Carol of the bells
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    I think I came across a setting of the carol of the bells as a round. Anyone know of this or heard of it?
    And before you get all flustered, i know I know, sacred music and all that, at the moment i am in week three with a new choir whose 'traditional' Christmas repertoire is jingle bells, rudolph the rnr and a spaceman came travelling.
    So just help if you can.
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,801
    ...as a round
    Surely you jest!
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,982
    If you are talking about the version by Wilhousky, one of our fine Ukrainian Byzantine musicians, isn't it kind of a semi-round anyway?
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    No, not jesting, and yes it is sort of.... but....young children, so little time....
  • Carol
    Posts: 856
    A real round that everyone likes at Christmas time is "Dona Nobis Pacem." Very few words to learn and easy to do. I have used this with fairly inexperienced singers and it went very well.
    Thanked by 2Incardination bonniebede
  • Incardination
    Posts: 832
    Not familiar with Carol of the Bells as a round, but if you'd like Carol's suggestion, here is the music...
    072 Dona Nobis - ANON.pdf
    119K
    Thanked by 1bonniebede
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/carol-of-the-bells-sheet-music/3555974
    Thanked by 1bonniebede
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,501
    This is two parts and looks easy: http://www.stantons.com/scores/B/L/8/4/4/cfn-bl844.pdf
    Thanked by 1bonniebede
  • tsoapm
    Posts: 79
    I could never get my head round Carol of the Bells when we tried it in our last choir (and we made such a hash of it that we abandoned it anyway). Perhaps it was the arrangement, but it always made me think of Harry Potter rather than Christmas.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,982
    I have done Carol of the Bells and it was quite successful. Granted, it is polyphonic so the parts have to be nailed down precisely by the choir sections. It is a Ukrainian carol so it is what it is - Ukrainian folk music.
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,933
    Every time I hear Carol of the Bells, I want to go to Burger King.

    Now that I know it can be done as a round, I'll order a round of apple pies for everyone.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,982
    Let me put it this way. Would you prefer Ukrainian folk music in church, or U.S. folk music from the 60s and 70s? Ohhhhh, let me think......
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    I want to drink some Andre - the sophisticated soda for teenagers in the 1970s (when the legal drinking age in the USA was generally 18, and was definitely not very well enforced):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1fjlpzT5po
    Thanked by 2CharlesW Carol
  • Carol
    Posts: 856
    For those who are feeling more Bah Humbug than Ho! Ho! Ho! try "Christmas Can Can!" I was looking at the sheet music suggestions above and noticed the title and found it on Youtube by a group called Straight No Chaser. Quite clever.
  • JL
    Posts: 171
    "Carol of the bells" is not, in fact by Peter Wilhousky, though his arrangement and text are pretty much the standard in English-speaking countries. Musica Russica publishes Mykola Leontovych's original in Ukrainian (which has nothing to do with bells), for treble or mixed voices. It's not at all a sacred text, but lots of fun and within the reach of any choir that won't freak out over out-of-the-way phonetics.

    http://www.musicarussica.com/sheet_music_pieces/cc002wc
  • CGM
    Posts: 700
    In the original Ukrainian it's entitled "Shedrik" (vis-à-vis transliteration), and it's a New Year's carol that we sang every so often back in the days when I was in a Russian chorus. The lyrics are in the first person, a sort-of litany of the characteristics of my love, with whom I will spend New Year's. The line that sticks out most in my memory is, "My love will be the girl with the bushy black eyebrows." Hooray for folk music!
    Thanked by 2canadash CharlesW
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,933
    "My love will be the girl with the bushy black eyebrows." Hooray for folk music!


    Hey now. Mexican painters and Anglican prelates need some lovin' just like the rest of us.
    Thanked by 2CharlesW JL
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    This post reminds me ... does anyone else only sing the lyrics as "...while people sing SONG of good cheer..." I don't know if y'all know anything about him, but this is the lyric as directed by Dr. Glenn Draper, and it has forever stuck in the heads of any of us who have sung with him as the only way to sing it. =)
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    If you're looking for something that is Ukrainian, traditional, and for Christmas, check my just posted setting/translation of Nova radist' stala (Joy on Earth Now Appearing). It's not as glitzy as the "Carol of the Bells" and it is more focused on the joy of the Nativity.
    Thanked by 3CharlesW a_f_hawkins bonniebede
  • JL
    Posts: 171
    Ah, yes, CGM. My favorite bit was always, "Even if all your money turns to chaff, / You still have a good-looking wife."
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    There may be some U.S. states in which those lines rhyme.
    Thanked by 6Incardination bonniebede WGS Carol PaxTecum JL
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