Nowell Sing We Clear

Sunday, Dec. 12, 1999, 7:00pm
First Parish in Cambridge
0 Church Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
(See map and calculate directions on MapQuest)
$16 at the door for all
(see below for detailed ticket prices)

December is a month of many holiday festivities. For twenty-two years one tradition in the New England area has been the performance of Nowell Sing We Clear. It is performed by John Roberts and Tony Barrand, experts of English traditional folk songs, and Fred Breunig and Andy Davis, well known in New England as dance callers and musicians.

Nowell Sing We Clear celebrates Christmas as it was known for centuries in Britain and North America. The songs come from an age when the mid-winter season was a time for joyous celebration and vigorous expression of older, perhaps pagan, religious ideas. Many of these ancient customs are the basis of today's holiday traditions, such as carol singing from door-to- door and the adorning of houses and churches with garlands of evergreen.

The first part of the program, "Leaping and Dancing," celebrates the birth of Christ as told in the vigorous carols and songs found in the folk traditions of Britain and North America. "To Drive the Cold Winter Away," the second half, offers carols heard in the twelve magic days following the winter solstice. A mummers play from Kentucky is also performed. The play is typical of folk dramas symbolizing and portraying the death of the land at mid-winter and its subsequent rebirth in the spring.

The pageant is stamped with the energetic dance band sound of fiddle, button accordian, electric piano, and concertina and includes traditional step dancing. Intelligent narration by Tony Barrand and audience participation have always been an important part of the program.

Four volumes of Nowell Sing We Clear can be heard on four cassettes or two compact discs. One disc is a compilation of the first three volumes which were originally on record. The most recent recording Hail, Smiling Morn is available on cassette and compact disk format. All recordings are available from Golden Hind Records.

This entertaining and informative concert is a perfect way to start the holiday season. It should not be missed!

We strongly recommend that you purchase tickets for Nowell Sing We Clear in advance. Advance tickets for FSSGB members are $12.00 and are free for children 15 and under. Advance tickets for non members are $14.00, $7.00 for children ages 7- 15, and free for ages 6 and under. For tickets send a stamped self addressed envelope with a check payable to FSSGB, to Panos Constant (address in Folk Letter, or send email to Panos.) Be sure to specify the number of member, non member, and children tickets desired. Member ticket prices are for members only and not for friends of members. Advance tickets at non- member prices will be available at Sandy’s Music, 896A Mass. Ave. Cambridge, The Minor Chord, 77 Great Rd. Acton, and Overall Music, 1707 Mass. Ave. Lexington Center. NOTE: Tickets at the door will be $16.00 for members, non-members, and children.

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