To Drive the Cold Winter Away
Busy busy busy!
As winter has finally arrived; and in a time where too many friends are mired in gloom; a happier story of events from earlier this winter, a story of friends and dance and song and traditions old and new. Enjoy.
- This time of the year
Is spent in good cheer,
And neighbours together do meet;
To sit by the fire
With friendly desire
Each other in love to greet;
Old grudges forgot
And put in the pot
All sorrows aside they lay;
The old and the young
Doth carol this song
To drive the cold winter away...
For literally centuries, carolers have rung in the holiday season throughout Europe. Some carols, like Persodent Hodie, trace their lineage clearly back into the high Renaissance and before. And so, each year, as the last of the autumn leaves finish their fall, the Cynnabar Collegium Musicum takes up the New Oxford Book of Carols and renew the medieval tradition.
Riu riu chiu and Veinticinco de diciembre from Spain; Un flambeau, Jeannette Isabelle! from France; Es ist ein Roess ensprugen in German. Traditional English carols like The Boar's Head, The Coventry Carol and The Holly and the Ivy, dating from the very earliest days of the modern age, all the way back to carols like Verrbum caro factum est and Veni veni Emanuel that were old when the Renaissance itself was new. Each year, the veterans in our choir revisit and the newcomers are introduced to the whole repertoire of the Collegium Musicum, deftly guided by our fearless songmistress sapphireone, who for the last seven years has guided the singing group which has been active in various incarnations almost since the foundation of Cynnabar in the mid 1980's.
Of course, the tasty chocolate involved is a relatively new tradition... :-)
- My own involvement in the choir began with the kind invitation of parslaanna and magda_vogelsang at Wassail in 2004, as told before in Child of Aoide. The first holiday season after I joined the choir in it's yearly traditional carol on Main Street, a marvelously fun way of brining the medieval tradition to the Ann Arbor public. The 2005 caroling season I missed while serving on the Transplant and Pediatric Surgical units, but that year, as I understand, Jesse worked with the propetiors of the Chocolate Cafe on Main and thus our choir gained a new tradition: performing in front of (and in) the Cafe, and then enjoying hot chocolate drinks thereafter. And so this year, being lucky enough to have finished my own ward duties early in December, I was able to join the choir again for this year's holiday season, chocolate and all. From our opening performances on the corner of Main and Liberty to a smaller group of us singing together as we walked back from dinner, it was renewal of a favorite tradition and a celebration with friends of the holiday season.
And then there was 12th Night -- the annual early winter celebration hosted by all the combined Shires and Baronies of Pentamere, the regional alliance of all the Michigan SCA groups -- where we again performed and sang and danced and feasted. From the many veterans who helped welcome me into the SCA years ago now to new friends like niquerio and okuninushii, the day was a celebration of music and dance and food and friendship. (I even finally got to meet the legendary bard faheud in person. V. Cool. :-) )
Breakfast kindly hosted by okuninusii at her home and playing with her kitty Zot was marvelous fun. So too was the dancing rjlona organized, and looking at shiny things, and otherwise just being silly and hanging out. Performing with the choir was a great pleasure as always. And then Jesse and aelkiss and niquerio shared the evening Feast together -- a feast which even veterans involved in the SCA literally since before I was born ranked as one of the best they'd ever enjoyed. It was a amazing feast, a marvelous event, a wonderful day, and a wonderful season.
All my life, I've loved music, the listening to and the performing of; and I've always felt a special kinship with those of my friends who too loved the musical arts. So many of my favorite moments and fondest memories have been in sharing music with friends. Pubsings at the end of the day at Michigan's Hollygrove or Maryland's White Hart Tavern. Singing rounds with Jesse and aelkiss while marching through the Greenwoods, or an afternoon with silmaril painting a bathroom and sharing a song. Or all the wonderful times shared with all the wonderful friends of the Collegium Musicum here in Cynnabar, from carols to weddings.
In a matter of weeks, I will recieve my assignment for my next stage of training; and at that time find out where next I will go. I have no idea where I will be next season, when it comes time again to celebrate Wassail and 12th Night with carols and friends. Most likely, it will be far from here, far away from the family and friends who have made these past many years so special. But I am grateful for all the happy memories and warm welcomes in times past I have found here and everywhere else my travels have taken me; and grateful to all who helped make it so. Wassail, my friends, wassail. :-)
- Good fortune attend each merry man's friend,
That doth but the best that he may;
Forgetting old wrongs, with carols and songs,
To drive the cold winter away.
Some of the photos kindly provided by okuninushii, used with thanks.