Christmas songs are of many styles and origins; there are the classic carols, the American form sung by crooners of the 50s and 60s and the ones hailing from the 80s. These are all part of our joint cultural heritage and we pick them up through osmosis. The past years I have become more interested in the older, folkish, Christmas tunes of the United Kingdom and one such song, albeit released just recently, is Christmas Bells.
Released in 2013 by the folk ensemble Bellowhead it follows the pattern of the St. George Christmas plays an ancient Cornwall tradition with religious subtext. The actors, dressed in traditional Morris dancer style in shirt sleeves and white trousers, illustrate several characters like The Doctor, Father Christmas, The Dragon and St. George. They then re-enact the battle of St. George and The Dragon to dance, music and much merriment.
Bellowhead was an eleven piece folk orchestra that blended traditional folk songs with a more contemporary, almost burlesque style. To see them live was truly to see a spectacle and they had very popular Christmas shows. One could claim that Christmas Bells perfectly illustrates the type of music they produced.
Christmas Bells is fun, energetic and filled with classic allusions to the folk heritage of the UK. That is why it is song number 17 on The Christmas List of Songs.
-Andrew Tobias
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