Tag Archives: thomas ravenscroft

by

Advent Calendar Day 14: Remember, O Thou Man (Ravenscroft)

This carol holds a special place in my carol-infested heart, because it’s one of the first carols I sang at Wesley, and also because learning to sing this was, I think, the first time I ever heard the term ‘Advent carol’.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDN5gUgF_OQ&w=560&h=315]

Also, I am just silly enough to enjoy the rather brilliant line ‘Remember how thou art dead I gone, and I did what I can…’, which in my head is always followed immediately by ‘but you wouldn’t listen, would you? No, you just had to know better, and now you come crying to me…’

This is probably not quite what Thomas Ravenscroft had in mind.

Musically, I love this piece for its haunting melody and the harmonies which change from minor to major at the end of each verse.  And the voices in this particular rendition are just lovely. I’ll have to keep an eye out for The Sixteen in future.

by

Advent Calendar Day 20 – Remember, O Thou Man (Ravenscroft)

Today’s carol is the first piece of music I ever sang with the Wesley Choir, and today must be pretty close to the (? 8th) anniversary of that carol service, since it would have been the Sunday before Christmas. I don’t think we’ve sung it since, which is a pity, if only because Soprano S would have a field day with the lyrics.

We’re back in the genre of medieval carols that hark back to the Garden of Eden and have lyrics that I find more amusing than I should. My personal favourite line in this is the bit which goes ‘And I did what I can, therefore repent.’ There’s a certain note of ‘look, you guys, I’ve done my part, now you’ve got to step up and keep your end of the bargain’ that I find rather appealing.

It’s astonishingly hard to find a good recording of this. I don’t understand why, because it’s a fairly simple piece of music, but perhaps the slightly puritanical lyrics put people off. The recording with good voices tend to have crying babies and medieval costumes (the latter are admittedly rather cool; the former not so much), or else they start midway through the first bar – or they miss the first verse entirely! Or they interminably slow. This recording one is a little on the slow side, and the soloist irritates me beyond belief, but the harmonies are right and the words are there.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGMoGOFQULU&w=560&h=315]