Twelve Days of Winter #5. Steeleye Span: Gaudete
December 20, 2024
Colin Randall writes: two outings for Maddy Prior, two outings for the Latin language in this series of Christmas or winter songs.
We've heard Prior's impeccable singing of In Dulci Jubilo, from her moonlighting role as part of the Carnival Band. Now, it's back to her natural habitat, Steeleye Span, for Gaudete.
Maddy Prior. By Roger Liptrot for his folkimages.com site
In 1973 the band reached the middling heights of No 14 with this ancient carol.
I cannot quite, any longer, recall the way Prior and the lads looked as they performed it for Top of the Pops. I do remember a live version from the following year, stunning in its execution but prompting little more than respectful applause from a Swiss studio audience.
Gaudete - meaning rejoice or rejoice ye - is believed to date from the late 16th century, when it appeared in a German-published collection of Finnish and Swedish sacred songs. The Wikipedia notes add that the "standard tune comes from older liturgical books". The late Bob Johnson, whose guitar playing and secondary vocals would prove so important in Steeleye's career, had heard the song at a Cambridge folk-carol service he attended with his father-in-law.
Mike Oldfield did get In Dulci Jubilo into the UK charts but, as mentioned elsewhere in this series, only in instrumental form. Apart from Steeleye, only Sarah Brightman and Paul Miles-Kingston have managed to reach the Top 20 singing fully in Latin (in Pie Jesu, from the Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem in 1986).
Crudités is a rather clever parody by the folk duo Blanche Rowen and Mike Gulston substituting raw vegetables for the celebratory Christ-is-born Latin lyrics. On their website, they describe this as “a bit of silliness”. Don’t watch the video—or even listen to the song—if you’re feeling hungry.
Comments