This piece is all about letting off steam and having boozy, raucous, festive fun! Based on a not-entirely-objective account of the Battle of Hastings by the 12th-century Norman poet Wace (about a century later), it casts the choir as a burly mob of savage Anglo-Saxons, cavorting, drinking, and belching their way through the eve of battle, while the pious Normans said their prayers. Yes, you’ve guessed it: Wace painted the defeated Anglo-Saxons as godless savages and conquering Normans as worthy Christians. No surprises there – since when was history ever written with objectivity? This fun caricature of beardy Anglo-Saxons drinking themselves under the table makes the piece an absolute hoot to perform with tankards in hand… and even bushy (fake?) beards on display. The language it’s sung in is just as much of a caricature as the piece itself. The words are not real Old English (as would have been spoken by King Harold’s army), but a kind of mock version, invented by Wace – seemingly the way the language sounded to the snooty Normans! The composition is designed to be as much fun to learn as it is to perform, with a riotous canon in the middle, which gets faster and louder (preferably kept in time by a stamping conductor) until the choir have whipped up a frenzy! The canon on its own also works as a warm-up or game song, and it’s useful to introduce it in that context before learning the rest of the piece. Since the Old English salutation ‘wes hāl‘ (rendered by Wace, and possibly pronounced in toasts, as ‘wesseil‘) is repeated ad (drunken) nauseaum, and ‘wes hāl‘ is the origin of the word ‘wassail’, this piece is particularly fun to perform during the festive season.
The Crucial Info
Forces: SATB + tenor solo
Duration: c. 4′
Text: Extract from the Roman de Rou, Wace, 12th century
Date of composition: 2012, revised 2019
Premiere: Timeline Choir, Liverpool, York, Surrey
Other performances include: Mill Road Winter Fair (Cambridge)
Listen
Perusal Score
Text
Extract from the Roman de Rou, Wace, 12th century
Wes heil! Drinc heil!
“Bublie” crient, é “Wesseil!”
E “laticom” é “Drinc heil!”,
“Drinc hindrewart” é “drinc to me!”
“Drinc helf” é “drinc to me!”
Wes heil! Drinc heil!
Perform this Piece
Please contact Stef for more information and/or a license to perform this piece.