I began work on the layout for Nathan Bigler's The First Noel, and finished it before heading home. The piece divides to SSATTB. It is rich, but has no original melodic aspect. I am considering what we might be able to do to give it's listing more distinction. We already have published so many settings of this carol.
This has been an issue before. Laurence Lyon reverted his lyric to the original “The First Nowell” just to make it different...and it died somewhere on the dusty trail to Bethlehem.
Do we change the title to “On a Cold Winter's Night, That Was So Deep?” I don't think so. It wasn't winter—it was April. And in Bethlehem, in southern Israel, it wasn't even cold. There was maybe only just a cool breeze after midnight.
How about “What the Angels Did Say?”
How about just “Noel”? (Or “No M”, or “No Q”, or “No S”?)
Oh, this could get ridiculous—Ridiculous, but more distinctive. Right?
How about “The Most Fabulous Arrangement of ‘The First Noel’?
We could offer it for three piccolos and a banjo. That would be distinctive.
Come on! STOP. No more of this!
