Choral Choir,Choral (SATB) - Level 4 - Digital Download
SKU: A0.1323225
Composed by Cornish folk tune. Arranged by Todd Marchand. Advent,Christmas,Folk,Holiday,Sacred. 10 pages. Con Spirito Music #911489. Published by Con Spirito Music (A0.1323225).
āGod Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemenā is an English traditional carol dating, perhaps, to the 16th or 17th century. A manuscript, ca. 1650, contains a version with the first line, āSit you merry gentlemenā and the refrain, āO tidings of comfort and joy.ā The earliest known printed edition of the carol is a London broadsheet dated 1760, in which the first line is the familiar āGod rest ye merry, gentlemen.ā By the 19th century, the carol was well-known, with Charles Dickens referencing it in his 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol.
The phrase āGod rest you merryā in the first line is an archaic idiom meaning āGod grant you peace and happiness.ā William Shakespeare used the phrase ārest you merryā in his plays, āAs You Like Itā and āRomeo and Juliet,ā both from the 1590s; but Dickens recorded the phrase as āGod bless you, merry gentlemenā in A Christmas Carol.
The tune adapted for use in this arrangement was at the time of its notation a wordless, nameless melody noted in 1905 by folk song collector E. Quintrell from the singing of a Mr. Boaden in Cornwall, England. The tune was sent to Lucy Broadwood, editor of the Journal of the Folk-Song Society, who decided that it fit the ballad, āThe Maid in Bedlam,ā and published the tune and text together. Gustav Holst later arranged the tune as Song without Words āI'll Love My Loveāā in his Second Suite in F for Military Band, Op. 28, No. 2 (1911) and again as āI Love My Loveā in his 6 Choral Folksongs, Op. 36 (1916).Ā
Set in F minor (Dorian), the tune brings a contemplative tone to the text, with the high point of the refrain being the subdominant Bb major chord on the word ājoy.ā The rich, dark timbre of solo clarinet (part included) on introduction, interludes, and ending adds to this tone.Ā
SATB voices (with some divisi on soprano and tenor), piano, Bb clarinet
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