Tomorrow shall be my dancing day is an English carol usually attributed as 'traditional'; its first written appearance is in William B. Sandys

William B. Sandys

William B. Sandys , was an English solicitor, member of the Percy Society, fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and remembered for his publication Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern , a collection of seasonal carols that Sandys had gathered and also apparently improvised...

' Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern of 1833. It is most well known in John Gardner

John Gardner (composer)

John Linton Gardner, CBE is an English composer of classical music.-Biography:Gardner was born in Manchester, England and brought up in Ilfracombe, North Devon. His father Alfred Linton Gardner was a local GP and amateur composer who was killed in action in the last months of the First World War....

's adaptation, but numerous other composers have made original settings of it or arranged the traditional tune, including Gustav Holst

Gustav Holst

Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....

, David Willcocks, John Rutter

John Rutter

John Milford Rutter CBE is a British composer, conductor, editor, arranger and record producer, mainly of choral music.-Biography:Born in London, Rutter was educated at Highgate School, where a fellow pupil was John Tavener. He read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the...

, Ronald Corp

Ronald Corp

Ronald Corp is a composer, conductor, and Church of England priest. He is founder and Artistic Director of the New London Orchestra and the New London Children's Choir. Corp is Musical Director of the London Chorus, a position he took up in 1994, and is also Musical Director of the Highgate Choral...

 and Andrew Carter

Andrew Carter (composer)

Andrew Carter is an English composer, conductor and arranger.-Biography:Born in Wigston Magna, Leicestershire, Carter studied music at the University of Leeds, before moving to York and joining the choir at the Minster as a bass...

.

The verses of the hymn progress through the story of Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 told in his own voice

First-person narrative

First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...

. An innovative feature of the telling is that Jesus' life is repeatedly characterized as a dance

Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....

. This device was later used in the modern hymn "Lord of the Dance

Lord of the Dance (hymn)

Lord of the Dance is a hymn with words written by English songwriter Sydney Carter in 1967. He adapted the tune from the American Shaker song "Simple Gifts"...

".

In two of the song's 11 verses, "the Jews" are specifically mentioned as Jesus' antagonists, in one verse going on to say that their antagonism was "because they loved darkness rather than light" (quoting words of Jesus, who was not specifically referring to Jews). See the articles on Antisemitism, Jewish deicide

Jewish deicide

Jewish deicide is a belief that places the responsibility for the death of Jesus on the Jewish people as a whole.This deicide accusation is expressed in the ethnoreligious slur "Christ-killer." As a part of Second Vatican Council , the Roman Catholic Church under Pope Paul VI issued a declaration...

, and Antisemitism in passion plays for more discussion of these issues.

Lyrics

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day;

I would my true love did so chance

To see the legend of my play,

To call my true love to my dance;



Chorus

Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,

This have I done for my true love.



Then was I born of a virgin pure,

Of her I took fleshly substance

Thus was I knit to man's nature

To call my true love to my dance.

Chorus



In a manger laid, and wrapped I was

So very poor, this was my chance

Betwixt an ox and a silly poor ass

To call my true love to my dance.

Chorus



Then afterwards baptized I was;

The Holy Ghost on me did glance,

My Father’s voice heard I from above,

To call my true love to my dance.

Chorus



Into the desert I was led,

Where I fasted without substance;

The Devil bade me make stones my bread,

To have me break my true love's dance.

Chorus



The Jews on me they made great suit,

And with me made great variance,

Because they loved darkness rather than light,

To call my true love to my dance.

Chorus



For thirty pence Judas me sold,

His covetousness for to advance:

Mark whom I kiss, the same do hold!

The same is he shall lead the dance.

Chorus



Before Pilate the Jews me brought,

Where Barabbas had deliverance;

They scourged me and set me at nought,

Judged me to die to lead the dance.

Chorus



Then on the cross hanged I was,

Where a spear my heart did glance;

There issued forth both water and blood,

To call my true love to my dance.

Chorus



Then down to hell I took my way

For my true love's deliverance,

And rose again on the third day,

Up to my true love and the dance.

Chorus



Then up to heaven I did ascend,

Where now I dwell in sure substance

On the right hand of God, that man

May come unto the general dance.

Chorus

External links

• An arrangement of "Tomorrow shall be my dancing day"