Hammered dulcimer virtuoso Tina Bergmann’s thoughts: “It’s one of the pieces that we’ve always loved. I sang it first in the Kent State Choral, with C.M. Shearer. Under his direction it deepens even more. I’ve always been attracted to it. When Bryan and I started playing together it seemed an obvious choice with the marriage of the dulcimer and the bass, it’s just so lovely. And then we needed something to tag onto the end of it and we decided to change the mood of it a bit with ‘I Saw Three Ships’ which is another joyful and sparkly tune.

“Heather Malyuk is a really talented musician who plays fiddle and guitar. She was given a nyckelharpa for her birthday, she has a lot of interest in it. She’s only played it for about three to six months, I think. She has so much natural talent that she could just pick it up, watch videos, she has a good ear and she is a good musician. So it was a perfect addition. It has that kind of soapy sound. It’s different from anything I’ve ever heard.”

“Bring A Torch Jeannette, Isabella,” first published in 1553 in France, tells the story of two milkmaids, Jeannette and Isabella, who went to milk their cows in a manger in Bethlehem, only to find the baby Jesus sleeping in the hay. “I Saw Three Ships” can be traced back to it’s publication in 1666.