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Winter Carols
''Winter Carols'' is the sixth studio album by the group Blackmore's Night, released in the United Kingdom on October, 2006, and in the United States on November 7, 2006. It is a Christmas themed album. The cover artwork for this album, painted by Karsten Topelmann, is an adaptation of a street in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany, in line with the band's heavy Renaissance influence. The same street is portrayed in the cover of Blackmore's Night's second studio album, ''Under a Violet Moon''. In the cover of "Winter Carols" the street is painted as winter time, whereas ''Under a Violet Moons cover takes place on apparently a summer night. While the selections "Winter (Basse Dance)" is credited to Ritchie Blackmore as composer, it is an adaptation of the second section of Joaquin Rodrigo's "Fantasía para un gentilhombre," which Rodrigo composed for classical guitar virtuoso Andres Segovia in 1954. In December 2006, ''Winter Carols'' entered at #7 on USA Billboard New Age Char ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackmore's Night
Blackmore's Night is a British-American neo-medieval folk rock band formed in 1997, consisting mainly of Ritchie Blackmore (acoustic guitar, hurdy gurdy, mandola, mandolin, nyckelharpe, and electric guitar) and Candice Night (lead vocals, lyricist, and woodwinds). Their lineup has seen many changes over the years; Blackmore and Night have been the only two constant members. They have released eleven studio albums. Their early releases were mostly acoustic and imitated early music, but eventually Blackmore's Night started using more electric guitars and other modern instruments, as well as performing folk-rearranged cover versions of pop and rock songs. History Early Candice Night was a Rainbow fan, and first encountered Ritchie Blackmore to ask him for an autograph in 1989, while she was working for a local New York radio station. The two started living together in 1991, and discovered they both had a passionate interest in Renaissance music. During the reformed Rainbow's rec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is an English Christmas carol that first appeared in 1739 in the collection ''Hymns and Sacred Poems''. The carol, based on , tells of an angelic chorus singing praises to God. As it is known in the modern era, it features lyrical contributions from Charles Wesley and George Whitefield, two of the founding ministers of Methodism, with music adapted from " Vaterland, in deinen Gauen" by Felix Mendelssohn. Wesley, who had written the original version as "Hymn for Christmas-Day," had requested and received slow and solemn music for his lyrics, which has since largely been discarded. In 1840—a hundred years after the publication of ''Hymns and Sacred Poems''—Mendelssohn composed a cantata to commemorate Johann Gutenberg's invention of movable type printing, and it is music from this cantata, adapted by the English musician William H. Cummings to fit the lyrics of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", that propels the carol known today. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wish You Were Here (Rednex Song)
"Wish You Were Here" is a song by Swedish band Rednex from their first album ''Sex & Violins''. Written by Teijo Agélii-Leskelä and produced by Denniz Pop and Max Martin, the ballad was released as a single in April 1995 and became a number-one hit in Austria, Germany, Norway, and Switzerland. In Austria, it was the most successful single of 1995. Additionally, the song reached number two in Iceland, number three in Sweden, and number six in Finland. On the Eurochart Hot 100, it peaked at number five. Critical reception American magazine ''Billboard'' deemed "Wish You Were Here" a "surprisingly sincere ballad". J.D. Considine from ''The Daily Gazette'' described it as a "unexpectedly ABBA-esque ballad". Howard Cohen for ''The Miami Herald'' called it one of "a few melodramatic instances" on the album. ''Music & Media'' wrote that it "focuses on a totally different side. It's a ballad, sung with lots of Dolly-patented vibrato and pathos." David Nagy from ''Red Deer Advocate'' not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
We Three Kings
"We Three Kings", original title "Three Kings of Orient", also known as "We Three Kings of Orient Are" or "The Quest of the Magi", is a Christmas carol that was written by John Henry Hopkins Jr. in 1857. At the time of composing the carol, Hopkins served as the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and he wrote the carol for a Christmas pageant in New York City. It was the first widely popular Christmas carol written in America. Lyrics Composition \header \layout global = chordNames = \chordmode soprano = \relative c'' alto = \relative c' tenor = \relative c' bass = \relative c verse = \lyricmode verseR = \lyricmode chordsPart = \new ChordNames choirPart = \new ChoirStaff \score \score :Source John Henry Hopkins Jr. organized the carol in such a way that three male voices would each sing a solo verse in order to correspond with the three kings. The first and last verses of the carol are sung together by all three as "verses ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Brackett
Joseph Brackett Jr. (May 6, 1797 – July 4, 1882) was an American songwriter, author, and elder of The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, better known as the Shakers. The most famous song attributed to Brackett, " Simple Gifts", is still widely performed and adapted. Biography Brackett was born in Cumberland, Maine, on May 6, 1797, as Elisha Brackett. When he was 10, his first name was changed to Joseph, like his father's, as the Bracketts joined the short-lived Shaker community in Gorham, Maine. This new Shaker community was centered on the Bracketts' property, until the whole group moved to Poland Hill, Maine, in 1819. Brackett's father died there on July 27, 1838, but Brackett continued to rise in the Shaker community, eventually becoming the head of the society in Maine. Brackett died in the Shaker community of Sabbathday Lake at New Gloucester, Maine, on July 4, 1882. Legacy Brackett is known today primarily as the presumed author of the Shake ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sydney Carter
Sydney Bertram Carter (6 May 1915 – 13 March 2004) was an English poet, songwriter, and folk musician who was born in Camden Town, London. He is best known for the song " Lord of the Dance" (1967), whose music is based on the " Shaker Allegro" more commonly known as the song " Simple Gifts", and the song "The Crow on the Cradle". His other notable songs include "Julian of Norwich" (sometimes called "The Bells of Norwich"), based on words of Julian of Norwich, "One More Step Along the World I Go", "When I Needed a Neighbour", "Friday Morning", "Every Star Shall Sing a Carol", "The Youth of the Heart", "Down Below" and "Sing John Ball". Biography Born in Camden Town London Carter studied at Montem Street Primary School in Finsbury Park, Christ's Hospital school in Horsham, West Sussex and Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in history in 1936. A committed pacifist, he registered as a conscientious objector in World War II and joined the Friends' Ambulance Unit, serving in Egyp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord Of The Dance (hymn)
"Lord of the Dance" is a hymn written by English songwriter Sydney Carter in 1963. The melody is from the American Shaker song " Simple Gifts". The hymn is widely performed in English-speaking congregations and assemblies. The song follows the idea of the traditional English carol "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day", which tells the gospel story in the first-person voice of Jesus of Nazareth with the device of portraying Jesus' life and mission as a dance. Author's perspective In writing the lyrics to "Lord of the Dance", Carter was inspired partly by Jesus, but also by a statue of the Hindu deity Shiva as Nataraja (Shiva's dancing pose) which sat on his desk. He later stated, "I did not think the churches would like it at all. I thought many people would find it pretty far flown, probably heretical and anyway dubiously Christian. But in fact people did sing it and, unknown to me, it touched a chord." Carter wrote: Reception Verse 3 of the hymn, which includes the line that " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Good King Wenceslas
"Good King Wenceslas" is a Christmas carol that tells a story of a Bohemian king who goes on a journey, braving harsh winter weather, to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen (December 26, the Second Day of Christmas). During the journey, his page is about to give up the struggle against the cold weather, but is enabled to continue by following the king's footprints, step for step, through the deep snow. The legend is based on the life of the historical Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia (907–935). In 1853, English hymnwriter John Mason Neale translated the lyric from a Czech poem by Václav Alois Svoboda , in collaboration with his music editor Thomas Helmore, and the carol first appeared in ''Carols for Christmas-Tide'', published by Novello & Co the same year. Neale's lyric was set to the melody of the 13th-century spring carol "Tempus adest floridum" ("Eastertime Is Come") first published in the 1582 Finnish song collection ''Piae Cantiones''. Source leg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ma'oz Tzur
"Ma'oz Tzur" ( he, מָעוֹז צוּר, Māʾōz Ṣūr) is a Jewish liturgical poem or ''piyyut''. It is written in Hebrew, and is sung on the holiday of Hanukkah, after lighting the festival lights. The hymn is named for its Hebrew incipit, which means "Strong Rock (of my Salvation)" and is a name or epithet for God in Judaism. It is thought to have been written sometime in the 13th century, although recent research suggests the 12th century. It was originally sung only at home, but has been used in the synagogue since the 19th century or earlier. In more recent years, of its six stanzas sometimes only the first stanza is sung (or the first and fifth). Time and author "Ma'oz Tzur Yeshuati" is commonly thought to have been written in the 13th century, during the Crusades. The first letters of the first five stanzas form an acrostic of the composer's name, Mordechai (the five Hebrew letters מרדכי). There are several hypotheses regarding his identity. He may have been th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ding Dong Merrily On High
"Ding Dong Merrily on High" is a Christmas carol. The tune first appeared as a secular dance tune known under the title "Branle de l'Official" in ''Orchésographie'', a dance book written by the French cleric, composer and writer Thoinot Arbeau, pen name of Jehan Tabourot (1519–1593). The words are by the English composer George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848–1934), and the carol was first published in 1924 in his ''The Cambridge Carol-Book: Being Fifty-two Songs for Christmas, Easter, And Other Seasons''. Woodward took an interest in church bell ringing, which no doubt aided him in writing it. Woodward was the author of several carol books, including ''Songs of Syon'' and '' The Cowley Carol Book''. The macaronic style is characteristic of Woodward’s delight in archaic poetry. Charles Wood harmonised the tune when it was published with Woodward's text in ''The Cambridge Carol Book''. More recently, Sir David Willcocks made an arrangement for the second book of ''Carols for Choir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ritchie Blackmore
Richard Hugh Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English guitarist and songwriter. He was a founding member of Deep Purple in 1968, playing jam-style hard rock music that mixed guitar riffs and organ sounds. He is prolific in creating guitar riffs and classically influenced solos. During his solo career, Blackmore established the hard rock band Rainbow, which fused baroque music influences and elements of hard rock. Rainbow steadily moved to catchy pop-style mainstream rock. He later formed the traditional folk rock project Blackmore's Night along with his current wife Candice Night, shifting to vocalist-centred sounds. As a member of Deep Purple, Blackmore was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2016. He is cited by publications such as ''Guitar World'' and ''Rolling Stone'' as one of the greatest and most influential guitar players of all time. Early life Blackmore was born at Allendale Nursing Home in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, as second son to Lewi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
