Yesterday’s post was shorter than I wanted it to be. According to the Eastern Rite calendar, January 1st is also the feast day of St. Basil the Great, and there is a hymn in his honour that I wanted to post. I’ve heard the tune before, on a recording of Christmas music for piano, but, if I remember correctly, it had been credited as a New Year’s carol, and I had never really thought much about it. I stumbled across a group of wee Greek children singing it while looking for a New Year song that wasn’t another wassail. I really wanted to post a version of it, but I knew exactly what I wanted: something hearty, preferably with men’s voices, preferably unaccompanied (though if the music did not overwhelm the singers, I would consider it) and (a long-shot, I grant you) in English, or at least, with an English translation to go with it. I wasn’t really expecting to find something that hit all those marks, but after an hour or more of looking, I couldn’t find anything that really fit… and I was sort of appalled at the number of hammer dulcimer covers that exist of the tune! So I gave up on that idea, and decided to come back to it next year…. If I remembered.
Well, this morning, I went looking for a list of saints whose feasts are today, as sort of an inspiration for today’s post. Imagine my surprise when St. Basil’s name came up…. The same St. Basil. It turns out, Eastern Catholics celebrate the feast day on the 1st, but we Westerners celebrate it on the 2nd. This gave me a second chance to go looking… and lo and behold! I found the following cover. It is translated and re-set to its original tune by Scottish singer/songwriter, Thomas Beavitt. How is that for a happy meeting of East and West?
If you would like to know more about St. Basil’s Day customs, you should look at this website. I am intrigued that there is a tradition nearly identical with the Scottish tradition of firstfooting.
No comments:
Post a Comment