The Three Drovers PTG 360

Continuing my Hymnal archeology of the Praise to God collection by looking at its sources, I can skip over a couple of Frank Andersen collections they used, because I have blogged everything he ever published already – happy to be proven wrong on that.

Chappell & Co. published a book called Five Australian Christmas Carols, from which two selections made their way into PTG and for all my bleating about eurocentric Carols, I have never looked at these Australian ones. This Guardian correspondent struggled with the whole concept of Australian Carols, including this one.

“The Three Drovers” text was written by John Wheeler and set by William G. James. Replacing the wise men with drovers and local wild life sounds fair, although maybe they are really angels. It looks like you can get the sheet music from the Australian Music Centre. Mary at Godsongs has once again done the heavy lifting with much background information.

Across the plains one Christmas night
Three drovers riding blithe and gay,
Looked up and saw a starry light
More radiant than the Milky Way;
And on their hearts such wonder fell,
They sang with joy. ‘Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!’
 
The air was dry with summer heat,
And smoke was on the yellow moon;
But from the heavens, faint and sweet,
Came floating down a wond’rous turn;
And as they heard, they sang full well
Those drovers three. ‘Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!’
 
The black swans flew across the sky,
The wild dog called across the plain,
The starry lustre blazed on high,
Still echoed on the heavenly strain;
And still they sang, ‘Noel! Noel!’
Those drovers three. ‘Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!’

 © 1948 Chappell & Co Ltd., Chappell Music Ltd., London W1Y 3FA.