At this time of year, as the school’s resident music psychologist, life is normally all about singing and playing carols. Sheffield is my adopted northern home, having trained, worked and lived there for 13 years. \u201cOooop\u201d north, as those down here say, we have a lot of local traditions; Sheffield carols has being going on since the 18th century—it is one of Yorkshire\u2019s best.<\/p>\n
For a few hundred years, Sheffielders have gathered in local pubs (particularly in the North West of the city down into Derbyshire) and sung Christmas Carols. \u2018So what?\u2019 you might say, \u2018I sing Christmas Carols at home whilst prepping the brussels.\u2019 But these, dear southerners, are a very special, quite magical and an entirely different community experience.<\/p>\n
Sometimes these carols are a cappella, sometimes accompanied by a brass band or the pub\u2019s organ, but they are always complemented by a pint or two. Carol sessions begin in November and are mostly riotous, boozy and packed into the back room of a pub. Done this way, they aren\u2019t really for listening to; they are for experiencing, joining in, and they are a life-loving event (remember that when you look at the clips!). As a psychologist interested in how we can enhance health and wellbeing through music, it is the sense of community, shared meaning, and the physicality of singing and engaging in that experience that interests me. It is quite amazing, unique, and makes me proud to be a northerner (as I\u2019m sure it does for everyone who attends these events).<\/p>\n
The music, however, is not your traditional ‘While Shepherds Watched’, or ‘Ding-Dong Merrily’. It has often been created locally, over hundreds of years. By locally, I mean tiny enclaves of Sheffield: Bradfield, Stannington, Loxely, Dungworth, Oughtibridge. Many of these areas will vary their words, melody, tempo and harmony depending on which location, or indeed which pub you attend. Local compositions and ancient Christmas songs are standard and our sanitised contemporary \u2018standards\u2019 are shelved, for the love of communal singing.<\/p>\n
Sometimes songs work in a sort of fuge, or call and response manner:<\/p>\n