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Old Cornwall Christmas Traditions Cornish Carols - A Tradition For The World
17. Redruth
It Came Upon A Midnight Clear : Tune by R.H.HeathClick to hear Music by Redruth Town Band To purchase their CD "A Proper Cornish Christmas" click here.
The mining district around Redruth and Camborne has been singing carols to locally written tunes for over a hundred and fifty years. Many of the tunes were written by local men and T Broad wrote Hark, what music fills Creation!" which is playing in the background. "The “Redruth-Camborne” Carol, is the true Cornish “Curl.” Its golden age of production was from about 1790 to 1920, and it is this type of Carol which was carried during that period by Cornish miners to every part of the world, and which is still sung in the “Cornish homes far away”. Robert H. Heath (see No. 13) Collected together a number of the Redruth District carols and published them in South Africa in 1889. Later they were re published in Redruth, In his preface to the volume he wrote the following:
“For
some considerable time our Cornish friends at home and in the Colonies
have been clamouring for a Collection of Cornish Carols. And although
there are many good Collections of Carols published, still there has
not
appeared as yet, any one of the old Favorites composed by such men
as
J. Stevens. T. Broad, W. Eade, J. Coad, A. Woolf and others, natives of
Redruth
and Illogan. And seeing the tenacity with which the Cornish folk stick to the
yearly rendering of these Compositions as handed down from
father
to son, and not merely singing them in the chapels and churches but
in - the highways and hedges. I have thought for some years past that perhaps
something might be done to still further perpetuate these rude compositions
by bringing them out in due form so as to make them more generally useful
to all who are fond of such quaint music. I am perfectly aware of the
task having been undertaken by one whose abilities are perhaps scarcely such
as would warrant an interference with other peoples works; still I have
endeavoured to retain the most striking points of interest which fairly entitles
them to rank as characteristic of the Cornish style, and further I have
been actuated by the purest motives towards the Composers themselves and the
somewhat restricted rules of part -writing to sail as near the wind as possible
with regard to the one as to the other.” The Carol is "It came upon the midnight clear" and the tune was written by Heath and is being played by Redruth Town Band
Victorian Cornish Carols Number 1 Redruth & St Agnes District
Published by Federation of Old Cornwall Societies Published October 2010
This A4 size book contains the words plus musical scores of 33 Cornish Christmas Carols collected and published by Robert H. Heath in Redruth in 1889.
You can purchase a paperback copy of this book for just £5 + p&p by clicking here
or you can download the 33 carols for £3 by clicking here
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Federation of Old Cornwall Societies
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