An Unlikely Christmas Carol(er)

Posted by DJL on Dec 20, 2012 in Music | 7 comments

I love words.

I love what you can do with words.

I love playing with words, shaping ideas with them, communicating things that matter to me through them, and affecting the thoughts and feelings of others with them.

For all these reasons and more, I love words.

But not always.

As I’ve said before, I don’t always love words when they come as poems. When words come in poems, they don’t seem to follow the rules, or at least they operate by different rules, rules I haven’t mastered and don’t feel competent at.

That’s, in part, why the Saturday poetry post has been important to me. It’s a way to stretch, to push myself to work a little harder at understanding a different way in which words can work.

And it’s helped…some. I’m more comfortable reading poetry and look forward to finding poems – though sometimes it’s a stretch – that I understand, that resonate, that I feel I can talk about.

But while I’m getting better at reading poetry, I don’t yet have the confidence to try writing it. I’d like to. In fact, I think I’d love to, but I find it daunting.

Now, put all this along side my love for Christmas carols. These are poems, of course, set to music. Poems that tell a story. I’ve never resisted these kinds of poems; they, too, work according to different rules, but somehow the music helps; it aids my attempt to understand them.

All of which led, I think, to a bit of madness one evening a few weeks ago when I was seized by a desire to write a Christmas carol – something a little closer to poetry but with music and my love of the season to help. (And it probably didn’t hurt that I was tired and not thinking straight.☺)

So this week’s unlikely Christmas carol is unlikely precisely because I’m an unlikely caroler – at least in the sense of writing if not singing. And that’s what I’ll put below, my unlikely carol. I’ll start with the requisite apology from folks like me – “it’s probably not that good” – but while that’s true enough, rather than say it looking for your approval (which is why we usually say these things, I suspect), I’ll instead say two other things: 1) “It could be better.” 2) “Will you help me make it so?”

I’ve set these words to the Shaker plainsong, “Simple Gifts.” I love that melody and since it seems to pop up more frequently at Christmas (perhaps because of the word “gifts”), it seemed apt. The tune itself was made popular when Aaron Copland used it in his Appalachian Spring.

It’s been adapted at least once before, in the song “Lord of the Dance.” Which was instructive. Because while I tried to make my syllable-count match the number of beats per line, I realized that in neither the actual Shaker song or in Sydney Carter’s composition did everything line up quite so well. Which gave me a little freedom to play with some of the words.

I’ve tried to anchor the song in Christmas – the way a good Christmas carol should! – but I’ve also tried to extend it to tell a bit more of the story of Jesus – as some classic carols, and some unlikely ones (Dave Matthew’s Christmas Song, for instance), do as well. As you’ll see, some verses work a little better than others. ☺

So I’ll put the lines I came up with below. That makes me a little nervous, but rather than have you reassure me that it’s “just fine” or “a really nice start,” I’d so much rather share this poetry/carol-making business with you so that we can do it together. If you have time, please put your suggestions in the comments. I’ll read them all (I always do, even when I don’t reply) and over the holidays do some revising. Who knows, perhaps we’ll come up with the first open-source Christmas carol! And maybe next year at this time it won’t seem quite so unlikely. ☺

In the meantime, I’ll put below two videos, the of Alison Krauss and Yo-Yo Ma performing “Simple Gifts” so you are reminded of the tune and spirit of the song. The second, of The Dubliners performing “Lord of the Dance” presents a successful adaptation (though in a very different mood), if you’re interested. The words I wrote follow – the refrain is printed after each verse and repeats twice (with a variation) at the end.

Thanks for sharing this with me. Merry Christmas!

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“At First Only Shepherds”
(to the tune of “Simple Gifts”)

At first only shepherds heard the angels’ song
Gathered in starlight beneath the heavenly throng.
What wonderful news did they hear and then tell
Of God’s peace on earth and to us good will.