SET
Christmas, midwinter, New YearCatalogue no. 4087
Wassail!
Music: trad. arr. Sheena Phillips, Words: Traditional
Voicing: SATB, handbells or other tuned (or untuned) percussion
Performance time approx: 1m 30s
Range (all voices): c – d' or c' – d''
Price code:
Complexity:
This piece is part of the set "Three Christmas choral stocking fillers".
It is not available for purchase as a single piece.
The set also includes:
Wassail! is a collage of fragments of English wassail songs and makes a great processional for a Christmas concert. Ideally, the singers should be accompanied by tuned percussion such as handbells in the background, but non-tuned percussion such as shakers, drums and tambourines could also be effective. The main idea is to create a cheerful ‘sound cloud’ of the wassail fragments, culminating in a burst of bell-ringing or other percussion.
Wassailing was a midwinter tradition of visiting houses and singing and sharing drink from a wassail cup or bowl in exchange for food, money or other gifts – and the word ‘wassail’ itself derives from an old English expression meaning ‘be of good health’.
We’ve been a while a-wandering among the leaves so green.
For it’s your wassail!
Wassail, O wassail all over the town!
Here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so green!
And it’s our wassail!
For it’s Christmastime, when we travel far and near...
Wassail, wassail!
But now we come a-wassailing so plainly to be seen.
Traditional