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Tuesday 14 December 2010
Tune of the Day: While Shepherds Watched (British Version)
A Christmas carol, arranged for flute quartet
While in the United States the carol “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks” usually pairs up with a melody (“Christmas”) originally composed by Handel, in the United Kingdom and Canada the standard is an anonymous 16th-century tune known as “Winchester Old”. This tune first appeared in print in The Whole Booke of Psalmes (1592) by London music publisher Thomas East (also spelled Este). The melody was subsequently rearranged by William Henry Monk sometime before 1874.