{"id":11173,"date":"2023-12-23T21:55:17","date_gmt":"2023-12-24T02:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/?p=11173"},"modified":"2023-12-23T21:55:17","modified_gmt":"2023-12-24T02:55:17","slug":"an-unusual-christmas-carol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/2023\/12\/an-unusual-christmas-carol\/","title":{"rendered":"An unusual Christmas carol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Back in 1845, Thomas Commuck published a book of sacred songs titled &#8220;Indian Melodies.&#8221; Commuck called his book that because he was a member of the Brothertown Indian Nation. In the introduction, referring to himself in the third person, he tells why his published his book: &#8220;his object is to make a <em>little money<\/em>.&#8221; To increase sales, he managed to convince Thomas Hastings, then a well-known composer of sacred music, to harmonize Commuck&#8217;s melodies. Commuck then named most of the tunes after Indian tribes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of Commuck&#8217;s tunes are delightful, and Hastings&#8217;s harmonizations tastefully support the melodies without overwhelming them. The tune &#8220;Uncas&#8221; is simple but very singable, with a fun arrangement by Hastings. And the words are a classic Christmas text, &#8220;Shepherds rejoice, lift up your eyes&#8230;.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So here, for your Christmas pleasure, is Thomas Commuck&#8217;s Uncas. Commuck and Hastings put the melody in the tenor line (as was common in early American sacred song); I&#8217;ve switched their soprano and tenor lines, so that the melody is now in the soprano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/UncasXmasCarolSATB-Score.pdf\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"773\" src=\"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Screen-Shot-2023-12-23-at-9.53.18-PM.png\" alt=\"Sheet music for Uncas.\" class=\"wp-image-11175\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Screen-Shot-2023-12-23-at-9.53.18-PM.png 700w, https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Screen-Shot-2023-12-23-at-9.53.18-PM-272x300.png 272w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Click the image above for a PDF of the sheet music.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in 1845, Thomas Commuck published a book of sacred songs titled &#8220;Indian Melodies.&#8221; Commuck called his book that because he was a member of the Brothertown Indian Nation. In the introduction, referring to himself in the third person, he tells why his published his book: &#8220;his object is to make a little money.&#8221; To &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/2023\/12\/an-unusual-christmas-carol\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;An unusual Christmas carol&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[104,781],"class_list":["post-11173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musical-arts","tag-hymnody","tag-thomas-commuck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11176,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11173\/revisions\/11176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}