The Friendly Beasts: A Song History
"The Friendly Beasts" is sung to a far older tune, ORIENTIS PARTIBUS, which comes from a medieval French dance song in Latin.[1][2] Hymnary.org ties that song to the Feast of the Ass, kept in parts of France on January 14 to recall the Holy Family's escape into Egypt, while Discipleship Ministries connects it both with that donkey festival and with the Feast of the Circumcision on January 1.[1][2] It survives in a thirteenth-century manuscript from Beauvais, British Library MS Egerton 2615, where scholar Dongmyung Ahn describes it as the opening piece of the January 1 Office of the Circumcision, linked with a procession of the donkey.[3] Many hymnals credit the melody to Pierre de Corbeil, bishop of Sens in the early 1200s, to whom a Sens version of that office has traditionally been ascribed, but others list it as anonymous, so the attribution is best treated as uncertain.[1][4][5]
Gerard David, The Nativity, oil on wood, early 1480s. Shown for its subject, the Nativity with the stable animals; it has no connection to the carol.
The English words are credited to Robert Davis (1881–1950).[1][6] The earliest printing found here is The Coming of the Prince of Peace (1920), a nativity play with old carols arranged by William Sloane Coffin with Helen A. and Clarence Dickinson, in which the carol carries Davis's name and is marked as a twelfth-century tune arranged by Clarence Dickinson.[7] Discipleship Ministries gives 1934 as the first publication, so sources differ, although Hymnary.org dates the text to 1920 and the play's own copyright line reads 1920.[1][6][7] In the play the carol is sung by children, with the opening and closing verses for everyone and the verses between open to solo voices or small groups.[7]
Hymnary.org counts the English text in more than forty hymnals, among them The United Methodist Hymnal (1989), Voices United (1996) and Community of Christ Sings (2013).[6] Burl Ives, Harry Belafonte, Johnny Cash, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Garth Brooks are among the artists who have recorded it.[1] Maureen Sellers includes it, in DAD tuning, in My Teaching Book For Appalachian Dulcimer, Volume One, a 48-page instruction book for Appalachian mountain dulcimer published by Fingers Of Steel.[8]
Sources
- Discipleship Ministries: "History of Hymns: The Friendly Beasts".
- Hymnary.org: "Hallelujah, Praise the LORD" (Psalter Hymnal 1987, no. 189, tune notes on ORIENTIS PARTIBUS).
- Dongmyung Ahn (Academia.edu): "The Exegetical Function of the Conductus in MS Egerton 2615".
- Hymnary.org: "ORIENTIS PARTIBUS".
- New Liturgical Movement: "A New Series on Medieval Liturgy from Canticum Salomonis".
- Hymnary.org: "The Friendly Beasts".
- Internet Archive: "The Coming of the Prince of Peace: A Nativity Play with Ancient Christmas Carols" (1920).
- Fingers Of Steel: "Maureen Sellers, My Teaching Book For Appalachian Dulcimer, Volume One".
- Image: Gerard David, The Nativity, oil on wood, early 1480s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.