Merry Christmas!

Here's the least merry of Christmas carols!
Hey... It's not my fault my favourite Christmas carol (I think the most beautiful one, with all due respect to Silent Night) just so happens to be in a minor key and have lyrics full of longing.

So that's my beautiful new ukulele. During the Blessing Tree tour, my old cheapie got broke trying to fix the intonation on it; an anonymous donor gave us money for this beautiful Kala tenor ukulele. $115 US, and I would definitely recommend it. (As 'kittenmildew' put it: "Get a uke! it will change your life for the better.")

The song is based on a medieval chant (Veni, Veni Emmanuel) that dates back as far as the 9th century. 19th century priest and hymn-writer John Mason Neale was the first to translate the text into English and use it as a carol.

There's six or seven verses (more if you count translation variants). I sing the following three (if you can't make out my mutter-y words):

O come, o come Emmanuel
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the son of God appears.

Rejoice, rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, of Israel.

O come thou day-spring, come and cheer
our spirits by thine advent here.
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
and death's dark shadow's put to flight

O come, desire of nations bind
all people in one heart and mind.
Bid envy, strife, and quarrels cease;
fill the world with heaven's peace

For those who care...
I tuned the ukelele down a half-step to try and bring the melody closer to my vocal range (I need all the help I can get and it probably still isn't enough). If you're interested in learning it, the chords are
Verse - Em Am G Em, G Am D Em, Am G D D7, Em Am D G
Refrain - D Bm Am D Em, G Am Em
(I got them out of internet guitar chord database and modified them a bit).