We have a change of musician for today's video. Anne Smith is going to be playing again tomorrow, Christmas day. I am introducing you to a colleague of mine from years ago when I was at Garnock Academy in Kilbirnie. Hugh Brennan was a brass instructor at the school and his wife, Jean was a home economics teacher. I taught their daughter, Nicola and son, Stephen too. I was looking for another hymn for Christmas Eve, and I discovered Hugh was playing this Christmas hymn on Facebook. Hugh's Christian faith inspires him to play from the heart this lovely Christmas hymn. My thanks too to Amy Walker who kindly agreed to do the reading at very short notice. By the way she just pipped her mother to the post, so Lorraine is top of the list for reading on the next video we produce. I am so grateful to the team of readers who have helped us to make these videos.
This is our final carol that we have celebrated in this run-up to Christmas 2021 and this is definitely the one with the closest connection to Scotland. "Child in the Manger" was originally a Gaelic carol written by a lady from Mull by the name of Mary MacDonald. The tune is also a Gaelic tune. There is also a link nearer to us in the Falkirk area - the man who translated the carol into English came from Kirkcaldy - just across the Firth of Forth from here.
Let's start with Mary Macdonald. Mary Macdonald (née MacDougall) lived from 1789 to 21 May 1872. She was a Gaelic poet whose best known hymn was set to a tune later named after her home village of Bunessan on Mull. Mary MacDougall was born in the tiny crofting settlement of Ardtun, north east of Bunessan on the Ross of Mull, the peninsula on Mull that extends towards Iona. Her father, Duncan MacDougall, was a farmer. She married Neil Macdonald and became a crofter's wife. While sitting at her spinning wheel she passed the time by singing hymns and poems, some of her own composition. The Western Isles are known for their reverence for the word of God and most people belong to the Free Church of Scotland. Mary was brought up as a Baptist. We don't know much more about her and her Christian faith. Mary Macdonald would probably be amazed by the way her hymn has brought her fame. The rest of her work is less well known. A monument to Mary Macdonald has been erected beside the main road just under two miles east of Bunessan, not far from the ruin of the croft in which she lived.
Mary did not compose the tune but she took a Gaelic tune which she knew from her childhood and it became better known because it was used for this carol. The tune is called Bunessan after the place in Mull by that same name. The same tune was also used by another hymn which we find in Mission Praise called "Morning has broken", which was written by Eleanor Farjeon, a writer of children's hymns in 1931 ( MP 467). It was a British singer called Cat Stevens who made this song more popular. Cat Stevens had a number of hits in the UK in the late 60s but he found it more difficult to make the American charts. He had a couple of successes in the 1970 but this song based on a hymn which Stevens had found in a hymn book took him to No 6 in the American charts. Personally, although it is the same tune, I do not find the lyrics of "Morning has broken" nearly as meaningful as "Child in the Manger"
We must remember that Mary MacDonald's hymn was in Gaelic and we would likely never have heard it or sung it had it not been for Lachlan MacBean who was born in 1853 in Kiltarlity near Inverness. MacBean had a passion for the Gaelic language and he was responsible for resurrecting Gaelic songs which were slipping into oblivion. Lachlan MacBean translated the Gaelic hymn called "Leanabh an àigh" into English as "Child in the Manger" which he published in a hymn book called Songs and Hymns of the Scottish Highlands (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oban, 1888). What is the link with Fife, you might be wondering? MacBean was editor of the Fifeshire Advertiser and he died in Kirkcaldy in 1931.
The lyrics are simple but sublime.
I love the last verse in particular
Prophets foretold Him, infant of wonder;
angels behold Him on His throne;
worthy our Saviour of all our praises;
happy forever are His own.
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