Welcome Neighbors
1. Welcome neighbors and family all
To this magnificent glorious hall.
Here on benches of oak, now rest,
And hear the old songs we love the best.
Now the holiday time is here,
And now the shortest night of the year.
All the reason we need to fill
The air with music and good will.
2. A thousand years have come and gone
And still these melodies dance along.
Thousands more will come and go,
And still this river of song will flow.
Ours the tiniest thimble of time
To play the tunes and tongue the rhymes.
It’s now or never, so breathe and sing,
And make these marble rafters ring.
3. Not on faraway holy ground
Nor on some perfect silver screen.
(But) here alone the jewel is found,
The angels heard, the glory seen.
Cleanse your mind of bills to pay.
Erase tomorrow and yesterday.
To this moment we now belong.
Let all of us savor this night of song.
Words by Bret Hesla. Tune: Edi Beo Thu, 13th cent
© 1999 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.
Written for the annual Winter Solstice/Christmas concert of the Blue Heron Consort, Winona, Minnesota, December 1999.
This a solo, performance piece. We originally did it with a hurdy-gurdy. Super fun to sing, alone or in duet. The second voice can double unison, then at some later verse, start on the 5th of the scale and sing the same melody shape, a fifth apart.