#300: The First Noel

This melody is pretty simple and memorable--it's an English folk song, not some new-school arrangement. But it's very irregular in the sense of "some lines squeeze a bunch of syllables in, some just have ...s to space everything out." The tune name is "The First Nowell," but the title and text just use "Noel," so like...why bother??

Bold move putting the stress on "pres-ence" so it rhymes with "frankincense." Or maybe that's how everyone talked back in the day?

The stories of the angels' light appearing to the shepherds and the star that guided the Magi to Bethlehem are part of two different Gospels, the stars aren't referenced as the same thing. But it's easy to conflate them.

Some big tenor/bass gaps, and the tenors and altos intersect at a couple places.