Christmas Revels

[magid]

Thanks to an illness that swept through megmuck's family, I ended up going to the Christmas Revels in Memorial Hall. I'd always been intrigued by what seems to be a local tradition for some families, so it was interesting to get a chance to see what it's about.

The short version is that it's a Christmas-themed music-and-dance revue, each year focused on a different (European?) country's traditions and history. This year was Ireland, though the frame story was about Irish people immigrating on a boat with an English captain. Since they were neither here nor there, the celebrations on board were mostly Irish, but with a few English traditions thrown in as well.

The program was far thicker than any other program I've gotten, and I soon found out why: there were lyrics, and even music, for many of the songs (plus many many supportive advertisements; it seemed more like a shul ad book), because the audience was expected to sing along. Despite the lyrics for these being more seasonal than Jesus-y, I felt it would be uncomfortable to sing, though it felt a bit odd to sit there silent as well. And I realized that none of the traditional prayerbooks I'm familiar with include music, letting whoever's leading choose the tune.

Anyway. The program, in order:

1. Overture, using bits from "The Wexford Carol".
   
2. The Wexford Carol, which is apparently also called "The Enniscorthy Christmas Carol".
   
3. There's a Big Ship Sailing, sung by the children in the group.
   
4. Dance to Your Daddy, which I associate with a particular short story (The Bolundeers), but hadn't heard before, so it was nice to have a sense of how it sounds.
   
5. Nos Galan / Deck the Hall.
   
6. Set Dance, which is related to step dancing, but more social than for competition. I liked seeing the variety of couples dancing, not all of them young and lithe, but all able dancers.
   
7. Colcannon, which seemed more about the potatoes than the cabbage :-)
   
8. Banchnoic Eireann (The Fair Hills of Ireland O).
   
9. The Soul Cages, a story by Irish antiiquarian T. Crofton Croker, taken from a collection by William Butuler Yeats. It was a dramatic telling of a man who went to visit under the sea, and found, among other treasures, captured souls of drowned sailors. This included some of my favorite visuals of the show, with LED jellyfish umbrellas, an fishy undersea pirate (complete with tail), and an actual Lobster Quadrille.
   
10. The Rocky Road to Dublin, a song with people joining in on the chorus.
    Band Set 1, a variety of Irish airs.
    
11. Irish Step Dance, which is the kind of thing I think of when "Irish dance" is mentioned. I've also been warped by Firefly, so I kept thinking of River dancing, just before she felt Shepherd Book's injury. The dancers were mostly girls (one boy), who apparently were able to dance without putting their heels down ever. Totally impressive.
    
12. Ye Sons of Men, With Me Rejoice, another carol I didn't know or recognize; it makes me realize how limited the played carol list tends to be in the US.
    
13. The Lord of the Dance, which got people up and dancing out to the lobby for intermission.
    
14. The Darkest Midnight in December, yet another carol I didn't know.
    
15. Wexford Lullaby, with modern words to the traditional "Wexford Carol" tune.
    
16. Deer Cry, a prayer also sometimes called Lorica, attributed to St. Patrick.
    
17. Saint Patrick's Breastplate, a translation by C. F. Alexander, though I could have sworn I saw the version I recognized from A Swiftly Tilting Planet (L'Engle) (with surprise, since I hadn't realized she hadn't written that herself).
    
18. Dona Nobis Pacem, which I also associate with A Swiftly Tilting Planet; this was the first time I'd heard it sung, and in a round, no less. And I got to note how my high school Latin teacher would have insisted on "packem", not "pachem" for pronunciation.
    
19. Down by the Sally Gardens, a love song by Yeats.
    
20. Band Set 2, another mix of music by the Irish band. I remained fascinated by the sounds the drummer got out of the bodhran, a kind of shallow hand drum that fascinated me with its range. Oh, and there was a harper, and I learned from the notes that traditional triangular harps had been suppressed by the English, though some itinerant musicians kept the tradition alive.
    
21. Mary the Money (not "Marry the Money", which I kept misreading it as), a nonsense song.
    
22. The Wren in the Furze, the children reenacting a hunt for a wren that is slain, then honored, apparently a tradition in Ireland on Saint Stephen's Day, also in Wales and the Isle of Man. It sounds to me related to the idea of the Wild Hunt, with the Horned Man honored then hunted.
    
23. The White Star Rhymers' Play, a mummers' play that involved the best use of wicker/straw that I've seen in a long time, two fighters and a sort-of dragon.
    
24. The New Colossus, the sonnet by Emma Lazarus.
    
25. Hymn for a New Land, written for a Spring Revels show in 2001, with a text from Ps. 118. I found it really strange, because I'm so used to that pasuk about the cornerstone being part of Hallel.
    
26. The Shortest Day, a poem written for the Revels by Susan Cooper in 1977 (Susan Cooper!), which ended with everyone shouting "Welcome Yule!"
    
27. Sussex Mummers' Carol, traditionally sung as the end of a folk play in Horsham, Sussex, and apparently the end of each Revels in the ten USian cities that have annual Revels.