Wednesday, December 17, 2008

My Top 10 Christmas Carols: No 8

8. In Dulci Jubilo: Trad German, arr. R.L. Pearsall.

Everyone knows the tune to In Dulci Jubilo - it was given the prog-rock treatment by Mike Oldfield and is frequently heard in the hymn Good Christian Men, Rejoice, nowadays sometimes rather mindlessly rendered by the PC brigade as Good Christians All, Rejoice. But few if anyone knows who originally wrote it, although its origins appear to be Germanic.

The carol was a regular staple of our Nine Lessons services at St Mary's, Hitchin, so this one is dedicated to Hugo Richardson, Mike Baxter and all my old friends from the choir, in fond remembrance of all those Christmas Eves when we belted it out together.



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3 comments:

Paul Burgin said...

A favourite of mine, but I think that was because of Mike Oldfield :-/

Anonymous said...

So what of today's Today programme which revealed that there is apparently a Jacobite political message hidden inside the Latin version of the song 'Come all ye Faithful@ ? According to Professor Bennett Zon, head of music at Durham University, speaking to the prgramme, ”The meaning of the Christmas carol is clear: ‘Come and Behold Him, Born the King of Angels’ really means, ‘Come and Behold Him, Born the King of the English’ - Bonnie Prince Charlie. If you want to hear again it was at about 7.45 or so (just before Thought for the Day)

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