Yup, it's time to think about Christmas…because if one wants to be ready to perform Christmas stuff in December, one has to start practicing way before Halloween.

At least it isn't ballet – Nutcracker auditions are in July/August.

Oldenfeld Ensemble had the first of a couple of organizational meetings last night, to choose which pieces to work up for the season.  There's a Google doc online with EIGHTY-SEVEN choices.  About half are in English, which is a lot more than usual for this group – most of the stuff we've done this summer has been in Spanish, with a bit of French, Latin, and English.  We are to vote for the ones we want, and somehow we'll get it down to something less than thirty.  Still – thirty!  Even…twenty!  I'm terribly excited, since I love having songs in my pocket so to speak, to keep and pull bits out when I feel like it.

Last night we started with The Boar's Head Carol (before 1521), mostly in English, with a few Latin phrases; La Marche Des Rois, 13thc Provencal, in both French and English; and Personent Hodie, of German origin, 1360 (tune), Latin words (1582); Riu Riu Chiu (Spanish, pre1556).  The only tune I was familiar with was La Marche…had no idea it's essentially an Epiphany song.  I need to check some vocabulary – the English translation is very switched around, and I'm rather sure that there's no explicit mention of frankincense and myrrh here, but it works for the English meter.

Ce matin, j'ai rencontre' le train, De trois grands Rois qui allaient en voyage; Tout charges d'or les suivant d'abord, de grands guerriers et les gardes du tresor…de grands guerriers avec leurs boucliers.

I now understand much better the phenomenon I've been on the edge of before…of a long list of possibilities, the musicians go for the obscure choices, which leaves behind some of the crowd favorites.  I did not choose:

• Angels We Have Heard On High
• Away In A Manger
• Deck the Hall
• The First Nowell
• Good Christian Men Rejoice
• Here We Come A Wassailing

However, I am a populist, so you'll see some sing-a-long-ables in the list I did vote for, a lot of which I just want to know all the words of:

• Blessed Be That Maid Marie (poss. 1594)
• Coventry Carol (1591 version)
• Cuando el Rey Nimrod (it'd be cool if we could do the Hebrew one, called Avram Avinu)
• Dadme Albricias, Hijos d'Eva (1556)
• Ding Dong Merrily On High (16thc melody)
• Es Ist Ein Roess Entsprungen (1599, gotta learn how to sing in German, right?)
• Gaudete (1420, I am now a Steeleye Span fan, but there's also a terrific harp vid)
• Nowell Sing We All Now And Some (Old English)
• O Come O Come Emmanuel (12thc Latin, possibly my most favorite December song ever, loved the childhood ritual of the Advent candles and potato pancakes)
• Pat a Pan (Burgundian)
• Please to See the King