RealAudio 2.0, 14.4
RealAudio 2.0, 28.8

Tune: Branle l'officiel from Thoinot Arbeau, Orchèsographie (1859)

This infectious tune from the 16th-century French dance treatise Orchèsographie caught the ear of George Ratcliffe Woodward, an early-20th-century Anglican priest and scholar of hymnody. Woodward, in collaboration with Charles Wood, a Cambridge musician, created new Christmas carols by adding tests to tunes found in his researches. Larry Lipkis made this lively arrangement nearly twenty years ago under the title "Raisin Branle." It has been evolving in Baltimore Consort Christmas programs for a number of years.

Hear each musician play a passage from "Ding Dong Merrily":

 

soprano lute, 14.4 soprano lute, 28.8	cittern, 14.4 cittern, 28.8	fife, 14.4 fife, 28.8
treble viol, 14.4 treble viol, 28.8	bass viol, 14.4 bass viol, 28.8	soprano, 14.4 soprano, 28.8

Program notes by Mary Anne Ballard