Week 15: The Holly and the Ivy, the Boar’s Head Carol

Getting properly into the Christmas spirit with a couple of old choral belters.

What else have these songs got in common? They’re both shortish (they’ve both come out at exactly one minute 49); and they’re both proper old – early-modern or even medieval old. Oh, and they both supposedly contain pagan and pre-Christian imagery, and if you want to believe that it’s up to you. There’s a lot more I could say about this line of thinking, and at some stage I probably will – not here, though.

The Holly and the Ivy is sung unaccompanied, in parts, in unison and at one stage in an echo chamber (unintentional, but I liked the effect so I left it in).

The Boar’s Head Carol is also unaccompanied, in four parts, most of which I worked out myself. I’m really, really pleased with the result – check it out. You may conclude that I’m really, really easily pleased, but no matter.