Coventry Carol
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Coventry Carol
By Traditional/ Folk, ed./arr. by William Ryden
Item: 36-A750301
$5.00
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Description
The traditional English Coventry Carol dates from at least the sixteenth century. Its text survives in a manuscript of 1534 prepared by Robert Croo for the Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, one of the Coventry Mystery Plays performed by the city's craft guilds. The surviving musical setting was added in 1591, apparently by Thomas Mawdyke, although he cannot securely be identified as its composer and the music itself may be older. Unlike the celebratory character of many Christmas carols, the Coventry Carol depicts the biblical Massacre of the Innocents from the Gospel of Matthew: the mothers of Bethlehem sing the haunting lullaby "Lully, lullay" to their children after King Herod has ordered the deaths of the town's young boys. The original setting is in three-part harmony and is particularly distinctive for its expressive harmonic clashes, which heighten the contrast between the tenderness of a lullaby and the tragedy of the scene. Today, the Coventry Carol stands among the most enduring traditional English Christmas carols, appearing regularly in church services, Christmas concerts, choral collections, recordings, and numerous modern arrangements. Its unusually somber subject and ancient theatrical origins give it a distinctive place within the familiar Christmas repertoire. This edition for full orchestra has been arranged by William Ryden.
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