Winter… oh, the anticipation and delight for Winter! For me, it heralds the celebration of Christmas, which began in our family in Iowa in the 1940s then moved to New England in the 1950s. Each year, my Dad absolutely outdid himself with decorations around the house, the yard and, of course, the tree. Christmas Eve, the children were bundled off snug to our beds, leaving my Dad and Mom to gleefully install the tree as if Saint Nicholas himself had tiptoed into our home, trimmed the tree from top to bottom, sprinkled about its base beribboned and glittering gifts and whisked himself away.
And so, I follow in my Dad’s footsteps; my Decembers ushering in the treasured memory of my Dad’s elaborate joy in Christmas as I string my lights around my home and tree and conjure in my mind holiday feasts and gifts.

In my song, I bring to life these family memories inspired by six excerpts from Dylan Thomas’s delightful “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”. You will also find here the famous Welsh song, “Ar Hyd Y Nos,”/ “All Through the Night”, for which I have included both Welsh and English lyrics.

And the footsteps which opened in the first song on the album, walking in Autumn's leaves of Walt Whitman's "Verse 52", walk on through the crunchy footfalls of a snowy December and down the lane below the window in Dylan Thomas's memories...

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“Ar Hyd Y Nos”
(Music by Edward Jones (1784)
Lyrics by John Ceiriog Hughes (1832-1887)

Holl amrantau'r sêr ddywedant
Ar hyd y nos.
Dyma'r ffordd i fro gogoniant
Ar hyd y nos.
Golau arall yw tywyllwch,
I arddangos gwir brydferthwch,
Teulu'r nefoedd mewn tawelwch
Ar hyd y nos
Hyd y nos.
O mor siriol gwena seren
Ar hyd y nos,
I oleuo'i chwaer ddaearen
Ar hyd y nos,
Nos yw henaint pan ddaw cystudd,
Ond i harddu dyn a'i hwyrddydd
Rhown ein golau gwan i'n gilydd
Ar hyd y nos,
Hyd y nos,


“All Through the Night”
Music by Edward Jones (1784)
English Lyrics by Harold Boulton (1884)
(with variations written through the “folk Process”, which are songs handed down from one generation to another)

Sleep my child and peace attend thee,
All through the night
Guardian angels God will send thee
All through the night
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping
Hill and vale in slumber sleeping,
All through the night
I my loving vigil keeping
All through the night
While the moon her watch is keeping
All through the night
While the weary world is sleeping
All through the night
O’er thy spirit gently stealing
Visions of delight revealing
Breathes a pure and holy feeling
All through the night

Angels watching ever round thee
All through the night
In thy slumbers close around thee
All through the night
They will of all fears disarm thee
No forebodings should alarm thee
They will let no peril harm thee
All through the night.
Love to thee my thoughts are turning
All through the night
All for thee my heart is yearning
All through the night
Close to fate our lives they sever
Parting will not last forever
There’s a hope that leaves me never
All through the night

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Sounds include:
Monks chanting, heavy surf under a pier, howling wind of an alien planet, six passages from Dylan Thomas's "A Child's Christmas in Wales" read by 3 friends, music from various public domain sources, and walking in crunching snow.

Credits:
Many thanks to narrators Rufus Pierce (instagram.com/rufuspearce/), Higher Plain Music/Simon Smith (higherplainmusic.com), and Catherine Cameron. The musical recordings are public domain recordings from YouTube: an unidentified Welsh Men’s chorus “Ar Hyd Y Nos”, Ana Hernandez “All Through the Night”, and bottale for the recording of “Drake’s Drum”. As always, I thank Freesound uploaders cormi, odilonmarcenaro, ecfike, tomlija, and nininininu.

Photo ©2020 Guillaume Hanke
Liner notes ©2020 Sam Bissell