It's August: Time to start thinking about Christmas caroling
It's August: Time to start thinking about Christmas caroling
The Old World Carolers, a long established Sebastopol caroling group, is seeking new members
Sebastopol’s Old World Carolers, founded in 1985, have had a changing cast of singers over the years. They are currently looking for new members who can practice throughout the fall for performances during the Christmas holidays.
The Old World Carolers started out singing traditional European Christmas carols, but soon they began to drill deep into the carol traditions of Western and Eastern Europe, including medieval music. This year’s repertoire features carols from the 12th to 16th centuries.
Rebecca Dwan is the last remaining original member of the group. She remembers that for many years, the group performed at the annual Sonoma County Museum gala, performing repertoires based on the home countries of different immigrant groups in Sonoma County.
“So there was a Russian year, and there was an Italian year—that was wonderful. There was a Chinese year, and there was a French year,” she said. “It was sort of a challenge for us to work up songs from a whole region and to have to sing in the language and everything,” Dwan remembers, “but that built up our repertoire really fast. So now we have hundreds and hundreds of songs.”
Dwan said that you do not need to read music to be in the group, but you do need to be able to memorize music by ear.
“Sometimes I do prefer if they don’t read music, because when people are reading music, they tend to stick on each note, and they’re just reading note by note…and they’re not reading the whole phrase,” she said. “And that’s really important in singing—to sing the whole phrase—and you have to have that in your mind and in your body.”
The group wears costumes from past centuries for their performances, but don’t worry if you don’t have one. Dwan will find—or maybe make—one for you. “Every year I sew a few more costumes,” she said.
Sometimes the costumes work out and sometimes they don’t. Some years, all the women have hoop skirts, “which is really hard when you’re on a small stage, and you can’t stand close to one another,” she said with a laugh.
The group also does Christmas dances as a part of some of their holiday performances.
“Carols were originally dances,” Dwan said, “often circle dances or three-four time dances. Sometimes we incorporate Balkan dances into our concert, and this year we have one from Bulgaria.”
The news that Christmas carols once had dances associated with them might be a surprise to many. (It was to me.)
“There’s a wonderful book by Barbara Ehrenreich, Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy, where she talks about how there used to be dancing in the church,” Dwan said, before the Catholic Church—and then Protestant churches—cracked down on such practices. “So some of these really old carols are related to that. They’re coming from that tradition.”
“I’ve always been into Christmas music, and my mother was too, and so I grew up with it,” Dwan said. “I also collect books on the history of Christmas, and, of course, I have a huge collection of Christmas music and Christmas antiques. I’m just sort of an unapologetic Christmas nut, though I’m not a Christian myself.”
She relates more to the solstice aspect of the Christmas holidays. “The ‘Drive the Cold Winter Away’ part,” she said, noting that “winter holidays are as ancient as civilization.”
She loves the oldest carols.
“To me, if something has lasted that long, the longer it has lasted and survived out of all of the other thousands of songs that are out there, year by year, there must be something good about it,” she said. “Those are good songs. They comfort people, and comfort in the winter is really important. I can’t imagine how it would be if we didn’t have these songs and this music.”
“You know how some people have that thing in winter...” she said, searching for the word.
“Seasonal affective disorder,” I suggest.
“Yes. I don’t have that because, not only do I have this music, but I also collect antique Christmas lights. I’m really into lights. Of course, that’s the winter solstice. It’s a festival of lights. So we have lights and fire and candles—and for a day or so, or actually for 12 days, we get to really party down.”
But before that annual celebration, there are a couple months of practice, which is why the Old World Carolers are looking for volunteers now. The group had their first practice last week. They’ll meet weekly until Thanksgiving, and then they have one main concert, benefitting a good cause which they choose each year.
Dwan said the number of people in the group has waxed and waned over the years. They’ve had more than 20 singers in the past. Last year they were down to nine. The group is open to all people, regardless of their faith tradition. All you need to share is a love of the music.
Ready to sign up? Reach out to The Old World Carolers at info@traditionalfun.org.
