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Good King Wenceslas

by Roary Skaista

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about

When asked to record a well-known Christmas carol as part of a virtual carol service during the 2020 pandemic, I chose one of my favourites, Good King Wenceslas. I enjoy the carol for the bouncy tune and wholesome story, but it also has a very interesting background as a piece of music.

The carol tells of the 10th Century Bohemian Duke Wenceslas, posthumously considered a King, as well as Saint, due to his acts of kindness and charity. The story originally comes from a poem by another Wenceslas, a man named Wenceslas Swoboda, who published it under the title "Saint Wenceslas and Podiwin" in Czech, German and Latin in 1847. In 1853 an English hymn writer, John Neale, then translated and put the story told in this poem to the tune of the 13th Century Latin spring carol "Tempus Adest Floridum".

I decided in my arrangement of the piece to keep it light and bouncy like the original spring carol and to add different harmonies for the voices of the king and the page.

lyrics

Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay 'round about, deep and crisp and even;
Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, gath'ring winter fuel.

"Hither, page, and stand by me, if thou know'st it, telling:
Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league, hence, underneath the mountain,
Right against the forest fence by Saint Agnes' fountain."

"Bring me mead and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither;
Thou and I will see him dine when we bear him thither."
Page and monarch forth they went, forth they went together,
Through the rude wind's wild lament and the bitter weather.

"Sire, the night is darker now and the wind blows stronger,
Fails my heart, I know not how, I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, my good page, tread thou in them boldly;
Thou shalt find the winter's rage freeze thy blood less coldly."

In his master's steps he trod where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod which the Saint had printed;
Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing:
Ye who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing.

credits

released December 4, 2020
See above for description of the origins of this carol
Arrangement by Roary Skaista
Recorded and mixed by Cameron Alsop
Artwork by thetinkid

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Roary Skaista UK

Roary Skaista is a queer folk musician based in Oxford, performing traditional folk songs as well as their own material on the themes of love, nature and diversity.

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