Continued from Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Vikings
I've been able to trace several ancestral lines back to the Angles and the Saxons, who, along with the Jutes, began to invade England after the Romans
left in the early 400s.
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By mbartelsm - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86531831 |
These Germanic invaders pushed the Celts (Britons) to the north and west, and
eventually occupied much of what is England today.
The Anglo-Saxon language is also referred to as Old English. I have no idea
about authentic Christmas songs and celebrations of the Saxons, so I have two
offerings for you. The first is likely what the Saxons would have heard in
church, the second is a more modern carol translated into Old English.
This time period predates Gregorian Chant, so in church, it likely would have
been Old Roman Chant in Latin. This Alleluia is said to date back to the 2nd
century.
To hear what Old English sounds like, click the image or caption below to view the video on YouTube. The carol itself isn't authentic for the time period, but the language is.
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Click here to view on YouTube |
Next, Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Celtic
2 comments:
Leigh, that first song sounds much more like an Orthodox chant rather than something I would associate with the Latin rite.
Thanks for posting the second! I got about 60% of it with minimal looking at the captions.
Wow, TB, 60% is excellent! I'm less diligent than you are in my studies.
Interesting observation about the chant. Considering that the didn't split into east and west until around AD1000, that would make sense. I'm guessing the Orthodox church kept more of the old sounds than the Roman church, which probably adopted more Gregorian chant-like songs.
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