Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen. We all know the carol, which tells of the good king’s generosity – how he brought flesh and wine and fuel to a needy peasant, his faltering page literally treading in his master’s footsteps.
What the carol doesn’t tell us is that, with all the snow lying round about, deep and crisp and even, Wenceslas could pack a wicked snowball, as seen in this medieval fresco. Woe betided the lord or lady who caught one of the king’s frigid projectiles.
On this St. Stephen’s Day, the second day of Christmas, I hope that you too are continuing to enjoy your midwinter festivities.
Here’s a “Meditation on the Old Czech Chorale ‘St. Wenceslas’” (which has little to do with the immortal carol), by Josef Suk. Suk was a pupil – and eventually the son-in-law – of Antonin Dvořák. I’ve never heard this arrangement before. The piece was originally conceived for string quartet.
Happy Boxing Day, and St. Stephen’s Day greetings!
It’s the Second Day of Christmas. There are twelve days to the holiday, after all – through Epiphany on January 6 – even if most of the Christmas music disappears with December 25. So don’t let the post-holiday blues overtake you. It’s not quite time for our hearts to break over Hans Christian Andersen’s Fir Tree. Not quite yet. (Do not ever read this if you want to be happy: http://hca.gilead.org.il/fir_tree.html.)
Today is a big, big holiday all over Europe, and in Canada, and in the Antipodes, and just about anywhere that once served as a European colony – except the U.S., where, for some reason, Madison Avenue has completely overlooked an excellent opportunity to wring a few more dollars out of Christmas. But it’s just as well. For one thing, everyone is already broke. For another, I wouldn’t want capitalism to spoil any more of the rustic traditions.
St. Stephen’s Day is a merry antidote to the subdued piety of December 25. It is, after all, the day Good King Wenceslas looked out, determined to feed and heat the poor. In Spain, the holiday is one more excuse to consume a big meal. In Finland, it is a day of parades and sleigh-rides. In Great Britain, it used to be the custom to thrash with holly branches late risers and female servants. (And you can’t tell me that still doesn’t go on in some of those manor houses.)
In Ireland, St. Stephen’s Day is the Day of the Wren. It’s the day rowdy lads dress up in straw and dance around with stuffed birds (now thankfully fake; they used to kill the real ones), supposedly in an allegorical homage to the birth of Christ, but also as a convenient way to extort treats (see wassailing). These wren boys or mummers show up at one’s house and sing:
The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
St. Stephen’s Day was caught in the furze,
Although he was little his honour was great,
Jump up me lads and give us a treat.
As I was going to Killenaule,
I met a wren upon the wall.
Up with me wattle and knocked him down,
And brought him in to Carrick Town.
Drooolin, Droolin, where’s your nest?
‘Tis in the bush that I love best
In the tree, the holly tree,
Where all the boys do follow me.
Up with the kettle and down with the pan,
And give us a penny to bury the wren.
I followed the wren three miles or more,
Three miles or more three miles or more.
I followed the wren three miles or more,
At six o’clock in the morning.
I have a little box under me arm,
Under me arm under me arm.
I have a little box under me arm,
A penny or tuppence would do it no harm.
Mrs. Clancy’s a very good woman,
a very good woman, a very good woman,
Mrs. Clancy’s a very good woman,
She give us a penny to bury the wren.
Give those boys (and girls) a St. Stephen’s Day pie!
The Clancy Brothers sing “The Wren Song” on “The Mike Douglas Show”
December 26. St. Stephen’s Day. The day King Wenceslas “looked out” and trudged through snow and wind and gathering darkness to bring flesh, wine and fuel to one of his needy subjects.
This afternoon on The Classical Network, we’ll salute the good king, whose legendary deeds were immortalized in the famous Christmas carol, with Josef Suk’s “Meditation on the Old Czech Hymn, ‘St. Wenceslaus.’” We’ll also acknowledge the Irish St. Stephen’s tradition of “hunting the wren.”
As stomachs and ear drums continue to be wassailed and assailed during this perhaps too merry season, we’ll also have plenty of music about banqueting and toys.
This week’s “Music from Marlboro” (6:00 EST) will feature evergreen works by Beethoven and Wagner.
It shouldn’t require the patience of a saint to enjoy the music, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen. We all know the carol, which tells of the good king’s generosity – how he brought flesh and wine and fuel to a needy peasant, his faltering page literally treading in his master’s footsteps.
What the carol doesn’t tell us is that, with all the snow lying round about, deep and crisp and even, Wenceslas could pack a wicked snowball, as seen in this medieval fresco. Woe betided the lord or lady who caught one of the king’s frigid projectiles.
On this St. Stephen’s Day, the second day of Christmas, I hope that you too are continuing to enjoy your midwinter festivities. If you find yourself in the vicinity of a radio or are able to do a little online streaming, consider joining me for today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network, which will consist of performances from the Lake George Music Festival.
On the program will be Ralph Vaughan Williams’ early Piano Quintet in C minor, from 1903 (revised 1905). The first movement strikes a Brahmsian tone, yet there are intimations in the slow movement of the world of Hubert Parry (Vaughan Williams’ teacher) and RVW’s contemporaneous song, “Silent Noon.” Interestingly, the composer would return to the theme of the finale, put here through five variations, fifty years later, in 1954, for another set of variations for the last movement of his Violin Sonata.
Also featured will be a brand new work – and a Lake George commission – by Philadelphia composer Sheridan Seyfried. His Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra was composed for the festival’s resident artists, brothers Nikki Chooi and Timothy Chooi. Seyfried, 32, is a product of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Manhattan School, where he studied with Richard Danielpour, Jennifer Higdon, and Ned Rorem.
Then stick around. Later in the afternoon, we’ll hear another highly listenable piece of new music by Kenji Bunch, 44 – his ballet, “The Snow Queen,” after Hans Christian Andersen. The recording, a two-CD set issued on innova Recordings, was made in Eugene, Oregon, by Orchestra NEXT. Orchestra Next gave the work its premiere in collaboration with the Eugene Ballet Company. Bunch, who is also a violist, studied at the Juilliard School. He has since returned to the land of his birth and now makes his home in Portland.
As the afternoon progresses, we’ll drop in a few more surprises for the season. It’s a feast of music for St. Stephen’s Day, this Tuesday from 12 to 4 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Detail from “Winter” (before 1407), by Master Wenceslas of Bohemia
Judging from a compact disc on the EBS label, German toy symphonies seem to have been the rage for well over a century, at least since Leopold Mozart’s wacky exercise, long attributed to Haydn, which includes plenty of drums, toy trumpets and bird whistles. We’ll hear one of those this afternoon, which may or may not be the escape from Christmas you’re looking for, depending on whether or not you have little ones congregating at your house.
We’ll also have music for St. Stephen’s Day, including some musical commemorations of Good King Wenceslas and acknowledgements of the Irish tradition of “hunting the wren.”
Finally, we’ll get caught up with Hanukkah, as we wind down on the second day of the Festival of Lights and begin the third at sunset.
Christmas proper may be over, but I assure you, things will remain quite festive, this afternoon from 4 to 7 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.
