There are Christmas songs that I love, and Christmas songs that I hate. And sometimes they are the same song. It entirely depends on the arrangement. The Twelve Days of Christmas is one of those. When sung straight, it's horribly boring*. But when people do fun things with it, I love it! Here are some of my favorite versions!
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Craig Courtney's A Musicological Journey through Christmas via the Twelve Days of Christmas. I would love to perform this...
In one 19th century version of the song, it's "my mother" that gave the gifts, not "my true love".
Straight No Chaser
The 1780 version of the song says "four colly birds". Colly means coal black.
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir with The Count from Sesame Street!
In old English days, the 12 Days of Christmas was actually often played as a game. Here's a quote from Wikipedia from someone playing the game.
"Lady Gomme wrote in 1898:[42]
"The Twelve Days" was a Christmas game. It was a customary thing in a friend's house to play "The Twelve Days," or "My Lady's Lap Dog," every Twelfth Day night. The party was usually a mixed gathering of juveniles and adults, mostly relatives, and before supper — that is, before eating mince pies and twelfth cake — this game and the cushion dance were played, and the forfeits consequent upon them always cried. The company were all seated round the room. The leader of the game commenced by saying the first line. […] The lines for the "first day" of Christmas was said by each of the company in turn ; then the first "day" was repeated, with the addition of the "second" by the leader, and then this was said all round the circle in turn. This was continued until the lines for the "twelve days" were said by every player. For every mistake a forfeit — a small article belonging to the person — had to be given up. These forfeits were afterwards "cried" in the usual way, and were not returned to the owner until they had been redeemed by the penalty inflicted being performed."
In all those versions, how many different classical songs did you hear? Can you name them?
*Brad loves this version. It takes him back to his childhood.
