Now hear ye all our fruity song
to rouse these trees in winter,
come join our dance in joyful throng,
try not to get a splinter.
Wassail, wassail to thee, King Tree,
and all thy court and county,
that come the autumn these boughs shall be
full blessed with apple bounty!
We clash our sticks to make a din,
then weave around the branches,
make up a ring, then all skip in
and out in goodly dances.
Wassail, wassail to thee, King Tree,
and all thy court and county,
that come the autumn these boughs shall be
full blessed with apple bounty!
Now time’s arrived to wake the king
and all across the shires,
we set our pots and pans howling
’til BANG! the rifle fires.
Wassail, wassail to thee, King Tree,
and all thy court and county,
that come the autumn these boughs shall be
full blessed with apple bounty!
Then let’s hang up a ball of fat
for Robin guards the orchard,
and toast fresh dipped in cider vat,
’twill bring the fruiting forward.
Wassail, wassail to thee, King Tree,
and all thy court and county,
that come the autumn these boughs shall be
full blessed with apple bounty!
And next, we pours some cider round
King Tree’s grand trunk and old roots,
so when ’tis springtime he’ll abound
in fresh and green and gold shoots.
Wassail, wassail to thee, King Tree,
and all thy court and county,
that come the autumn these boughs shall be
full blessed with apple bounty!
Last act, we toast to thy good health,
dear tree, and may thee flourish,
and blossom e’er with apple wealth
that serves ourselves to nourish.
Wassail, wassail to thee, King Tree,
and all thy court and county,
that come the autumn these boughs shall be
full blessed with apple bounty!
* * *
Wassail!
… and, belatedly, a Happy New Year!
The year 2015 marks the return, rather than retreat, of the P-i-R – and with a new emphasis on songwriting. Thus I present a song inspired by Happenstance’s orchard-visiting wassail at Postlip, last Saturday 24 January. Mrs T.’s fieldnotes from the event at Snowshill, earlier this month, were also consulted. And I’ve even composed a tune, on my Casio SA-1 mini-keyboard!
Wikipedia provides information concerning the orchard-visiting wassail tradition at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassailing – ‘The ceremonies of each wassail vary from village to village but they generally all have the same core elements’ (*P-i-R pauses to chuckle*). And there’s a lovely account of last year’s Snowshill visit at https://secretsofsnowshillnt.wordpress.com/2014/01/22/wassail-drinkhail/ and brilliant video at https://grizzlyalanc.wordpress.com
The photo below shows my tune, on MuseScore – one verse plus chorus. The second ‘wassail’ of the chorus is three syllables, ‘wa-sai-il’. There may be scope to add instrumental harmonies – and I imagine the performance might involve percussion and illustrative movements too. Singers might like to howl on ‘howling’ and shout on ‘BANG!’ My helper (just visible) is, of course, mascot Hap :>)
Drinkhail!
<(:-)
The photo below shows my tune, on MuseScore – one verse plus chorus. The second ‘wassail’ of the chorus is three syllables, ‘wa-sai-il’. There may be scope to add instrumental harmonies – and I imagine the performance might involve percussion and illustrative movements too. Singers might like to howl on ‘howling’ and shout on ‘BANG!’ My helper (just visible) is, of course, mascot Hap :>)
Drinkhail!
<(:-)
