p. 14
Alternate Title:
God Bless the Masters
First Line:
God bless the Master of this house
Artist & Tune
Composed by:
Version by The Revels
Performed by:
Version by Rocky Mountain Revels
Performed by:
About the Song
Print source:
Oxford Book of Carols, Christmas Revels Songbook
This Engish carol appears to be a composite of 2 or 3 older carols perhaps by Lucy Broadwood. It first appeared in this variant in Lucy & John Broadwood's collection English Traditional Songs & Carols, pp. 80-3 in 1882 & also in their Sussex songs, 1890.
The Waterson Family sing it under the title "God Bless the Master of This House" using a slightly different tune than the Revels and Nowell Sing We Clear.
Ralph Vaughn Williams'& Lucy Broadwood made an arrangement of the song as one of his Folk Songs of Four Seasons (as "God Bless the Master"), which has different lyrics than the one used by Waterson family and Christmas Revels.