Author: John Chivers via YouTube
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With a nod to Mike Oldfield’s arrangement of In Dulci Jubilo, this is my arrangement of the old English song, Here We Come A-Wassailing, which I’ve named Wæs hæl! This is derived from the old Anglo Saxon greeting "Wæs þu hæl!" (Be in good health!), which in turn became a toast: "Wæs hæl!" with the response "Drinc hæl!" used throughout England.
There are two customs related to what is now termed Wassailing. One is the practice of going from door to door, singing and entertaining, and effectively demanding food or gifts in exchange for a drink from the Wassail bowl.
These practices appear to have evolved into Halloween’s Trick or Treat on the one hand and carol singing on the other, but Wassailing became traditionally associated with the Twelfth Night – the last day of Christmas, on the 5th January.
The other is the more ancient practice of visiting orchards in the cider-producing areas of England, making noise to ward off evil spirits, to awaken the trees and to give the trees offerings to encourage them to produce a good bumper crop at the next harvest.
Thanks to Bill Bradshaw (www.billbradshaw.co.uk) for the kind permission to use his photograph, which shows the latter tradition, still practised in parts of the country, but more as an excuse for a good social event for most participants.
Regarding the music itself, it’s recorded using Cubase Artist 11 on a PC. For those interested in more details, the track breakdown is something like this:
Rhythmic Robot’s Synthesizer 2000 plug-in to produce the archetypal Roland SH-2000 clarinet sound, which became a hallmark of Mike Oldfield’s sound.
Two snare drum tracks, recorded using Superior Drummer 3 as the sound engine and triggered from my Alesis Crimson II electric drum kit.
Halion Sonic SE provided an additional recorder track, piano, accordion, timpani, plus… tubular bells.
Scarbee Rickenbacker bass was used for the bass guitar.
Session Guitarist Picked Acoustic for the acoustic and Session Guitarist Electric Sunburst Deluxe for the electric guitar.
The eSLine String Machine plug-in provided the Solina String Machine sound.
Otherwise, additional percussion included a tambourine, sleigh bells and a whistle.
Finally, the "Yokel Chorus" features 13 of me singing in various characters and accents, with a "Wæs hæl!" for good measure.