Lo! The Eastern Sages Rise
Knock At The Knocker, Ring At The Bell track 12
This song dates from the mid-nineteenth century: the words were written by Jehoiada Brewer, a Congregational minister in Sheffield and Birmingham, while the tune was written by Samuel Stanley of Birmingham. But every Christmas you can hear it being sung in glorious four-part harmony in the streets of Padstow in Cornwall. Now Padstow may be best known for its May Day ’Obby ’Oss traditions, but its carol singers should be equally celebrated. They are not a choir, but an ad hoc band of singers, led for many years by the redoubtable Molly Pinch, up until her death in 2005 aged 93. Recordings of the carols, made by folklorist Doc Rowe, are commercially available on the Rezound label – see www.docrowe.org.uk. We learned the harmony parts from a book containing all the Padstow carols, entitled Strike Sound, and published by the Lodenek Press in 1971.
This carol has been collected at various locations in Cornwall, and is still widely sung by choirs in the county. It also travelled to America - for instance to New Almaden in California, where many Cornish miners worked in the quicksilver mines:
Besides singing in the mines, the Cornish miners would sing door to door beginning a week before Christmas. They sang songs popular in Cornwall, England, where they immigrated from, such as "Lo the Eastern Sages Rise," "Hark What Music Fills Creation," as well as the better known "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." Afterwards, they would visit with the residents and share saffron cake and tea.
Almaden Times, December 22, 2005
Lo the Eastern Sages: musical notation for the Magpie Lane arrangement
You can hear a live recording of this carol from 2012 at A Folk Song A Week Week 68 – Lo! The Eastern Sages Rise / Hark Hark What News