Trumpets and carols

Trumpets and carols go together like Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen! This is Pam, who with Ruaridh spent the morning adding brilliant trumpet lines on the top of descants, on the top of carols, etc, etc. Makes the hair on the back of the neck rise!

Carols are not necessarily Christian! The term refers to a lot of songs sung before Christmas - most retell in some form the Nativity, but others like Wassail songs are just for a good old time to be had!

The earliest English Carol is the Boar's Head Carol! In Norse culture, a boar was sacrificed to Freyr at the Winter Solstice. Amid trumpets blaring and minstrels singing, the boar's head with an apple in its mouth, was carried in on a gold or silver platter. It was first published in 1521

The boar's head in hand bear I
Bedecked with bay and rosemary
I pray you, my masters, be merry
Quot estis in convivio.

Chorus:
Caput apri defero,
Reddens laudes domino.
(I bring the boar's head,
giving praises to the Lord)

The boar's head, as I understand,
Is the rarest dish in all this land,
Which thus bedecked with a gay garland
Let us servire cantico

There are a number of places - in England and in parts of the world which trace their roots to English culture, where the Boar's Head tradition still exists - such as Reed College in Portland, Oregon.