The cry of the stag
Haunts the forest with its voice
In the poignant autumn air.
Translation by Jackson Hill
Sung in Japanese
– Trad. Japanese, arr. Takatomi Nobunaga
Born in 1971, Takatomi Nobunaga graduated from the Department of Education
in the Faculty of Literature from Tokyo’s Sophia University in 1994, and has since
Japanese Lied Composition Competition in 1998, the NewFace Award from the Japan
Society for Contemporary Music, and second prize at the Japan Music Competition
in the Chamber Music Division in 2001. Principally a choral composer, his music is
frequently performed throughout Japan. From Seven Children’s Songs, published in
2002, comes Nobunaga’s arrangement of The Lullaby of Edo, a traditional cradle
song originating from the city that would be renamed Tokyo in 1868. Although most
traditional lullabies of Japan depict the sorrows of young girls sent out to become
apprentice nursemaids, this particular lullaby is more “Western,” in that it is sung by
a mother to her child.
Sleep, baby, sleep; oh, my baby, sleep,
How lovely, how lovely, how nice you are!
Where's the nurse, where's your nurse girl?
She's gone to her home, far across the hill.
As a souvenir from her hometown, what did she leave you?
Sung in Japanese
– Trad. Filipino, arr. Malcolm Sargent
Even the distinguished editors of The Oxford Book of Carols seem hard-pressed to
come up with a viable explanation of what a carol really is. They (carols) are by no
means strictly English – although in their introduction of Christmas traditions into
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