So, I received my eBay copy of the William B. Bradbury tunebook, The Victory (1872 edition), and there on page 74 is James Pierpont's The One Horse Open Sleigh, a.k.a. Jingle Bells. Only with its original melody, which is different in spots from the one we know.
So I put together a recording, with me at the Casio WK-3800 (Patch 071). This is tricky to play, because the tenor part is up top on its own line (and notated an octave up in the treble clef), which makes putting all four voices together a royal pain, since the tenor has to be added to the bass, alto, and soprano, and played an octave lower than written. Therefore, I recorded this four bars at a time and joined the results together. Which is actually less of a hassle than renotating the thing for easier reading.
Except for a couple rushed measures, this came out nicely, I think. Consider it a late Christmas post:
The One Horse Open Sleigh (James Pierpont)
Now you say you've heard Jingle Bells in its original form. Unless you've heard it before, in which case you can say you've heard it again.
Lee
7 comments:
Am I crazy or do I hear some "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" in there at times? Maybe, it served as some inspiration. Thanks for sharing.
So when and how did it change into the current version entitled Jingle Bells? Was it changed by someone like Harry Simeone who just rearranged it a bit and called it his own?
Nice work, best post I've seen on a blog in a while.
Firstly - I had to LOL -- the word verification for this comment post is "sucki" ..!
Wow .. that was fascinating .. seems like somewhere along the line, someone "simplified" the chorus, possibly for children to sing ...
Thank you so much for this
Just now listened to this. Very cool, Lee -- thank you! I agree with Crichton72 that the chorus sounds a lot like "Jolly Old St. Nicholas," which as far as I know, dates from the late 19th or early 20th century, so whoever wrote that song could have borrowed from this one. Intriguing...
Fascinating. Yes, I also thought of "Jolly Old St. Nicholaus." I wonder how/when it was altered to the Jingle Bells of today?
Turlington,
Thanks for signing in. I'd forgotten all about this! At one point, I'd gotten 1,400 downloads of this track, and that was some time back. I never expected that kind of response. Thanks for reminding me this is here and still running (on Box). As for when Jingle Bells became the JB we know and love, I have no idea. It's an unusual case--a composed number that underwent radical revision, tune-wise, though we can sort of hear the Jingle Bells to be, even in this form. As for Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, I may have the first printing of that--I have a number of Little Corporal children's magazines of the 1800s, and that's where it first appeared.
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