December 7th – Singing like a bird

Perusing popular lyrics of bygone decades suggests that, unlike the carols with which we are more familiar today, many traditional carols eschewed wintery scenes and snow for verdant abundance and tropical colour.

The augmented choir Christmas Concert of 1965 included a traditional Dutch song “Heer Jezus heeft een hofken”, or “King Jesus Hath a Garden”, which begins:

“King Jesus hath a garden, full of divers flowers,

Where I go culling posies gay, all times and hours.

There naught is heard but Paradise bird,

Harp, dulcimer, lute,

With cymbal, trump and tymbal,

And the tender, soothing flute.”

Our rare books have offered up a lovely paradise bird in the form of an illustration by William Matthew Hart, taken from the 1890s series of volumes by R. Bowdler Sharpe, Assistant Keeper, Zoological Department, British Museum, “Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or birds of paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or bower-birds”.

Reference:

R. Bowdler Sharpe, “Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or birds of paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or bower-birds”, ill. Matthew William Hart (1891 – 1898; rff QL696.P2S4)