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Arrangement: Ian J. Watts / Mike Wilbury · Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks
Lyrics
Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child,
By by, lully lullay.
Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child,
By by, lully lullay.
Traditional lyrics — public domain. Arrangement © Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks.
History & Background
History & Origin
The Coventry Lullaby — formally known as the "Lully Lullay" or the "Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors" lullaby — is one of the oldest pieces of music in the English nursery tradition, and one of the most extraordinary. Its origins lie not in domestic use but in theatrical performance: it was composed for the Coventry mystery plays of the fifteenth century.
The Coventry mystery plays were cycles of dramatic performances enacted by the city's trade guilds during the feast of Corpus Christi. The Shearmen and Tailors' pageant depicted the Nativity and the Massacre of the Innocents — the biblical account of King Herod's order to kill all young male children in Bethlehem. In the play, the mothers of Bethlehem sing this lullaby over their doomed children, knowing that Herod's soldiers are coming.
The text of the lullaby survives in a manuscript compiled by Robert Croo in 1534, though the play itself and its music are older. The haunting repetition of "lully, lullay" — a traditional lullaby refrain found in various forms across medieval European languages — combined with the knowledge of its dramatic context gives the song an almost unbearable poignancy.
It was rediscovered and published by the antiquary Thomas Sharp in 1825, and since then has been set to music by numerous composers, most notably Gustav Holst and Benjamin Britten, whose "A Ceremony of Carols" includes a choral arrangement of the text.
Our recording honours the extraordinary antiquity and emotional depth of this piece with a setting of great simplicity and beauty.
