Wednesday 28 December 2011
Tune of the Day: The Boar's Head Carol
Traditional English Christmas carol, arranged for four flutes
The “Boar's Head Carol” is a 15th-century English Christmas carol that describes the ancient tradition of sacrificing a boar and presenting its head at a wintertime feast. In antiquity the fierce boar was feared and respected; because of its ferocious nature, it was associated with death, just as the winter solstice was associated with the death of light.
Of the several extant versions of the carol, the one most usually performed today is based on a version published in 1521 in Wynkyn de Worde's Christmasse Carolles.