Video Information

• Choir: The Lost Sound- Dartmoor Folk Choir
• Piece: Tho' we lie underground - The Miners Carol
• Composer:  Chris Hoban
• Arranger:  Chris Hoban
• Conductor:  Sandra Smith
• Voices:  TTBB
• Genres: Folk/Ethnic
• Our last song is an original carol written by the incomparable composer and arranger, Chris Hoban. Chris has written many of Show Of Hands’ big hits including, ‘Lily and the Rose’ which he wrote for Miranda Sykes and The Lost Sound. We’ve performed this t...  moreOur last song is an original carol written by the incomparable composer and arranger, Chris Hoban. Chris has written many of Show Of Hands’ big hits including, ‘Lily and the Rose’ which he wrote for Miranda Sykes and The Lost Sound. We’ve performed this together with Show Of Hands, at their 25thAnniversary concert in The Royal Albert Hall in 2017.
  Chris explains the background of ‘Though We Lie Underground’ for us:
  
  I first came across the stories surrounding the curious tradition of West Country miners singing carols underground when listening to a recording of Alan Lomax’s extraordinary live BBC 1957 broadcast “Sing Christmas and the Turn of the Year”, a feat of radio genius involving hundreds of performers and groups all over the country, seamlessly brought together for one scintillating hour.
  
  At one point, Lomax described how the miners of Devon and Cornwall would celebrate Christmas underground in an almost pagan fashion: they would select the largest lump of tin ore they could handle, set it up in a chamber, decorate it with ribbons, candles and the like and sing carols around it ‘until the last burned down’. A few historical searches elsewhere validated the story, incredible as it seemed, especially when tripping of the tongue of a Texan musicologist. In Victorian times these miners would almost certainly have been Methodist, so while there wouldn’t have been much imbibing then, one can only guess that further back it might have been a very different story.
  
  These days the mines have closed, the miners are long since buried and with them most of their folklore, history and traditions. ‘Though We Lie Underground’ attempts to breathe life back into a brief moment from the past that would have been partaken by only a few and witnessed by none; all the more reason to celebrate it, perhaps.
  
  Chris Hoban
  Please remember our charity; if you enjoy the song #DigDeepForDartmoor through Buy Me A Coffee.
  
  To donate, please visit ...    less