Coventry Carol

The Coventry Carol

Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
By, by, lully, lullay.
Lullay, thou little tiny Child,
By, by, lully, lullay.

O sisters too, how may we do,
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling for whom we do sing
By, by, lully, lullay.

Herod, the king, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day
His men of might, in his own sight,
All children young to slay.

Then, woe is me, poor Child for Thee!
And ever mourn and sigh
For thy parting neither say nor sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Coventry
• Carol
• Christmas
• Birth
• of
• Jesus
• Mary
• Joseph
• Herod
• Slaughter
• the
• Innocents
• Bethlehem
• Jerusalem
• classical
• music
• Christian
• Art

[thenerevarine13]

Is this Charlotte Church?

[DVIchannel]

@thenerevarine13 Yes it is.

[farliesbirthday]

There's a good chance that Shakespeare, as a child, saw the Coventry Cycle and heard this....

[DVIchannel]

@farliesbirthday That's a very nice thought :)

[coolanddark]

Incredibly haunting and tragic yet beautiful. Nice video slide show to!

[DVIchannel]

@coolanddark Thank you so much.

[angelflight2k6]

I love this song... so much... I just kinda wish it didn't have the Picardy Third, making that final chord a major key. But what do I know? It's beautiful nonetheless! :-)

[Staymewithflagons]

This carol was sung in medieval Christmas plays in England...and the oldest transcripts available show that it was to be sung by the women in the play. They are singing about King Herod's murder of all the innocent babies in Bethlehem in an angry tirade to try to kill the Christ child who the wise men had been searching for. It is a very heart wrenching story...the song is sung by the mothers who are singing a lullaby to their children...and telling the story of them being murdered by Herod.

[Staymewithflagons]

Any honest historian would count Herod as more than capable of such a thing...it was not safe to even be his own sons...who he murdered along with his wife when he felt that they were liked more than he. What a dark time the people of Israel were living in...with a tyrant puppet king backed by an uncaring Rome....but a time also that "they that sat in darkness...'saw' a great light."

[ClumsyRum]

Why is Nyan Cat a related video...?

[marinaemilypatricia]

whats the name of the painting shown at 2:17 ? its beautiful

[NarutoLoverFanGirl]

awesome. we sing this song in chorus alot! i love it :3

[joeyturner123]

im singing this for my christmas concert at school and ive got a small solo in this song which is "All young children to slay"

[joeyturner123]

im singing this for my christmas concert at school and ive got a small solo in this song which is "All young children to slay"

[CrystalWolfXx]

I'm playing this in band.... I had to search the song.... well, oops.... this sounds way better then the group, though we played it well enough for me to hear the beauty of the song! :)

[sigsig1962]

Hermosa voz