Share this
Mister Wong
Digg
Del.icio.us
Slashdot
Furl
Yahoo
Technorati
Newsvine
Googlize this
Blinklist
Facebook
Wikio
Carol of the Bells
Carol of the Bells is a Ukrainian carol; originally a pre-historic New Year chant, which was supposed to have magical properies because of the way it used the number 3.
In Pre-Christian times the New Year fell in April, but when the Ukraine was Christianised the New Year moved to January, and the chant moved with it, which made the central story, of the flight of a swallow into the house bringing good luck for the coming year, slightly out of place seasonally.
The modern version is a choral miniature work by Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych. It was premiered at Kiev University in 1916 and introduced to Western Europe and America by a tour of the Ukranian National Chorus in 1921
This splendidly vigorous version has all the passion of spring and new growth running through it, which makes it completely appropriate as a message of hope and new life, whether played in the middle or at the end of winter.
