The Boar's Head Carol - Revel Players, Traditional
Constant Billy
Here We Come A-Wassailing
There Was a Pig
The Monks' March
Dargason
Fra Giovanni
The Holly and the Ivy - Revel Players, Traditional
Lord of the Dance
Brass Fanfare
Masters in This Hall - Revel Players, Morris, William [1]
Shakespeare Lines
Nova, Nova
Alle Psallite Cum Luya
The Moon Shines Bright
Sword Dance Tunes
The Shortest Day
The Wren Song
Apple Tree Wassail - Revel Players, Traditional
The Twelve Days of Christmas - Revel Players, Traditional
Sussex Mummers' Carol
The original Christmas Revels recording features many audience favorites including signature piece "Lord of the Dance," sung by Revels founder John Langstaff. Includes traditional & ritual carols, dances, and processio... more »nals from Medieval England, in celebration of the winter solstice. Also includes children's songs and Shakespeare verses, as well as scenes from a mummers play.« less
The original Christmas Revels recording features many audience favorites including signature piece "Lord of the Dance," sung by Revels founder John Langstaff. Includes traditional & ritual carols, dances, and processionals from Medieval England, in celebration of the winter solstice. Also includes children's songs and Shakespeare verses, as well as scenes from a mummers play.
"This is without a doubt, hands down the VERY BEST Christmas CD in existence. And no, I'm not being dramatic. This music has actually become part of my family's Christmas tradition. We keep ourselves in suspense until Christmas Eve, and then we finally put on the CD and listen and dance and sing along together. Please give yourself and your family the gift of this music. It is worth every penny, 20 times over."
Feels like your'e at a local play
merrymousies | Waterford, VA USA | 11/02/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is a neat CD - its very down to earth - very renaissance sounding with trumpets, flutes, and voices that are more like those out of a play than a usual holiday cd that is dense with choirs, polished singing. Most all the songs are all up-beat and while some might be familiar (e.g. here we come a wassailing, 12days of christmas) many were new to me. Really a fresh way to celebrate. All the songs seem to be very traditional in terms of toasts that might be given at a feast or songs that would be sung at a celtic feast. There were some songs that I prefer to skip over that talk to killing animals for the feast etc."
Dance Then! WhereEVER you may be.
merrymousies | 12/05/1998
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Christmas Revels is an experience like no other. In the truest form of community theater the cast develops a neighborhood of families of all ethnic and material standing and presents Christmas as it may have been. Come with us, and celebrate the shortest day! Go Yule!"
Revels without a Claus
Robert D. Harmon | Mill Valley, CA | 12/10/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you've seen any of the Christmas Revels live performances, which appear in a number of cities during the holiday season, you'll see an intimate performance of singers, choruses (including children's), dancers and instrumental ensembles, all of it first rate. The Revels are meant to evoke an earlier Christmas, the solstice celebration of the end of the year, of death and rebirth, as celebrated in feasting and cameraderie of a small village.
This album is the stereotypical Revels, and begins with the haunting Abbot's Bromley Horn Dance for the Morris dancers (typically in the show), and the spoken introductions that would open and carry the show throughout. The sword dance is there, as is the Lord of the Dance (to the tune of Simple Gifts) that marks the end of the first act -- and in which the entire audience dances out through the theater to the lobby, led by the cast.
There's also the majestic Sussex Mummer's Carol ("God bless the master of this house ...") at the end, in which the audience joins, and here it is sung in its typical arrangement. This carol ends all Revels Christmas shows, whatever the show's theme, and it is as moving a carol as you'll ever hear.
I have this album in CD -- same material -- and I recommend you buy it in full if you're downloading it, since it is the full show and worth the experience."
The Best 'Revels' CD!
F. Lowell | Highland Mills, NY USA | 12/25/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is the first and the best of the CD's issued by the Christmas Revels. It is a concept CD with a wonderful flow from beginning to end. It sounds as if it were a live performance, even though it is not, with songs, readings and staging that is quite remarkable. It is not a very easy CD to find, but it is well worth seeking out...even if you have to buy it used!"