What Child Is This (HiDef audio in 4K)

Arranged by Steve Schweitzer.
Guitar, Keyboards and Synths by Steve Schweitzer.
All Rights Reserved 2023.
Greensleeves (as it is better known by) is one of the oldest English folk songs associated with Christmas, registered in 1580. One interpretation of the original lyrics is that Lady Green Sleeves was a young woman in love. At the time, the word "green" had intimate connotations, most notably in the phrase "a green gown", a reference to the grass stains on a dress from courting outdoors with a suitor. This is certainly out of context and not appropriate for the version of the song title What Child Is This. An alternative explanation is that Lady Green Sleeves, through her costume in Nevill Coghill's translation of The Canterbury Tales, was green in color of the lightness in love.
What Child Is This lyrics were written by William Chatterton Dix in 1865 based on Isaiah 9:6-7 and set to Greensleeves in 1871. The context of the carol centers around the Adoration of the Shepherds who visit during the Nativity of Jesus. The questions posed in the lyrics reflect what the shepherds were possibly pondering to themselves when they encountered Jesus, with the rest of the carol providing a response to their questions.
I have played this song for many years but wanted to refresh it. I thought it should have a baroque feel in the first half of the song with clavichord-like sounding guitar harmonies and later adding in small parts of a symphonic orchestra - namely flutes, piccolos, violins, cellos and low brass. This song is unique in that the beginning and ending are in 4/4 time and the actual What Child Is This melody is in 3/4 time.
The beginning and ending solo guitar pieces I composed for a music composition class in college way back in the early 1980s! The tune is very simplistic in its original written form, almost being played as single notes with an occasional harmonized note or triad. It has evolved over the years, and I thought it fit well with What Child Is This.
RECORDING EQUIPMENT
DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)
Presonus StudioOne
Cakewalk
SOFTWARE
Backing track and stem creation: Band-in-a-Box
Guitar signal processing VSTs: Helix Native, Amplitube 5.x
MIXING & MASTERING
MeldaProduction Suite
Neutron 4
Ozone 11
Insights
RX
HARDWARE
Recording interface: IKMultimedia AXE I/O
Keyboard/Controller: Arturia Keylab Essential 49
Zoom Helix Floor guitar multi-effects processor
PreSonus Eris E8-XT Studio monitors and PreSonus 12” sub
MICROPHONES
Rode NT1-A
AKG-P170
AT-2035
MXL R144
Shure SM57
Shure SM58
Sennheiser e935
Samson CO3U
INSTRUMENTS
1972 Gibson L6-S
1998 Taylor Dan Crary 810ce
1998 Collings OM2H
1998 Fender FM2E Mandolin
2000 Epiphone ES-335 Limited Edition
2002 Fender ’62 Reissue Stratocaster
2006 Fender Thinline Classic Telecaster
2013 Taylor 914ce
2017 Gretsch 5420TG hollow body guitar
2018 Fender ’72 Reissue Deluxe Telecaster
2020 Taylor 210ce 12-string guitar
2020 Yamaha NTX5 Nylon String guitar
2020 Yamaha TRBX 605 5-string bass guitar
AMPLIFIERS
1957-replica Fender Tweed Deluxe, hand-wired, custom built
1972 Fender Deluxe Reverb
2015 Quilter Micro-Pro Mach 2