Song of the Week–Deck the Halls

Sorry this didn’t go up yesterday…I was going to do it after my son went to sleep last night, but then he just WOULDN’T go to sleep! Then I ended up crashing out with him. Oh well.

Maeven helped me choose this week’s song…I asked her if we should do a Christmas song, and she liked that idea and suggested “Deck the Halls” because she didn’t know it all yet. I’m glad she picked this one because its one of my favorites!

A little history on this song:
The music to Deck the Halls is believed to Welsh in origin and was reputed to have come from a tune called “Nos Galan” dating back to the sixteenth century. In the eighteenth century Mozart used the tune to Deck the Halls for a violin and piano duet J.P. McCaskey is sometimes credited with the lyrics of Deck the Halls but he only edited the Franklin Square Song Collection in which the lyrics were first published. The first publication date of Deck the Halls is 1881. The author is unknown but the words are said to originate in America.

Here’s the music.

And here’s the lyrics:

Deck the halls with boughs of holly
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
‘Tis the season to be jolly
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Don we now our gay apparel
Fa-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la.
Troll the ancient Yule-tide carol
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.

See the blazing Yule before us.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Strike the harp and join the chorus.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Follow me in merry measure.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
While I tell of Yule-tide treasure.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la

Fast away the old year passes.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Hail the new year, lads and lasses
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Sing we joyous, all together.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Heedless of the wind and weather.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la

We’re going to work on just the first verse with Tyren…if he gets the other verses, that’s great but I think that might be a bit much for a 3yr old. Maeven and I will see how far we get with the other verses during the week. I’m going to print up the lyrics (you can find them all over the net, but i got mine here …just click the little tiny print button to the right of the title)  to help us learn. 🙂

This is a good song to talk about what the words mean too…there’s a lot of old English in there, so we are going to talk about what it means to “don we now our gay apparel” and such.  🙂

HAPPY SINGING!

Related Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *