"Corpus Christi Carol" is a Middle English or Early Modern English hymn (or carol), first found by an apprentice grocer named Richard Hill in a manuscript written around 1504.
Richard Hill's commonplace-book It's on page 352 of that book:
The original writer of the carol remains anonymous. The earliest surviving record of the piece preserves only the lyrics and is untitled.
It has survived in altered form in the folk tradition as the Christmas carol "Down In Yon Forest".
The structure of the Corpus Christi carol is six stanzas, each with rhyming couplets. The tense changes in the fourth stanza from past to present continuous.
One hypothesis about the meaning of the carol is that it is concerned with the legend of the Holy Grail. In Arthurian traditions of the Grail story, the Fisher King is the knight who is the Grail's protector, and whose legs are perpetually wounded. When he is wounded his kingdom suffers and becomes a wasteland. This would explain the reference to "an orchard brown".
One recent interpretation is that it was composed about the execution of Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII, whose badge was a falcon.
"The Falcon Carol"
Earliest Version with music of The Corpus Christi Carol
Words: Traditional English, c. 1400 Balliol College, Oxford. MS. 354. XVI Century.
Music: Martin Shaw
In 1913 it appeared in "The English Carol Book"
Sheet Music from Martin Shaw and Percy Dearmer,
The English Carol Book, Second Series (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., Ltd., 1913,
Carol #39 on page 84 The English Carol Book, (second series); : Dearmer, Percy, 1867-1936
The carol is also found in Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols: 1400-1700
London: Chatto & Windus, 1914, p. 193.
She adds this additional note at pages 299-300:
This carol, of which the one following is a modern version, is interesting as showing the persistence of a lyric for four hundred years (the first version is probably of the fifteenth century, the second was taken from a recital of a boy who came with morris-dancers, some years before 1862, cf. Notes and Queries, third series, ii, p. 103); and also because it seems to have been suggested by some form of the legend of the Holy Grail. The Bleeding Knight is Christ, the "may" is His mother, the "falcon" is introduced apparently to suggest that the body of the person is a vision. It is interesting to note that the modern version is the more specific of the two, adding the hound which licks the blood (the Church?) and the Holy Thorn of Glastonbury, which is intimately associated with the Grail story.
SEE ALSO: The Glastonbury Thorn
In 1919 Peter Warlock (1894-1930) re-worked it as a carol for Soprano and Tenor Soloists with SATB chorus by. It was dedicated to Thomas Strong, later Bishop of Oxford, who had been Dean of Christ Church College during Warlock's brief time studying there, and who is better known for encouraging William Walton's musical career.
In 1927 Peter Warlock made a new arrangement adding a string quartet accompaniment.
Complete Score is HERE: Corpus Christi (score)
The earliest recorded version I could find:
(c) The English Singers (1928) (as "Corpus Christi")
Recorded between October1927 and April 1928
Matrix 3012
Released as part of 12 record album on the Roycroft-label (Roycroft # 157)
Or here:
Or here:
In 1934 Leslie Woodgate conducted a version with a new arrangement by Benjamin Britten (see further on in this post), which was performed as a BBC radio broadcast.
But strange enough later on he didn't record the Britten arrangement.
But in 1936 he did record the Warlock arrangement !!
(c) BBC Chorus (1936) (as "Corpus Christi")
Ann Wood, contralto
Peter Pears, tenor
Leslie Woodgate, conductor
Recorded June 24, 1936 in Thames Street Studios, London
Released on Decca K827 (TA2256)
Or here:
Or here:
(c) Flora Nielsen, René Soames and the Festival Singers (1950) (as "Corpus Christi")
Conducted by Leslie Woodgate
Flora Nielsen, contralto
René Soames, tenor
Recorded March 31, 1950
Released on HMV C7934 (2EA14568)
Or here:
Or here:
Benjamin Britten incorporated the Corpus Christi Carol in variation 5 "In the Bleak Mid-winter" of his choral work "A Boy was Born" (Choral Variations For Mixed Voices), Opus 3, in 1933.
SEE f.8r on the next link: The British Library MS Viewer
The Choral variations for men's, women's and boys' voices, unaccompanied (organ ad lib) was originally composed from 1932 to 1933.
It was first performed on February 23, 1934 as a BBC broadcast.
(c) Wireless Chorus and choirboys of St Mark's, North Audley Street, London (1934)
Conducted by Leslie Woodgate
Performed on February 23, 1934 as a part of "A Boy Was Born", in a BBC radio concert of contemporary music.
(c) John Hahessy (1961) (as "Corpus Christi Carol")
Benjamin Britten : A Boy was Born - Corpus Christi Carol
John Hahessy (Alto)
Benjamin Britten (Piano)
John was the 14 year old head chorister at Westminster Cathedral, later to become John Elwes. Britten dedicated this to him. It's a new arrangement of the Fifth Variation on his Opus 3 (from 1933): A Boy Was Born. Lyrics are an anonymous 15th century poem depicting Christ as a fatally wounded soldier. Became a lament for all the victims of both World Wars.
Recorded 1961/01/12 & 1962/02/11 - Kingsway Hall, London, England
Originally on EP "Songs from Friday Afternoons".
Released on 45 RPM EP (ARGO EAF 18)
Listen here:
Or here:
(c) Janet Baker (1967) (as "Corpus Christi Carol")
Listen here:
Singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley, inspired by Janet Baker's version here above, included his interpretation of Britten's work on his 1994 debut album, Grace.
About his version Buckley said, "The Carol is a fairytale about a falcon who takes the beloved of the singer to an orchard. The singer goes looking for her and arrives at a chamber where his beloved lies next to a bleeding knight and a tomb with Christ's body in it."
(c) Jeff Buckley (1994) (as "Corpus Christi Carol")
Listen here:
English guitarist Jeff Beck performs his interpretation on his 2010 album, Emotion & Commotion. In the album liner notes, Beck states that Jeff Buckley inspired his cover of this piece: "When I heard Jeff Buckley's album, the simplicity and the beauty of the way he sounded amazed me."
(c) Jeff Beck (2010) (as "Corpus Christi Carol")
Listen here:
As I said at the beginning of this post this carol has survived in altered form in the folk tradition as the Christmas carol "Down In Yon Forest".
In 1927 baritone John Goss recorded this alternative version, oddly enough using the "Corpus Christi Carol" title.
(c) John Goss and the Cathedral Male Voice Quartet (1927) (as "Corpus Christi Carol")
Recorded early 1927
Released around June !927 on His Master's Voice B-2483
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