Uncommon Christmas carols, Hannukah songs, and Winter Solstice music...
Now you can own a collection of holiday music you don't often hear; this book is a compilation of my favorite non-standard Christmas and Hannukah songs - by which I mean, not the top fifteen Christmas tunes that cycle endlessly through the mistle-toe garlanded avenues of the malls.
In the late 1980s I threw a yearly Christmas Revels-type event called the "Solstice Extravaganza", in Page Auditorium at Duke and later, at Playmakers Theatre on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. It featured local early music and ethnic ensembles and essayists and a brand new a cappella ensemble called the Solstice Assembly.
We made a recording of our favorite Christmas and Hannukah songs. Named "Three Log Night" by bass Randy Kloko, it's proved unexpectedly durable as a holiday favorite so I reissued it on cd (you can buy the cd, see below). And then I compiled a songbook to go with the cd - the Three Log Night Songbook is now available on CreateSpace, nice big pages, nice easy-to-read sheet music and lyrics, full-color cover, and many songs newly added since the first edition.
Many people get tired of the same-old top twenty Christmas carols, but love beautiful old music. This is a songbook for them.
Contents at a Glance
- Joe Newberry sings
- The NEW Three Log Night Book now available at CreateSpace!
- The companion cd for Three Log Night: buy with PayPal right here!
Joe Newberry sings
with Carl Jones and Andy Cohen
The NEW Three Log Night Book now available at CreateSpace!
Expanded edition with full-color cover and extra songs - in a larger format.
One of the book's arrangements: Resonet in laudibus
The Solstice Assembly sings: available on the Three Log Night songbook or as a download from Amazon
Resonet in laudibus
Amazon Price: $0.89 (as of 12/11/2009)
Here you hear the Solstice Assembly singing our arrangement of this song (found in the New Three Log Night Songbook)
The companion cd for Three Log Night: buy with PayPal right here!
If you don't read music, buy the cd and sing along with your new songbook. Songs and tunes for the holiday season...
This was originally recorded in 1988 - the songs on this lens are directly from the remastered cd with a couple of added songs, and you can buy it right here:
Buy the Three Log Night CD:
Only $11 - no shipping/handling charge!
Click here (and wait a moment, Paypal can be a bit slow)
Or you can visit Skylark Productions and buy from there (and look at our other cds and songbooks).
Track list: Let Memory Keep Us All, Sherburne, The Lord at First did Adam Make, Time to Remember the Poor, Ma-Oz Tsur, Y'vanim, Simu Shemen, Svivon sov sov sov, Hanerot halalu, The Sussex Mummers carol, Gloucester Wassail, May Waltz, In the Bleak Midwinter, Fulfillment, Blessed be that Maid Marie, Gaudete, Gedeonis, Cookham, Sainte Nicholaes, The Very First Blessing Mary Had, The Holly and the Ivy, The Boar's Head Carol, Tappster, Dryngker!, Rock the Cradle, Joe!, Pastime with Good Company, The King, The Holly Bears a Berry, Now is Come our Joyful Feast
This is what the music looks like in the new Three Log Night Christmas Songbook...
Gaudete is an English carol made famous by Steeleye Span
Just below, you can hear a version which is a lot like ours.
Gaudete! performed by Steeleye Span
This arrangement is in the songbook and sung on our Three Log Night cd
Below, the songs in the Three Log Night songbook:
Blessed Be that Maid Marie - to - Hanerot Halalu
Blessed be that Maid Marie
Also known as "Staines Morris," it's a very old English Christmas Carol.
Cookham
A shape note Christmas hymn from the Sacred Harp songbook.
Fulfillment
Another shape-note hymn.
Gaudete
An ancient English christmas song, sung in Latin, made famous by Steeleye Span
Gedeonis Area
An early English song learned from the singing of Joel Cohen's Boston Camerata
Gloucester Wassail
From the Oxford Book of Carols, our arrangement
Hanerot Halalu
One of the best Hannukah songs
"The Sussex Mummers Carol" from Three Log Night
Why not make a brief visit to my publishing house and cd store, Skylark Productions?
Lots of lovely recordings and songbooks available there...
For decades I've been arranging folkmusic for singers, and issuing cds (once upon a time, even cassettes, if you can remember back that far!) of beautiful, unusual music. Please take a minute and have a look: Skylark Productions - there are free mp3 samples to listen to. I thank you for your time.
In the Bleak Midwinter - to - Rock the Cradle, Joe!
In the Bleak Midwinter
From the Oxford Book of Carols, as arranged and sung by "The Buds" - Joe Newberry, Carl Jones, and Andy Cohen
Let Memory Keep Us All
I wrote the words to this song with my ex-husband and set it to "The Death of Admiral Nelson" - for the full story see Let Memory Keep Us All: the Solstice Assembly Songbook.
Ma-Oz Tsur
This is an Italian melody for the famous Chanukah song; I arranged it and added a second verse in English.
May Waltz/Woodcutter's Song
Bob Vasile of the Pratie Heads, who is half Finnish, found the May Waltz, a Finnish tune, as well as the Woodcutter's Song, which is a traditional English text adapted by Robin Williams of the Incredible String Band.
Now is Come Our Joyful Feast
This song wasn't in the first edition of the Three Log Night Songbook; I added it to the book and the album later. It's performed by Mappamundi and combines an Elizabethan text with a Sacred Harp tune, turned into an old-timey Christmas song.
Pastime with Good Company
Supposedly Henry V wrote this.
Rock the Cradle, Joe
An old-time fiddle tune brought to us by Joe Newberry who played along with the Band of Ages
From S'vivon sov sov sov to the Boar's Head Carol
S'vivon Sov Sov Sov
A rousing song for Hanukah!
Sainte Nicholaes
This was a favorite women-only arrangement of the medieval song learned from Sequentia
Sherburne
One of the best shape-note Christmas hymns.
Simu Shemen
Another of the best Hannukah songs.
Sussex Mummers' Carol
This is one of my own personal favorite Christmas songs from the Oxford Book of Carols.
Tappster Dryngker!
Mark Biggers brought us this medieval drinking song.
The Boar's Head Carol
From the Oxford Book of Carols. I have one of the paper-mache "boar's heads" I made for the show hanging on my wall!
The Very First Blessing - to - Y'vanim
The Holly and the Ivy
I really like the way John Roberts and Tony Barrand did this song...
The Holly Bears a Berry
We gave this one a Latin feel...
The King
Strange to say, I first sang this song with the women's Balkan ensemble Laduvane back in the 1970s, but it comes from the singing of Steeleye Span.
The Lord at First did Adam Make
Our soloist in this song was Carol Boren Owens; she was only 33 years old when we recorded the song, but she died suddenly before she ever got a chance to hear the rough mixes. See Let Memory Keep Us All: the Solstice Assembly Songbook.
The Very First Blessing
Joe Newberry and Candace Carraway sang this duet, which Joe brought to us.
Time to Remember the Poor
Joe Newberry brought us this Mormon hymn, which he performed with Carl Jones and Andy Cohen.
Y'vanim
Bob Vasile and I (the Pratie Heads, performed this Hannukah song which I arranged and to which I added a second verse.
Sevivon Sov Sov Sov
Here's a cute bunch of kids singing the song (we didn't do these English words)
Who might want to own this book?
- Choral directors - adult choirs or high school choruses. Younger kids could sing some of these arrangements, too.
- Christmas Carolers - the oldest songs from the English caroling tradition are in this book!
- Schools that want to promote trans-cultural winter celebrations might appreciate the mix of Christian, Jewish, and non-specific winter songs;
- Do you sing for shut-ins or at hospitals or old-age homes and senior centers? These songs would be welcome there.
- Do you have a folksinging circle? Folk clubs and singing groups of all sizes could use these songs.
Shepherds Arise!
Another version of Shepherds Arise!
My other songbooks
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Let Memory Keep Us All: a songbook, and a remembrance
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This is a picture of Mitzi, Mona, and Sandy at the Medieval Fair at the Castle McCullough in Jamestown, NC, back in the 1990s, wearing nice outfits we sewed out of cloth we dyed ourselves. There were usually about sixteen people in the Solstice Asse...
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Songs Anyone Can Sing!
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It's published: see Songs Anyone Can Sing at Createspace! I learned how to teach non-singers to sing from Anabel Graetz in the 1970s. She made up the name of the course and at the time was teaching it to packed houses in adult education centers s...
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The Laduvane Songbook - Balkan singing for everybody
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This songbook was published by the a cappella Balkan ensemble Laduvane in 1977, after we'd made our first recording. It's amazing the difference one person can make. Recently a woman named Chris emailed me and said she'd lost her original copy of th...
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The TJC Hanukah Songbook
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I was music director for the "Cantor Corps" at Temple Judea Reform in Durham and directed the Triangle Jewish Chorale for fourteen years. Before that, I directed a group called the Solstice Assembly which put on many winter shows incorporat...
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Music for Jewish chorales: The Triangle Jewish Chorale Songbook
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My boss, Gayla Halbrecht, says it was 1994 when I took up the job of conducting our chorus; that means I spent fourteen years at the helm. I love the people in the group very much, and I love the music. This lens showcases the songbook I put t...
A collection of all my music and songbook lenses
Skylark Productions is the recording and publishing company which issues all my recordings and songbooks. In the lens below you'll find links to all my other musical lenses, including our live wedding music offerings for wedding ceremonies and receptions in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia-
Skylark Productions: folk and traditional cds and songbooks
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Skylark Productions was begun by Pat Sky when he was making field recordings of fiddlers and Irish pipers and whistle players in Ireland. (This was his logo.) He made quite a few well-regarded cassettes (yes, cassettes) but later lost interest and ga...
Other music pages you might enjoy...
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Hurricane Fran: "That was a dreadful night" and other disaster ballads
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Eight trees fell on my house in 1996 when Hurricane Fran swept through Chapel Hill, NC. They crushed the roof, a tremendous amount of water poured into the house, and I had to deal with it as a single mom. It was a crazy experience, and maybe the odd...
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"Tuppence on the Rope:" living between workhouses
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Taken from reminiscences of a man who had lived life on the road, traveling from workhouse to workhouse, cracking stones in exchange for a night's lodging, the song was recorded in 1975 by Gary and Vera Gary Aspey. Ten years later Bob and I learned t...
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Seven ways to cook eggplant: a Sephardic song and sephardic recipes
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I'm a wedding musician and we often play for Jewish weddings. One time a bride asked us: "Could you sing some Sephardic songs, but I don't like the sad ones." Hmmph! Most Sephardic songs I know are sad. So I did some research and still didn't come u...
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North Carolina wedding musicians: live music is best!
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My two bands play for weddings in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, and people always love the live music. But I see, because my daughter is getting married next year and sends me links to various wedding blogs, that tips for economizing...
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I've been a Pratie Head for many's the long year... (Celtic Music)
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I'd been living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, singing Balkan music with the acappella women's ensemble Laduvane,and singing American folksongs in a band called "Rank Strangers." In 1981 I married and my husband moved us to Chapel Hill, NC. This lens i...
Please, say hi! What do you think?
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- Jewelsofawe Jewelsofawe Dec 10, 2009 @ 10:45 pm
- Wonderfully done lens!
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- arncyn arncyn Dec 9, 2009 @ 1:29 pm
- Just wanted to drop a note to say what a beautifully presented and crafted page this is! I've never heard of any of this music before so I gave In the Bleak Midwinter a listen and liked it! Thanks for sharing the joy. (: (Also wanted to say that my parents met when my dad was in Duke & my mom in UNC so Chapel Hill is very special to our family)
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- TanyaWhaley TanyaWhaley Dec 5, 2009 @ 4:35 am
- Lovely lens 5*
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- Wise_Woman Wise_Woman Nov 21, 2009 @ 3:20 am
- it really lovely. The music is quite new to me and I spent a while here listening.
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- KarateKatGraphics KarateKatGraphics Nov 18, 2009 @ 1:06 pm
- Awesome! 5* and rolling this to Top 10 Christmas CDs...cracking up over "Three Log Night," too :)
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Lensmaster ChapelHillFiddler has been a member since June 15 2009, has rated 394 lenses, favorited 104, and has created 113 lenses from scratch. Jane Peppler donates their royalties to Squidoo Charity Fund. This member's top-ranked page is "William Levy, star of Sortilegio". See all my lenses
Links to all my songbooks
The TJC Hanukah Songbook More information
The Triangle Jewish Chorale Songbook More information
The Three Log Night Songbook: uncommon music for the holiday season (Christmas and Hanukkah) More information
Let Memory Keep Us All (the Solstice Assembly songbook) More information
The Laduvane Songbook (women's slavic a cappella (Balkan) music More information
Songs Anyone Can Sing More information
by ChapelHillFiddler
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