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The First Nowell
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The First Nowell
The First Nowell / First Noel
[
Roud 682
; Ballad Index FSWB376A
; trad.]
BACCApella (the singers of Bacca Pipes Folk Club; amongst them at the time were Maggie Boyle, Lynda Hardcastle, Fay Hield, Mike and Helen Hockenhull, and Tim Moon) sang The First Nowell to the tune of Young Banker in 1999 on their privately released CD The Haworth Set. This track was included in 2006 on the Free Reed 4 CD anthology Midwinter. The latter's included book commented:
The origins of the carol are unknown, though various conjectures place it as far back as the thirteenth century. Certainly it survived unpublished until 1833 when William Sandys included it in Christmas Carols Ancient & Modern. He claimed the carol originated in Cornwall where he had found it in some manuscript papers.
Jon Boden, Jess and Richard Arrowsmith, Gavin Davenport, Fay Hield and Sam Sweeney sang First Noel in the finest BACCApella tradition at the Royal Hotel in Dungworth as the 23 December 2010 entry of Jon's project A Folk Song a Day.
Maddy Prior sang The First Nowell on Steeleye Span's 2004 CD, Winter. She noted:
My spell-check has a problem with this version of Nowell, but it is correct, according to The Oxford Book of Carols. It is also apparently more for Epiphany than Christmas. But nobody knows that anymore.
The Albion Christmas Band sang The First Nowell in 2006 on their CD Winter Songs and in 2009 on their CD Traditional.
Magpie Lane Nowell Nowell on their 2006 CD Knock at the Knocker, Ring at the Bell. They noted:
This is clearly a very close relative of The First Nowell, whose roots can be traced back to Cornish sources. It was collected by Cecil Sharp in 1913 from Mr Bartle Symons of Camborne, Cornwall. [ VWML VWMLSongIndex/SN26017 ] .
And Msgpie Lane's Andy Turner played the Morris tune The Rose and sang Nowell, Nowell as the 20 December 2020 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.
Lyrics
Steeleye Span sing The First Nowell | Jon Boden et al sing First Noel |
---|---|
The first nowell the angel did say |
The first noel the angel did say |
Chorus (after each verse): | |
They looked up and saw a star |
They looked up and saw a star Chorus (after every other verse): |
And by the light of that same star |
And by the light of that same star |
The star drew nigh to the north-west, |
The star drew nigh to the north-west, |
Then entered in those wise men three | |
Then let us all with one accord | |