SPAIN: Campana Sobre Campana - Parchis
This particular Spanish villancico (not quite a carol, but is often ignored as a term in favour of carol) is one of the few remaining popular villancicos remaining across the Iberian Peninsula. On the face of it, this is merely a charming children’s song about the nativity story, however, the song has far more resonance to the pair of us than one could ever have imagined. This is the first song from another country that the two of us bonded over before we ever dreamt of embarking on this journey of world music discovery. A decade ago, when the two of us attended the same school, we found ourselves in the same Spanish class, in which our Galician Spanish teacher (shout-out to Señora Gómez) introduced us to the track in the last lesson before the Christmas break. For some strange reason the whole class decided in an immature move to belt out the song, with an unusually high level of enthusiasm, that perhaps the song itself did not even warrant. Nevertheless, each time we hear the tune we cannot help to be transported back to our youth, and it certainly places a big grin on both of our faces.