And now, time once again for the annual rite of winter in which I try desperately to find some traditional Christmas song which is tuneful, vaguely interesting, not heretical, and which hasn't been done to death.
This one at least meets the first and last criteria, and it also has the advantage that it takes kindly to bluegrass harmony.
In terms of popularity, this falls somewhere between "unusual" and flat-out "obscure." I've heard it only once, on a Sixties album by the Mitchell Trio, and it appears that they messed it up a little. At least, when I chanced across it in the New Oxford Book of Carols, I discovered that the Trio had changed the rhythm noticeably, though the notes themselves are about right. The version given below is the "correct" version from the NOBC, except that I fixed a couple of places where it appears to me impossible that that's what they meant (mostly that consists of eliminating a triplet).
The song itself comes from an obscure 1945 book The Edric Connor
Collection of West Indian Folk Songs and Tunes; this is the only
reference I've ever seen to either the book or the song. Connor
reported this as the "only West Indian negro carol I found"; he
collected it from James Bryce, who gave his age as 94, in 1942.
The NOBC version is in G, which is too high for most people's
voices
even before you add the high harmony, so I transposed it down to D.
(Personally, I play it on the 12-string guitar, in G positions, which
--
since the 12-string is tuned a full tone low -- means it sounds in F.
Which I can just barely handle.) Then, obviously, I added the harmony.
(NOBC has a harmony on the chorus, but the verse is solo. And there
were six parts on the chorus; obviously that wasn't going to do a
bluegrass group any good.)
Anyway, it seems to me that a nice way to approach this song is to add voices throughout the verse: First the lead, then the bass (actually, the part "shapes" more like what bluegrassers call "baritone"), then the high harmony (bluegrass "tenor"). This affects the way the music should be read. In the first line of the verse, of course, the melody is the only note shown. When the line repeats, with two notes, the melody is the higher note. But from the third line on, where there are three notes, the middle line is the melody, with "tenor" above and "bass" below.
Of course, you can ignore all that harmony if you only have one singer. The guitar tab shows the melody throughout; that seemed the best way to make this unusual song available to listeners.
The whole thing should be done with a semi-calypso beat. It is, I admit, tricky; I have a bad tendency to throw in extra notes to let my head and the guitar re-synchronize. But my sense of rhythm is pretty defective anyway. With any luck, you'll do better.
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Complete Lyrics:
The Virgin Mary had a baby boy,
The Virgin Mary had a baby boy,
The Virgin Mary had a baby boy,
And they say that his name was Jesus.
CHORUS:
He come from the glory,
He come from the glorious kingdom,
He come from the glory,
He come from the glorious kingdom.
Oh, yes, believer. Oh, yes, believer,
He come from the glory,
He come from the glorious kingdom.
The angels sang when the baby born
The angels sang when the baby born
The angels sang when the baby born
And proclaim him the savior Jesus.
The wise men went where the baby born
The wise men went where the baby born
The wise men went where the baby born
And they say that his name was Jesus.