by Kevin T McEneaney
Last Saturday evening at The Stissing Center in Pine Plains, Windborne, a group with four noted CDs, entertained those with a rising Christmas spirit. They are four casual masters of polyphony: Jeremy Carter-Gordon (baritone); Lynn Rowan (soprano); Lauren Breunig (mezzo-soprano); and Will Rowan (tenor).
They sing simple or rhythmically complex harmonies as if it were as easy to sing as breathing, and they make you feel like you can rise to their level. This was an unforgettable night of carols and cheer, a night to be remembered, putting all attendees into the spirit of the Christmas season with sumptuous harmonies that ravished the venue.
Their repertoire varied from older English Christmas wassailing songs to Medieval French, Welsh, and Lithuanian folk songs, and they managed to persuade the audience to accompany them. I did manage to sing in Lithuanian for a little while. (They were amazingly persuasive, as I am not inclined to sing very much.)
The Somerset Wassail that celebrated moving from house to house itemized that among the carolers the older folk drank cider, middle-aged men drank spirits, the ladies drank beer while the young men drank tar!
They sang of the little wren bird whom peasants dressed up as a royal king when they knocked on doors with carols hoping for a little bun or tiny dram to drink while snowflakes feathered their hats with notes from heaven. Back in those old days, they had songs that were so emotional that they created pity for the un-housed. Imagine that!
Windborne gleefully sang “Satan was really surprised” at the birth of Jesus of Nazareth from the Noëls de Notre Dame des Doms in Avignon. They sang two songs in the southern French Occitan dialect language. Back in the 16th century, the French ridiculed that sneaky Satan with robust humor: his falling down on his nose and breaking it when he witnessed the birth of Jesus!
They lamented the plight of the poor at Christmas in song and passed a plate for donations to a food-bank; they said they would match whatever was donated: $1600 will be donated to the food-bank.
The thirteenth-century Welsh song “The Never Beyond” was a most mysterious song that reverberated in one’s years. (I wanted to hear it again.) They sang the medieval Chartist Anthem that first proclaimed the rights of men in England.
Like old-fashioned wise men on the road, they interpret folk singing to be a most egalitarian work of art. They persuaded everyone to sing easy refrains that reverberated throughout the hall. And yes, there were excellent singers in the audience!
They sang of the infamous Derby ram with a fine English rural lilt. And they sang wassails without stopping for breath as they wove textured harmonies while they made everyone feel as if they were at the party of a lifetime which imparted fellowship to everyone.
In four-part harmony, they sang of the little wren bird who outwitted the eagle and whom peasants dressed as a noble king when they knocked on doors with carols, the carolers hoping for a small bun or dram to drink while snowflakes feathered their hats without regard for social status.
They sang of the Turning Year, the Holy Holly, the rising sun, the beginning of a New Year, and the World Turned Upside Down. They welcomed a New Year with notes of such benevolence and joy that those who attended dispensed with all their faults and agreed that Pine Plains was a plain town of friendship avoiding the pitfalls of folly.
They concluded with the traditional “The Wassail Bowl” tune with new lyrics written by the group: “Toast the trees and if you please / We’ll wassail at your door.”
The audience would not permit Windborne quartet to leave town without performing another encore that would de-enchant the spell they had brought upon the town, a spell which will linger in the ear and heart….
