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Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day (trad​.​/​Hadaway)

from Dancing Day: songs for Christmas and Yule by Merry Hadaway

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  • Dancing Day - Limited Edition CD
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  • Dancing Day - songbook
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    A pretty A5 book, with artwork by Somhairle Kelly, containing lyrics and sheet music (the tune, and chords where relevant) for all the songs on the EP.

    I've sold out of the existing paper copies of this, but I'd love to get a new edition printed if there is a demand!

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Soul-Cake, Rosebud in June, The Donkey, The Lady of the Woods, Down in Yon Forest, Tell Me Where the Ocean Went, Sigh No More, Ladies, Dancing Day: songs for Christmas and Yule, and 2 more. , and , .

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about

An old set of words, to a tune I wrote about this time last year. I've always loved this carol, especially in the various choral versions, some of which I've had the privilege to sing in! The image of Christ's life as a dance is compelling (and of course inspired Sydney Carter's glorious hymn "Lord of the Dance"), and unsurprisingly appealing to a theatre-lover and Christo-Pagan like me. ;-)
I love also how fitting it is, given the origins of the carol, in dance rather than purely in music.

There are a number of other verses to the whole carol, generally not sung these days in the choral adaptations. Having checked them out, I decided the choral composers were right to omit the additional verse – they tell the full story of Jesus rather just than of his birth, and sadly a couple are obnoxiously anti-Semitic! When planning to record it myself, I wanted my own tune to it, and something of my own twist.

I have a mental image when I sing this song, of Jesus having tremendous fun at an English barn dance. Geographically and historically nonsensical, of course, but hardly out of keeping for the miracle-worker at the Wedding at Cana.

lyrics

1.
Tomorrow shall be my dancing day,
I would my true love did so chance
To see the legend of my play,
To call my true love to my dance.

Chorus.
Sing, oh my love, oh my love, oh my love
This have I done for my true love.

2.
Then was I born of a virgin pure,
Of her I took fleshly substance,
Thus was I knit to man's nature,
To call my true love to my dance.

3.
In a manger laid and wrapped I was,
So very poor, this was my chance,
Betwixt an ox and a silly poor ass,
To call my true love to my dance.

credits

from Dancing Day: songs for Christmas and Yule, released December 6, 2014

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about

Merry Hadaway image

Merry Hadaway Stonehaven, UK

Folk singer, ukulele player and songwriter. Queer, disabled, trans, Christo-Pagan, powered by waves and mountains. :-)

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