Continuing this month's theme of traditional songs of the Christmas season, of which there are very many, with one of this year's two versions of "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" (the other is "Sherburne", a shapenote version).
The words of this carol are sung to many, many different tunes - over 50 (it is written in common metre so fits very many) - and it is one of the staples of the Sheffield/Derbyshire tradition of village carols which kept alive many of these. The main reason for the abundance of melodies is that for about 100 years (the 18th century) it was the only Christmas hymn authorised to be sung by the Anglican Church (the words appeared in Tate and Nicholas Brady's 1700 supplement to their New Version of the Psalms of David of 1696). Probably it was permitted because the words are so closely based on the Gospel of Luke 2:8–14. I have sung all six verses which Nahum Tate wrote (only four verses are sung in the Sheffield carols tradition).
The melody of this version is "Winchester Old", a famous common-meter psalm tune, thought to have been arranged by George Kirbye (1560-1634) from a melody in Christopher Tye's Acts of the Apostles and published in T. Este's The Whole Book of Psalmes (1592) set to Psalm 84.
Ii took several hundred years before this tune was matched to the words though - they seem to have been first published together in an arrangement by William Henry Monk for "Hymns Ancient and Modern" in 1861. "Hymns Ancient and Modern" was very successful and quickly became one of the standard hymnals used in the Church of England. Later editions followed, and the 1950 "Hymns Ancient and Modern, Revised" (AMR) was the version still in use when I was a choirboy. This melody soon became and is still the standard one used in the UK in Anglican churches.
Compared with many of the other tunes to which "While Shepherds" is sung, "Winchester Old" is a pretty simple tune, which makes it less interesting as a singer to sing, but good for congregational singing. It's such an important tune for the song though, that I thought I ought to cover it.
For more notes and lyrics see:
[ Ссылка ]
The relevant verses (8-14) from the Gospel of Luke (King James Version) - you can see how close they are to the lyrics
[ Ссылка ]
Wikipedia page on the song:
[ Ссылка ]
