Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Saturday morning I was struck by the desire to hear "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" on hammered dulcimer. I haven't gotten to yet (Bill and Becky were out of town, so no hammered dulcimer at the performance Saturday evening, and later in the weekend syntonic_comma seemed to think he was too out of practice on that instrument to pull it off on a moment's notice). In particular, I keep hearing in my head -- and wanting to hear aloud -- some of the variations C.W. McCall's backup band[1] puts on that tune, and similar variations that they might do but, as far as I know, haven't. I find myself humming it in the shower, with ornaments I could play on recorder or guitar but which wouldn't sound quite right on either of those instruments.

I recall seeing in somebody's journal sometime before Christmas (I'm currently a month or so behind on my friends' pages, but I've glanced at them once in a while and hope to catch up in the first few days of the new year) a survey asking one's favourite Christmas carol. I think "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" is mine (though ask me next year and see whether my answer is the same). Even with the annoyance of seeing the comma in the wrong place (or omitted) so often in the title. And most of the reason is musical. The words count, of course -- there are several carols that I like well enough but are out of the running because the lyrics seem to "Christmas as commercial holiday" instead of religious, or because they're about nostalgia and traditions instead of being about the Christmas story itself, or because I find the lyrics just a little bit cheesy ... and I'm not counting any seasonal-but-not-Christmas-specific songs as carols at all. But of the ones not excluded because the words fail to live up to my standards, my choice comes down to music. Which ones are the most interesting to sing (without being too difficult for me), fun to play on at least one instrument that I play, and can be tinkered with and improvised on without feeling like I've destroyed them in the process? For me, for now, I'm putting "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" at the top of the list.