We gathered on a somewhat soggy evening at the Lewes Arms, where the welcome was warm, and the only slight drawback was the crepuscular lighting in the upstairs room. We were five lasses, three lads and the old codger what wrote this record, with other apologies received for illness, other musical commitments, holiday and moving house. To assist early departures, we agreed to sing straight through without our customary refreshment break. After a brisk round of introductions - in which we established that Lewes and its neighbourhood were well represented and there was further praise for the Lewes Priory by Candlelight event - we began a session that referred to the seasons, the remembrance of war, Christmas and Wassailing.
First up was “Lammas Carol” by Alan Wheeler from our Chichester group. Although the harvest turn of the year has long passed by all versions of the calendar, one singer mentioned the considerable number of windfall apples she had gathered this year as an instance of Gaia’s ‘endless gifts.’ We then moved on to “Michaelmas” the festival song, which has words by Amaryllis Gunn from our Worthing group (recently revised) and follows “Poor Froze-Out Gardeners” for its tune, and there was discussion of what exactly a capon is (a fattened castrated cock!).
Moving quickly on to the wintry Downs, we sang old favourite “Where Stormy Winds do Blow” with gusto. Appropriately for Trafalgar Day, “All Things are Quite Silent” recalls the Napoleonic navy press-gang from a wife’s viewpoint and we sing the version from Shirley Collins (there was some discussion of her recent appearance on Desert Island Discs). The sad musical version of “Home Lads Home”, published as a poem in 1916, sounds as if it ought to have been in the score for Morpurgo’s War Horse, but does not appear to be there. Tina reminded us to take a pause as each of the shire artillery horses is named in turn.
Our Christmas practice started with the relatively new (1811) and unfamiliar (except to those of who know it from Brighton Pub Carols) “Ditchling Carol” (“Be Merry All”). The combination of merriment and poor relief in the lyrics suggested that it could have sung by Dickens’s Ghost of Christmas Present. Another of our new festive songs, the “Field Mice Carol” is definitely fictional in that its lyrics are from Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows, where young wassailers entertain Mole and Ratty at Mole End. Between these new carols, we practised the “Boar’s Head Carol”, first introduced last year, with its Latin lines (which prompted some discussion about pronunciations and exam results). We commenced preparations for the Stanmer Wassail on 12th January with the “Apple Tree Wassailing Song”, omitting the spoken address to the apple tree that can accompany this encouragement towards apples blossoming. The subsequent “Sugar Wassail” is partly to the tune of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” and it was suggested by our leader that some harmony experimentation might be attempted on the refrain.
Drawing the evening to a close, we returned to another firm favourite: “Seasons Turn”, for which we carefully preserve not only the poetic words of the local songwriter Sylvia Watts, but also the stress for every season that “this is the one I love best”. In George Spicer’s “Come Stranger, Come Friend” Tina said that she had high and low chorus harmonies for us to practise on a future occasion. We concluded as we often do with the Copper Family’s “Thousands or More”, which continued to serve as an earworm as we departed into the night, the rainclouds having given way to the Moon and Venus.
Nick
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