For the last few years I have directed the once-a-year Christmas Choir in the Suffolk village of Friston, and I’ve usually written a couple of arrangements for the Lessons and Carols service.
Last year one of our carols was Little Jesus, Sweetly Sleep (the ‘Rocking Carol’) which has been at the back of my mind ever since I first sung it at primary school. It is a traditional Czech carol (Hajej, nynej) which became more well known when it was printed in the original Oxford Book of Carols nearly 100 years ago. It’s in a gentle 2/4 time and I think the thing that attracted me to it (even at primary school) was the sharpened fourth in the first phrase – almost a dominant modulation (or a bit of Lydian mode) before it’s got started – which is almost immediately cancelled out in the next phrase.
The somewhat Lydian flavour – the sharpened fourth degree of the scale – was one of the things that coloured my arrangement; but the other thing was that I felt that the melody was over a bit quickly, even though there is quite a lot of repetition in it. So I stretched the melody out, putting it into 3/4 time (though aware that this might not suit the regular rocking of the cradle quite so well), and shared the melodic line between the voices. The result is that this familiar carol is looked at from a slightly different angle.
The words were ‘freely translated’ from the Czech original by Percy Dearmer, who, as co-editor of the English Hymnal (1906), Songs of Praise (1925) and The Oxford Book of Carols (1928) played a very important role in widening the musical repertoire for parish churches with re-discovered traditional hymns and carols from many countries. In the spirit of ‘free translation’ I adapted the words a little more, extending them to three verses while retaining their traditional feel, and I hope that this version, music and words, will give the traditional song a new lease of life.
You can see and hear a scrolling score here.
It is published by GIA Publications, Inc, as a printed copy or a digital download – details here