(The version of this message just broadcast over Choralist had three copies
of the same information, all nested within one another, and I need a clean
one for the archives, so I'm sending this single version out. David Topping)

Actually your carol of the bells is not a PD selection

The actual name of the piece by Mykola Leontovich is SHTCHEDRIK.
SHTCHEDRIK. SHTCHEVATCHKA......imitating swallows sitting on the
eaves of an Inn chattering to one another...their discussion= "it is a dark
night with one star in the heavens, shepherds are on the mountainside with
their sheep, which/who are lambing. A woman with dark eyes go
by.......assumedly searching for a place to give birth"

The urtext is in the collected works of Leontovich...I became involved with
this piece because there are so many "bell" translations available....some
have a final "dong" in the bass line and some do not....so having grown up
with the "Ring Christmas Bells" set of words...which I believe were the first
published in a carol book CHRISTMAS IN SONG, by the good old band
publishers Rubank in 1947, Chicago..edition given credit to M.L. Hohman,
1947 I assume those are his words..he placed it a step lower than
Leontovich and included the final "Ring" in the Bass line.......editor's "choice".

Leontovich does not have this note in his original composition....the tenors
and basses are tacit while the trebles close with the words "la stisvatchka"
in the clear air."......

I found this entire process fasinating.....my husband is a linguist so he
gave me a translation to work with and Unicorn (now distributed by E.C.
Schirmer) published it in 1982 NO. 1.0026.2

I think most of the other ersatz editions with bells, dings, dongs, etc are
all under individual copyrights of their publishers

As far as I know mine is the only "real" edition and is under copyright...

If you do decide to perform mine, I would be grateful for a copy of the
program for my file

Many thanks

judenote(a)aol.com

Judith Otten
640 West End Avenue
Suite 1 B
NYC NY 10024-1019