Old English Carol and rehearsal help

Hello - good rehearsal last night. Obviously, we still need to work out the difficult rhythms for O Come O Come Emmanuel. I forgot to mention it last night, but in an earlier blog, I gave instructions on where to find rehearsal files for this piece. You can visit my Dropbox or go to this link to get the files.
http://www.carlfischer.com/partbypart/satb.htm#o
That should be a tremendous help!
Also, some of you were asking about the Old English carol This Endris Night. Below are the stanzas for that old melody. For fun, try singing these words to the tune!
See you next week!

Burden:
 This endris¹ night I saw a sight,
A star as bright as day,
And ev'r among, a maiden sung,
"Lully, bye bye, lullay."

1. This lovely lady sat and sang,
And to her child did say,
"My son, my brother, father dear,
Why liest thou thus in hay?"

2. "My sweetest bird, 'tis thus required,
Though I be king veray,²
But nevertheless I will not cease
To sing 'Bye bye, lullay.'"

3. The child then spake in his talking,
And to his mother did say,
"Yea, I am known as heaven-king
In crib though I be laid.

4. "For angels bright down on me light;³
Thou knowest 'tis no nay.⁴
And for that sight thou may delight
To sing, 'Bye bye, lullay.'"

5. "Now, sweet son, since thou art a king,
Why art thou laid in stall?
Why dost not order thy bedding
In some great kinges hall?

6. "Methinks⁵ 'tis right that king or knight
Should lie in good array.
And then among, it were no wrong
To sing 'Bye bye, lullay.'"

7. "Mary mother, I am thy Child,
Though I be laid in stall;
For lords and dukes shall worship Me,
And so shall kingès all.

8. "Ye shall well see that kingès three
Shall come on this twelfth day.
For this behest give Me thy breast
And sing, By by, lullay."

9. "Now tell, sweet Son, I Thee do pray,
Thou art my Love and Dear—
How should I keep Thee to Thy pay⁶,
And make Thee glad of cheer?

10. "For all Thy will I would fulfill—
Thou knowest well, in fay⁷;
And for all this I will Thee kiss,
And sing, By by, lullay."

11. "My dear mother, when time it be,
Take thou Me up on loft,
And set Me then upon thy knee,
And handle me full soft.

12. "And in thy arm thou hold Me warm,
And keep Me night and day,
And if I weep, and may not sleep,
Thou sing, By by, lullay."

13. "Now sweet Son, since it is come so,
That all is at Thy will,
I pray Thee grant to me a boon⁸,
If it be right and skill⁹,—

14. "That child or man, who will or can
Be merry on my day,
To bliss Thou bring—and I shall sing,
Lullay, by by, lullay."

---

Notes

1. This endris night: "The other night" or "A few nights ago"

2. Veray: True

3. Light: Alight

4. No nay: Undeniable

5. Methinks: I think

6. Pay: Satisfaction

7. Fay: Faith

8. Boon: Favor

9. Skill: Reasonable

Fred Silver bio

Since tomorrow is election day, I am posting early this week. (Also to make up for my late posting last week...) Since we've been having fun singing The Twelve Days AFTER Christmas, I thought you would enjoy knowing about Fred Silver, the composer. Below is some of his bio. He just passed away in 2009. See you tonight!
********
Fred Silver graduated from the Juilliard School of Music in 1961, and was the first recipient of the
Rodgers and Hammerstein Award to a gifted composer for the Musical Theatre. In the 1970s and 80s, Fred was a very influential part of New York's Musical Theatre scene as a composer, author, and vocal coach to major artists. A Master Steinway Piano Artist, he was half of the Duo-Piano team of
DeMaio & Silver. Fred's body of work includes seven musicals including "In Gay Company," over 120 choral pieces, most notably, the song, "The Twelve Days After Christmas," (1968)
performed by Carol Burnett; the book "Auditioning For The Musical Theatre," and "The Audition Doctor" column for Back Stage Magazine.

Fun divergence

Rehearsal this week was very much out of the ordinary as has been most of this week for me; hence my delayed posting. Several of you who were not there Monday missed some great fun, a guest composer and costumes! Because of Superstorm Sandy, the composer for one of the pieces on our program, Beautiful Night, attended rehearsal and led us in learning his piece. Joe Utterback from Connecticut was scheduled to return to LaGuardia airport earlier Monday and could not get a flight back to CT until Wednesday. Consequently, he graciously agreed to lead part of rehearsal, play a few fun jazz tunes, and explained the background of his composition. It's always fun to gain additional perspective from others, and he was very complimentary of our singing and of Wooyoung's musicianship at the piano. Thing 1, Thing 2 and the Phantom were also present for Halloween week - photos to come, I hope. I look forward to seeing you all next week as November is now here. Don't forget to turn your clocks back one hour this weekend, or you may be a little early for rehearsal! Have a great weekend.