An interpretation of "The Oxen" by Sherry Crann, who last Christmas sang "Birth."
Not band performances here; rather compositions.
Story behind the song
The poem was written when the miseries of trench warfare wracked Europe, and a time when the attitudes of 19th Century science seemed to have removed mystery from the universe. The speaker of the poem reflects on his youth when there was no doubt that when an elder said, at midnight on Christmas Eve, the oxen were kneeling in the barton (barn), that they were indeed kneeling. In the speaker's present time, the idea would have been regarded as a "fancy." Yet the speaker almost yearns to return to the childhood certainty that the mysteries are real.
Lyrics
Since one note does not often equal one syllable, the lyrics are best viewed in the sheet music, which is available as a printable PDF. Email me at mglennjacobs@gmail.com, and I will reply with a (virus scanned) copy.
