'Listen'

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: john f weldon
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 12:31 PM

Overblown, yeah! For me the best Christmas versions of almost everything are the Nowell Song We Clear series by John Roberts and Tony Barrand. Understated, tuneful, and often reviving lost classics.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 05:42 PM

Thanks for the link, patty. It has good new words to the French 'Noel, Nouvelet.' That's a great tune that has always needed better English words than the William Morris version from the 19th century.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: Padre
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 08:13 PM

The translation [in the KJV] '...we have seen His star in the East...' should more correctly be (from the Greek ÜíáôïëÞ anatole, meaning rising or dawn) - '...we have seen His star at its rising...'   Stars, like our sun and moon, appear to rise in the East and set in the West

Padre

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 08:18 PM

La Banda del Musiquero Loco from Argentina recorded a nice song called "Gaspar, Melchor y Baltazar" you'll find it on their site
http://www.musiqueroloco.com.ar/
They allowed us to post it, so you'll find the original lyrics, the English translation and their mp3 here
http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=751&c=106

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 08:40 PM

Leenia, I'm so glad it's of interest, and glad to hear some of its history. I'm no church musician, just bumbled into a choir as a guest and found it very singable and fairly meaningful. Cool to know that it has 'roots'.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: Kent Davis
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 09:55 PM

Leenia,

Here's the poem you wanted. It is my favorite of Eliot's.

Journey of the Magi
- T.S. Eliot

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times when we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities dirty and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wineskins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Dec 07 - 10:40 AM

Thank you very much, Kent. What spare and beautiful language!

Thanks, GUEST, for the link from Argentina. I'm off to have a listen.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Dec 07 - 11:19 AM

Well, everybody, the link to the song from Argentina [three posts above] will give you a chance to hear a really great mp3. I love it!

Use the second link, the one with 'Mama Lisa' in it.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,Monique
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 08:34 AM

Sorry, I forgot to write my name on my previous post (links to El Musiquero Loco and Mama Lisa's World).   You'll find another Argentina one with midi here
http://www.navidadlatina.com/musica/villancicos/los-reyes-magos/default.asp

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,Monique
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 08:37 AM

and another one with an mp3 copyrighted from a Mexican singer
http://www.cri-cri.net/Canciones/canciondereyes.html

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 09:23 AM

Padre, I forgot to thank you for your message about 'the star in the East' actually being 'the star at its rising.' That was interesting.

How did you get the Mudcat to accept Greek characters?
====
Thanks for the two new links, Monique. The first site wanted to load a new player onto my computer, but I didn't allow it. I can run into problems with my existing music and music software if I do that. It's too bad.

I listened to the second, the mp3, and it's delightful. I recommend everyone have a listen.
======
I have downloaded the song Christ Child Lullaby from the DT. It is a beautiful Celtic tune in 6/4. At the piano, I worked out a simple accompaniment which uses the notes D & A, and C & G, the tonics and fifths of the D and C chords. My husband heard it, and he loved it. It has an air of ancient mystery. The words can stand some folk processing, though.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,Monique
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 01:01 PM

I don't know any French song about the Three Kings except for "La marche des rois". The original lyrics were Provençal. For those who know French there's the whole story to this song with both French and Provençal lyrics here
http://www.nimausensis.com/Gard/ImageMois/MarcheDesRois/LesRoisMages.htm

They say the song was sung to the tune called "La marche de Turenne" (Turenne was a marshall in king Louis XIV's army =17th C) attributed to Lully (but there's no proof of it) as it seems there's no proof of it being composed by Provençal king René a long time back. Does anyone know more about it?

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: Padre
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 08:27 PM

Guest, leeneia - I used the 'insert symbol' command in MS Word, and first typed the English word anatole, then changed the characters to Greek letters. It's how I am able to put Greek words in my sermons.

Padre

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 11:31 PM

Thanks.

Subject: RE: wanted: songs about the Three Kings
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 11:35 PM

Looks like that song from Provence is more modern that I thought. I thought it was medieval.