Christmas Eve, and no word from Best Buy, which is allegedly transferring data from my deceased PC (the motherboard is "crap," said the tech) to my new laptop. I'm currently on an ancient Lenovo (c. 1912-1913), and it's taking years to do anything. But it's an old PC, so I shouldn't speak too unkindly of it. It's a miracle that it runs at all. Yes, I feel like tossing it down the bank, but that's my German and Irish blood speaking.
Anyway, on this creaky relic I found a zip file containing my 2011 self-recording (on my Casio WK-3800) of Jingle Bells in its original version. This version is from the William B. Bradbury tunebook, The Victory (1872; above). I'd wanted to do a new scan, but this... thing won't allow my Epson to do anything. It detects the device, but that's about it. Kudos to the machine for at least knowing that a scanner was plugged into it.
Anyway, this is what Jingle Bells initially sounded like, and I'm glad it was revised. It's arranged for solo-and-accompaniment, and then for the chorus it goes into SATB harmony. This raises the fascinating possibility that the chorus was intended to be sung a cappella. That's my guess.
The chorus presented a music-reading challenge, since (in typical fashion for a 19th-century choral book) the tenor is notated at the top in the treble clef (and meant to be sung one octave lower). But I soldiered through. And the outlets in this room lost power a few minutes ago, and I had to flip the breaker switch off and on. Somebody (or something) doesn't want this post to happen. (Theremin music: Oooooo-weeeee-oooo.) Merry Christmas, anyway!
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