Drive the Cold Winter Away

I sing in a quartet with a guy who, every Christmas, asks me to arrange some Renaissance-era Christmas carol for us to sing.  He was so excited to introduce me to “Drive the Cold Winter Away,” an Elizabethan carol from 1625, a time when Christmas was celebrated as a twelve-day festival.  As I dug into it, I realized: this is a 17th-Century Christmas party song: it’s all about the fun times and good food people have at Christmastide.  Basically, it’s the “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” of its time.  Fortunately, the music is relatively simple, so the arrangement came out short and easy to learn.  Add some 400-year-old Christmas cheer to your next holiday show with this banger!