A traditional Christmas carol, arranged for a small classical chamber ensemble, led by the oboe and trumpet solos, solemn and stately in mood, well-suited for visual scenarios imbued with the festive spirit of the Christmas season and the Winter holidays.
Acknowledgments of the public domain and/or creative commons licenses: music and lyrics by an unknown author (18 c.).
GOD REST YOU MERRY, GENTLEMEN
God rest you merry, gentlemen, / Let nothing you dismay, / For Jesus Christ our Saviour / Was born upon this day, / To save us all from Satan’s power / When we were gone astray:
O tidings of comfort and joy, / comfort and joy, / O tidings of comfort and joy.
From God our heavenly Father / A blessed angel came, / And unto certain shepherds / Brought tidings of the same, / How that in Bethlehem was born / The Son of God by name:
O tidings …
The shepherds at those tidings / Rejoiced much in mind, / And left their flocks a-feeding / In tempest, storm and wind, / And went to Bethlehem straightway, / This blessed Babe to find:
O tidings …
But when to Bethlehem they came, / Whereat this Infant lay, / They found Him in a manger, / Where oxen feed on hay; / His mother Mary kneeling, / Unto the Lord did pray:
O tidings …
Now to the Lord sing praises, / All you within this place, / And with true love and brotherhood / Each other now embrace; / This holy tide of Christmas / All other doth deface:
O tidings …