The Joy Choir at Bushtime 2021

 Welcome to the Joy Choir! 

For Bushtime, our songs are following a theme of 'singing with the land'. Trees, rivers, seasons and earth magic weave through the harmonies.  Sing with Nicole Murray on 28, 29, 30, 31 December & 1 Jan, from 10-11am at Bushtime's venue "The Show", and perform there at 8pm on 1 Jan. We will be standing well-spaced to take care of each other.

Here are the lyrics you'll need, nice and covid-safe, on your phone. When you're reading them, remember to look up and sing to your audience (don't look down and squash your vocal area)! 

These are the songs we're rehearsing:

Sumer is Icumen In (rota from 1260)

The Green Man

These two might have to be for next time:

I Am A River

Lay Fallow

Thank you for bringing your beautiful voice to the choir. The rehearsals are sounding wonderful, and the yoga class is enjoying practising to our music.

The Green Man

(by John Thompson, arranged for Bushtime by Nicole Murray)

Green
Tree Dream.
Old Forest
Father, Green Man.

The Green Man's a traveller, reveller, unraveller
'f dreams and 'f fancies, from first to the last.
Older than all men, living in all things
Son, father 'n' sage, Long live the Green Man!

First light 'f first morning saw the Green Man there waiting
He saw the creation, 'nd joined in the dance
All creatures grew around him, he grew with them singing
The first song 'f all, sing of the Green Man

Quietly watching and waiting and learning
The storms are his fury, the lightning his laugh
The first leaf of spring, is his beauty and glory
His stillness his power, in the trees is his path.

There are fewer trees now, but the man is not sleeping
'Though our ruin brings sorrow to time's oldest heart
In our souls we may find him 'nd remember his wisdom
And rekindle the flames; once again make a start.

Sumer is Icumen In
a mediaeval rota from the mid 13th century, in the Wessex dialect of Middle English. With the notes in solfa in case that's your thing. We're singing in Bb.

Pes 1 & 2. Sing cuccu nu sing cuccu

(d r d r f s f s)

1. Sumer is icumen in, Lhude sing cuccu  

    (d t l t d d t l s / m m f r m)

2. Groweth sed and bloweth med and spring the woodes new

    (d m r f m m r d / m s l l s)

3. Sing cuccu!   

    (d l d)

4. Awe bletheth after lomb, lhouth after calve cu

    (s m f r m s f m / d m r t d)

5. Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth, murie sing cuccu

    (m m r f s s l t / d t l t d)

6. Cuccu, cuccu, well singes thou cuccu

    (s l s f m / d m f r m f)

7. Ne swik thou naver nu

    (f m s r t d)

Link to Nicole singing Sumer is Icumen In for Nicole's Anywhere Choir

I Am A River

by Nickomo

Soprano (goes second)
I am a river, flowing to the ocean, I am a river passing through this land.
Flow like a river, flow like a river, flow like a river, passing through this land.

Alto (goes fourth)
I am a river, flowing to the ocean, I am a river, passing through this land.
Flow like a river, flow like a river, like a river passing through this land.

Tenor (goes first)
I am a river, flowing to the ocean, I am a river, passing through this land flow,
Like a river flow, like a river flow, like a river, passing through this land.

Bass (goes third)
I-I am a river, flowing to the ocean, I-I am a river, passing through this land
Flow, like a river, flow flow, like a river, flow flow like a river, passing through this land

Link: All the parts are on this page which was created for Morningsong choir. Scroll down.

Lay Fallow

by Michael Kennedy

Heed the voice in the wind my child

Leave the field til the grass grows wild

Every blade is borrowed

Let the land lay fallow

Down below the waste and weed

Dormant lie forgotten seed

Waiting for to have their head

And sow again the ancient bed

Long before the jubilee

Wiser heads than ours believed

Offered thanks of fruit and grain

Brought the seasons round again

Though your lot seems fair at best

And this plot a poor bequest

When every ounce of gold is found

The prize will lie in fertile ground

Born around the birth of flame

The primal wind knows time,

knows change

Commands the skies and moves the land

(shhh)

Yet trembles in the human hand

Heed the voice in the wind my child

Leave the field til the grass grows wild

Every blade is borrowed

Let the land lay fallow

Every blade is borrowed

(unison) Let the land lay fallow

Link to Nicole singing Lay Fallow for Nicole's Anywhere Choir.