The song is was written by a Ukrainian and is called Shchedryk. It was originally a New Year’s song; when Shchedryk was written, the Ukrainian New Year was in April, so it’s actually a springtime song, and has nothing to do with bells.
There are some simply fantastic recordings of Shchedryk sung in Ukrainian; although (or maybe because?) I don’t understand Ukrainian, I find these more beautiful and moving than the English lyrics.
Edit: several articles (words) were dropped, but only articles. So I have either suddenly a weird sort of brain disease that affects only some parts-of-speech, or … well, that’s the only reasonable explanation. Anyway, edited to fix.
Was lucky enough to go to one of the Eurovision shows in Liverpool this year and they had the Ukrainian version as part of the half time show. I could listen to it every day of my life so it’s handy that there’s a version for every season!
Do you know if it was based on any plain chant roots? The ostinato shares a basic note structure with the Dies Irae, (Day of Wrath) and I’ve been wondering if they were connected.
Yeah, but both of those tunes have really ancient decent. So I was wondering if they were connected or inspired way back when, or if they just both happened to use the same four note combination.
Agree. I love it so much, I read up about it.
The song is was written by a Ukrainian and is called Shchedryk. It was originally a New Year’s song; when Shchedryk was written, the Ukrainian New Year was in April, so it’s actually a springtime song, and has nothing to do with bells.
There are some simply fantastic recordings of Shchedryk sung in Ukrainian; although (or maybe because?) I don’t understand Ukrainian, I find these more beautiful and moving than the English lyrics.
Edit: several articles (words) were dropped, but only articles. So I have either suddenly a weird sort of brain disease that affects only some parts-of-speech, or … well, that’s the only reasonable explanation. Anyway, edited to fix.
Was lucky enough to go to one of the Eurovision shows in Liverpool this year and they had the Ukrainian version as part of the half time show. I could listen to it every day of my life so it’s handy that there’s a version for every season!
I’ll need to see if I can find that on YT!
Do you know if it was based on any plain chant roots? The ostinato shares a basic note structure with the Dies Irae, (Day of Wrath) and I’ve been wondering if they were connected.
I mean at this point the Dies Irae is like a littls meme/reference for composers, no? Like a sheet music version of a Vine
Yeah, but both of those tunes have really ancient decent. So I was wondering if they were connected or inspired way back when, or if they just both happened to use the same four note combination.
Nope! Sorry, that’s far deeper, arcane knowledge than I hold.