Carol to start the weekend: "While Shepherds Watched their flocks" to tune Lyngham

The Carol "While shepherds watched their flocks by night" has been sung to at least three tunes.

Most people probably know this carol as performed to a tune referred to by organists "Winchester Old" and if you click on the link you should arrive at a YouTube page for Kings Cambridge performing it to that tune.

It's also been performed to "The Yorkshire Anthem" tune ("On Ilkley Moor Bah't 'at" or to give the tune it's proper name, Cranbrook, composed by Thomas Clark in 1805) and if you don't believe me, here are the choir of Ely cathedral doing just that.

But personally my favourite tune to which to sing this carol is Lyngham. I share a taste for this arrangement with the late Thora Hird, who once insisted on a "Songs of Praise" performance, after everyone had sung the carol to Winchester Old, on them singing it again to Lyngham!

And here is the carol to that tune!




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