SKU: A0.726016

A Virgin Most Pure is an English traditional carol that appeared in Davies Gilbert's A Collection of Ancient Christmas Carols, with the Tunes to which they were formerly sung in the West of England (London, 1822). The first verse and refrain are as follows:

A virgin most pure, as the prophets do tell, / Hath brought forth a baby, as it hath befell; / To be our Redeemer from death, hell, and sin, / Which Adam's transgression had wrapped us in.

[Refrain] Aye, and therefore be merry; / Rejoice, and be you merry; / Set sorrow aside; / Christ Jesus our Saviour was born on this tide.

The tune is built upon the Mixolydian scale (seventh mode), having the same sequence of tones and semitones as a major scale but with a lowered seventh degree. In this arrangement, the occasional addition of the flat seventh to the tonic chord and its use as a leading tone in some harmonic progressions emphasizes the modal quality of the tune.

SKU: A0.726087

The Gloucestershire Wassail is one of many traditional wassails (festive songs, carols) associated with the centuries-old tradition of wassailing. In the West of England from where this particular song comes, groups of people would go door to door, singing and offering a drink of mulled cider (wassail) from a large, decorated bowl (the wassail bowl) in exchange for other drinks, food, and gifts.

The custom of sharing the wassail bowl is supposedly of Saxon origin, a drinking ritual dating to the Middle Ages and derived from one of the observances of the Feast of Yule. Today it is associated with Christmas-tide, the twelve days from December 25 through January 5. The word wassail itself comes from an Anglo-Saxon greeting (Middle English waes hael) meaning be thou hale or be in good health.

This arrangement of a sprightly West-English traditional song features the voices of the brass quintet in various combinations, keys, and harmonizations, echoing the strains of wassail-singers across time and place.

SKU: A0.726088

Past Three O'Clock (or Past Three A Clock) is a Christmas carol loosely based on the traditional cry of the city night watchman, set to the English traditional tune, London Waits.

The tune and refrain have been known since the Renaissance, and both were possibly used by London's waits (also waites or waytes). According to the Encyclopaedia Brittanica (1911):

The earliest waits (those of the 14th and 15th centuries) were simply watchmen who sounded horns or even played a tune on a flute or flageolet to mark the hours. This appears to have been known as 'piping the watch....' The duties of the London waits, which included playing before the mayor during his annual progress through the streets and at city dinners, seem to have been typical of all 16th- and 17th-century city waits. The London waits had a special uniform of blue gowns with red sleeves and caps, and wore a silver collar or chain round the neck. In the 18th and early 19th century the ordinary street watchmen appear to have arrogated to themselves the right to serenade householders at Christmas time, calling round on Boxing Day to receive a gratuity for their tunefulness as well as their watchfulness. When in 1829 their place as guardians of the city's safety was taken by police, it was left for private individuals to keep up the custom.

This arrangement of this sprightly tune features the Westminster Chimes (aka Westminster Quarters or Cambridge Quarters), the tune written for the clock tower at Cambridge in 1793, as introduction, in accompaniment, and at the conclusion of the piece.