From the recording Carols of Christmas
Angels We Have Heard on High – Traditional French carol. According to French legend, shepherds in the country’s southern hills watching their flocks on Christmas Eve would call to each other across the fields and hills, singing the words “gloria in excelsis Deo,” or “glory to God in the highest.
Ding Dong Merrily on High –Words by George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934), music traditional French. The tune first appeared as a secular dance tune known as “le branle de l’Official” in Orchésographie, a dance book written by Jehan Tabourot (1519-1593). The carol was first published in 1924 in Woodward’s The Cambridge Carol-Book.
Lisa Marie Lawson, soprano