The Gloucester Wassail--Waverly Consort
This
evening is Twelfth Night, the eve of
the Feast of the Epiphany (more
about that tomorrow in the last entry of the Murfin Winter Holidays Music
Festival) and the end of the Christmas Season. In England
especially it was one last eruption of gaiety
and mirth before the more somber and sacred reflection of the Epiphany—somewhat analogous to Mardis Gras or Carnival before Lent.
In the Middle Ages and Renaissance it was the climax
of the caroling and street revelry that followed Christmas
Day and was marked with dancing, a sexual cavorting—the subject of William
Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night—
and costumed revelry often evoking
the Holy King and semi-pagan masquerades. Mostly it was
celebrated by caroling for wassail,
a hot mulled wine or cider prepared and served
in bowls. Often a landlord’s peasants and tenants came bearing large wassail bowls for the lord of the manor in exchange for
lavish gifts of food and other beverages. So popular was the beverage and custom that
there were a number of songs about it that asked—or demanded—the hospitality of
the land lord at whose door the carolers appeared. The most familiar is the gay Here We Come A-wassailing, But there
were several others from different regions
of the Realm, each of which might variant local lyrics set to any number
of folk tunes.
A 19th Century engraving of the Holly King with a wassail bowl riding the Yule Goat on Twelfth Night
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The Gloucester Wassail got its current name because folk song collector Cecil Sharp recalled first hearing it
sung by William Bayliss of Buckley and Isaac
Bennett of Little Sodbury, both in Gloucestershire. He set down the lyrics combined from his two sources
in his 1916 book English Folk Songs, Collected and Arranged
with Pianoforte Accompaniment by Cecil J Sharp.
Earlier
versions referenced it first being sung around 1780, but it was probably far
older. Forms of the song were printed
in 1838 by William Chappell, 1857 by
Robert Bell, and 1868 by William Henry Husk.
Another
great folk song collector and arranger, Ralph
Vaughn Williams, recorded the melody now
most commonly sung in 1909 by an anonymous
Gloucester man at the Swan Inn in
Pembridge, Herefordshire. Williams first published the carol with those
words in 1913, but when he included the song in his 1928 Oxford Book of Carols he
used the words by Sharp. In this form it has become a popular piece in
Britain.
Celebrating Twelfth Night in modern Gloucestershire. The Scottish style tartan kilts are inauthentic to the region, but who cares.
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The Gloucester Wassail is one of the
most forthright in its demands among
its cousins. The final three verses
spell it out frankly:
Come
butler, come fill us a bowl of the best
Then we hope that your soul in heaven may rest
But if you do draw us a bowl of the small
Then down shall go butler, bowl and all.
Then we hope that your soul in heaven may rest
But if you do draw us a bowl of the small
Then down shall go butler, bowl and all.
Be here
any maids? I suppose here be some;
Sure they will not let young men stand on the cold stone!
Sing hey O, maids! come trole back the pin,
And the fairest maid in the house let us all in.
Sure they will not let young men stand on the cold stone!
Sing hey O, maids! come trole back the pin,
And the fairest maid in the house let us all in.
Then here’s
to the maid in the lily white smock
Who tripped to the door and slipped back the lock
Who tripped to the door and pulled back the pin
For to let these jolly wassailers in.
Who tripped to the door and slipped back the lock
Who tripped to the door and pulled back the pin
For to let these jolly wassailers in.
Waverly Consort with Kay (bottom left) and Michael (bottom center) Jaffee.
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Today
we feature a recording from the Waverly
Consort Christmas directed by Michael
Jaffee. The American early music ensemble which specialized
in performing music from medieval and
Renaissance times helped fuel a surge of
interest in early music over the last half century. It was founded
and led by Michael Jaffee and Kay Cross in New York City in 1960 and the two married a year later. The
loose ensemble of from 5 to 12 performers on period instruments often did shows
in carefully researched period costume with songs artfully connected by troubadour or bard poetic narration. The
group officially retired in the early 21st Century. Michael Jaffee died on June 15, 2019 at the
age of 81.
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