Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Call my true love to my dance

As Christmas carols go, “Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day” is barely in its teens. It first appeared in a collection published in 1833. You shouldn’t even give it the keys to the family car.

What I like about this one is the metaphor of the Messiah’s life as a dance. (You may be more familiar with the modern “Lord of the Dance”—and I do not mean that crypto-Celtic Michael Flatley crap; I’m talking about the one set to the Shaker hymn, “Simple Gifts”.) There’s a version by John Rutter; ix-nay on that. This one, from that old reliable King’s College, Cambridge, Choir, is by John Gardner.



No comments:

Post a Comment