The Cathedral Singers - "Fum, Fum, Fum" & Boston Camerata - "Riu Riu Chiu"

As every Holiday Season, this month I’ll be choosing only Holiday Songs from as many holidays as I can.

Today’s songs are memories of my youth. Singing in choir after chorus after chamber group after madrigal group after choir I learned songs I never would have heard, or cared about. Now these songs, when they pop up on the classical radio station, or in stores when I’m shopping, remind me of holidays past, and the memories made then.

The past isn’t truly gone, you can relive it all you want in your mind. Just don’t spend so much time there that you stop making meaningful memories in the present.

Ríu Ríu Chíu, also known as Ríu Chíu, is a Spanish villancico that has attained some contemporary fame as a Christmas carol. It depicts a rushing river stopping a wolf from attacking the sheep.

Fum, Fum, Fum is a traditional Catalan Christmas carol.

It is thought to have originated in the 16th or 17th century. The word "fum" means smoke in Catalan, and it may simply refer to the smoke rising from a chimney as seen from afar, or, as indicated in the New Oxford Book of Carols, "may imitate the sound of a drum (or perhaps the strumming of a guitar)".  It is not typical of Spanish tradition but rather of Catalan tradition. 

So today, walking down memory lane, I choose The Cathedral Singers’ version of "Fum, Fum, Fum" & Boston Camerata’s rendition of "Riu Riu Chiu" as my, remember, smile, sing, song for a, walk on, chin up, eyes shining, Friday.