Christmas carol

For the short novel by Charles Dickens, see A Christmas Carol. For other uses, see A Christmas Carol (disambiguation).

Children singing Christmas Carols

A brass band playing Christmas carols.

A Christmas carol (also called a noël) is a carol (song or hymn) whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.

History

A 1582 published version of the Latin carol Personent hodie.

The first specifically Christmas hymns that we know of appear in fourth century Rome. Latin hymns such as Veni redemptor gentium, written by Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, were austere statements of the theological doctrine of the Incarnation in opposition to Arianism. Corde natus ex Parentis (Of the Father's love begotten) by the Spanish poet Prudentius (d. 413) is still sung in some churches today.^[1]

In the ninth and tenth centuries, the Christmas "Sequence" or "Prose" was introduced in North European monasteries, developing under Bernard of Clairvaux into a sequence of rhymed stanzas. In the twelfth century the Parisian monk Adam of St. Victor began to derive music from popular songs, introducing something closer to the traditional Christmas carol.

In the thirteenth century, in France, Germany, and particularly, Italy, under the influence of Francis of Asissi a strong tradition of popular Christmas songs in the native language developed.^[2] Christmas carols in English first appear in a 1426 work of John Awdlay, a Shropshire chaplain, who lists twenty five "caroles of Cristemas", probably sung by groups of 'wassailers', who went from house to house.^[3] The songs we know specifically as carols were originally communal songs sung during celebrations like harvest tide as well as Christmas. It was only later that carols began to be sung in church, and to be specifically associated with Christmas.

Carols gained in popularity after the Reformation in the countries where Protestant churches gained prominence (as well-known Reformers like Martin Luther authored carols and encouraged their use in worship), this was the consequence of the fact that the Lutheran reformation warmly welcomed music.^[4]

Adeste Fidelis (O Come all ye faithful) appears in its current form in the mid 18th century, although the words may have originated in the thirteenth century. The origin of the tune is disputed. The first appearance in print of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen", "The First Noel", "I Saw Three Ships" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" was in Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (1833) by William B. Sandys. Composers like Arthur Sullivan helped to repopularize the carol, and it is this period that gave rise to such favorites as "Good King Wenceslas" and "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear", a New England carol written by Edmund H. Sears and Richard S. Willis.

Today carols are regularly sung at Christian religious services. Some compositions have words which are clearly not of a religious theme, but are often still referred to as "carols". For example, the sixteenth century song "A Bone, God Wot!" appears to be a wassailing song (which is sung during drinking or while requesting ale), but is described in the British Museum's Cottonian Collection as a Christmas carol.^[5]

It is often difficult to draw a distinction between a Christmas carol and a Christmas song. To be sung by a church choir or sung in the street by amateurs, a song would have to have a fairly rapid, regular beat, which would therefore exclude a meandering crooning song such as "White Christmas". A country music song such as "Blue Christmas" might qualify, but in this case it would have to be adopted by many choirs, over many years to be truly "vernacular", and so far it has failed to gain wide acceptance.^{[citation needed]} The Concise Oxford Dictionary is more generous, as it defines a carol as a "religious song...associated with Christmas". If Christmas Carols are played before December, or after Christmas Day (including on Boxing Day), it is considered to be extremely bad luck in many countries.^{[citation needed]}

Carols for dancing

It is not clear whether the word carol derives from the French "carole" or the Latin "carula" meaning a circular dance. In any case the dancing seems to have been abandoned quite early.^{[citation needed]}

Music

Traditionally, carols have often been based on medieval chord patterns, and it is this that gives them their uniquely characteristic musical sound. Some carols like "Personent hodie", "Good King Wenceslas", and "The Holly and the Ivy" can be traced directly back to the Middle Ages, and are among the oldest musical compositions still regularly sung.

Compositions continue to be written that become popular carols. For example, many of the carols written by Alfred Burt are sung regularly in both sacred and secular settings, and are among the better-known modern Christmas carols.

Church and liturgical use of Christmas carols

Almost all the well known carols were not sung in church until the second half of the 19th century.^{[citation needed]} Hymns Ancient and Modern 1861–1874 included several carols. Isaac Watts, the "father of English hymnody", composed "Joy to the World" which has become a popular Christmas carol even though it is widely believed that Watts did not write it to be sung only at Christmas.

Charles Wesley wrote texts for at least three Christmas carols, of which the best known was originally entitled Hark! How All the Welkin Rings, later edited to Hark! the Herald Angels Sing.^[6] In 1840 Felix Mendelssohn wrote a tune in a cantata; William H. Cummings adapted this tune to fit Wesley's words and this combination first appeared in "Hymns Ancient and Modern" in 1861.^{[citation needed]}

Silent Night comes from Austria. The carol was first performed in the Nikolaus-Kirche (Church of St. Nicholas) in Oberndorf, Austria on December 24, 1818. Mohr had composed the words much earlier, in 1816, but on Christmas Eve brought them to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the church service.^[7] The first English translation was in 1871 where it was published in a Methodist hymnal.

Episodes described in Christmas carols

Several different Christmas episodes, apart from the birth of Jesus itself, are described in Christmas carols, such as:

• The Annunciation, for example Gabriel's Message
• The Census of Quirinius, a rare subject, but touched on in On a Day When Men Were Counted by Dan­i­el Thambyrajah Niles (1964)
• The Annunciation to the shepherds, for example While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
• The Adoration of the shepherds, for example the Czech carol Nesem Vám Noviny (translated into English as Come, All Ye Shepherds)
• The Star of Bethlehem, for example, Star of the East
• The journey of the Magi and the Adoration of the Magi, for example We Three Kings
• The Massacre of the Innocents, for example the Coventry Carol

In addition, some carols describe Christmas-related events which are of a religious nature, but not directly related to the birth of Jesus. For example:

• Good King Wenceslas, based on a legend about Saint Wenceslaus helping a poor man on December 26 (the Feast of Stephen)
• Ding Dong Merrily on High and I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, reflecting on the practice of ringing church bells at Christmas

Early carols

Nineteenth century antiquarians rediscovered early carols in museums. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica,^[9] about 500 have been found. Some are wassailing songs, some are religious songs in English, some are in Latin, and some are "macaronic" — a mixture of English and Latin. Since most people did not understand Latin, the implication is that these songs were composed for church choristers, or perhaps for an educated audience at the Royal courts. The most famous survival of these early macaronic carols is the "The Boar's Head". Allegedly, it has been sung at Christ Church Cambridge since 1607. The tradition of singing carols outside of church influence, early in the nineteenth century is best illustrated by Thomas Hardy's novel "Under the Greenwood Tree" (1872). In England and other countries, such as Poland (kolęda), Romania (colinde) and Bulgaria (koledari), there is a tradition of Christmas caroling (earlier known as wassailing), in which groups of singers travel from house to house, singing carols, for which they are often rewarded with gifts, money, mince pies, or a glass of an appropriate beverage. Money collected in this way is now normally given to charity.

Singing carols in church was instituted on Christmas Eve 1880 in Truro Cathedral, Cornwall, England (see article on Nine Lessons and Carols), and now seen in churches all over the world.^[10] The songs that were chosen for singing in church omitted the wassailing carols, and the words "hymn" and "carol" were used almost interchangeably. Shortly before, in 1878, the Salvation Army, under Charles Fry, instituted the idea of playing carols at Christmas, using a brass band. Carols can be sung by individual singers, but are also often sung by larger groups, including professionally trained choirs. Most churches have special services at which carols are sung, generally combined with readings from scripture about the birth of Christ; this is often based on the famous Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge.

Christmas carols in classical music

In the 1680s and 1690s two French composers incorporated carols into their works. Louis-Claude Daquin wrote 12 noels for organ. Marc-Antoine Charpentier wrote a few instrumental versions of noels, plus one major choral work "Messe de minuit pour Noël". Other examples include:

• Ralph Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Christmas Carols, 1912.
• Victor Hely-Hutchinson: Carol Symphony, 1927.
• Benjamin Britten: A Ceremony of Carols (for choir and harp), 1942
• Christina Rossetti's poem In the Bleak Midwinter has been set to music by (amongst others) Gustav Holst (1905) and Harold Darke (1911).
• Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki extensively quotes the Christmas carol Silent Night in his Second Symphony, nicknamed the Christmas Symphony.

Star singers

Main article: Star Boys' Singing Procession

In Austria, Belgium and Germany, Christmas is celebrated by some with children dressing as "The Three Kings", carrying a star on a pole. Going from house to house from New Year's Day to January 6, the children sing religious songs and are called "star singers". They are often rewarded with sweets or money, which is typically given to a local church or charity. "C.M.B" is written in chalk on houses they have visited. Although this is sometimes taken as a reference to the three kings — Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar — it may originally have represented the words "Christus mansionem benedicat" (Christ bless this house).

Christmas carols by country

Australia and New Zealand

In Australia and New Zealand, where it is the middle of summer at Christmas, there is a tradition of Carols by Candlelight concerts which are held outdoors at night in cities and towns across the country, during the weeks leading up to Christmas. First held in Melbourne, "Carols by Candlelight" is held each Christmas Eve in capital cities and many smaller cities and towns around Australia. Performers at the concerts include opera singers, musical theatre performers and popular music singers. People in the audience hold lit candles and join in singing some of the carols in accompaniment with the celebrities. A trend in recent years is for smaller towns in New Zealand to host their own Carols by Candlelight concerts. One notable event, held in the village of Patumahoe, near Auckland, has grown rapidly in recent years, with a December 2009 concert peaking at 35,000 attendees.^{[citation needed]}

France

A 16th century carol, "Ça, Bergers, assemblons nous", was sung aboard Jacques Cartier's ship on Christmas Day in 1535. Dating from the 18th century, "Les Anges dans nos Campagnes" is another famous French carol. The 19th century "Cantique de Noël" (also known as "Minuit Chrétien", adapted as "O Holy Night in English) is another classic. "Dans cette étable" and "Venez Divin Messie " are also popular Christmas carols. Perhaps the best known traditional French carol, "Il est né, le divin Enfant!", comes from the region of Provence.

In 1554, a collection of French carols, "La Grande Bible des Noëls", was printed in Orléans. Another collection, "Chants des Noëls Anciens et Modernes", was printed by Christophe Ballard (1641–1715), in Paris, in 1703.

Germany and Austria

Some carols familiar in English were translations of German Christmas songs (Weihnachtslieder). Three well-known examples are Silent Night (Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht), by the Austrians Franz Xaver Gruber and Joseph Mohr, Still, Still, Still ("Stille, Stille, Stille"), an Austrian folksong also from the Salzburg region, and O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum), from a German folksong arranged by Ernst Anschütz.

The tune of Still, Still, Still is based on an 1819 melody by Süss, with the original words, slightly changed over time and location, by G. Götsch.

Greece and Cyprus

Greek tradition calls for children to go out with triangles from house to house on Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and Epiphany Eve, and sing the corresponding folk carols, called the Κάλαντα (Kálanda, the word deriving from the Roman calends). There are separate carols for each of the three great feasts, referring respectively to the Nativity, to St. Basil and the New Year, and to the Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, along with wishes for the household. Longer carols follow a more or less standard format: they begin by exalting the relevant religious feast, then proceed to offer praises for the lord and lady of the house, their children, the household and its personnel, and usually conclude with a polite request for a treat, and a promise to come back next year for more well-wishing.

Many carols are regional, being popular in specific regions but unknown in others, whereas some are popular throughout the two countries. Examples of the latter are the Peloponnesian Christmas carol "Christoúgenna, Prōtoúgenna" ("Christmas, Firstmas"), the Constantinopolitan Christmas carol "Kalēn hespéran, árchontes" ("Good evening, my lords"), and the New Year's carol "Archimēniá ki archichroniá" ("First of the month, first of the year"). The oldest known carol, commonly referred to as the "Byzantine Carol" (Byzantine Greek: Άναρχος θεός καταβέβηκεν, Ánarchos Theós katabébēken, "God who has no beginning descended"), is linguistically dated to the beginning of the High Middle Ages. Almost all the various carols are in the common dekapentasyllabos (15-syllable iamb with a caesura after the 8th syllable) verse, which means that their wording and tunes are easily interchangeable. This has given rise to a great number of local variants, parts of which often overlap or resemble one another in verse, tune, or both.

In older times, carolling children asked for and were given gifts such as dried fruit, eggs, nuts or sweets; during the 20th century this was gradually replaced with money gifts — ranging from small change in the case of strangers to considerable amounts in the case of close relatives. Carolling is also done by marching bands, choirs, school students seeking to raise funds for trips or charity, members of folk societies, or merely by groups of well-wishers. Many internationally known carols, e.g. "Silent Night", "O Tannenbaum" or "Jingle Bells", are also sung in Greek translation.

Poland

Christmas carols are very popular in Poland, where they have a long history, the oldest dating to the 15th century or earlier.^[11]

Spain and Portugal

The villancico (or vilancete, in Portuguese) was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. With the decline in popularity of the villancicos in the 20th century, the term became reduced to mean merely "Christmas carol". Important composers of villancicos were Juan del Encina, Pedro de Escobar, Francisco Guerrero, Gaspar Fernandes, and Juan Guttiérez de Padilla.^[12]

Ukraine

Basically all, some of them centuries-old, Ukrainian Carols (Колядки) are associated with the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. The Ukrainian carol most known to the Western World is the Carol of the Bells, composed by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych, premiered on December 1916 by a choral group made up of students at Kiev University.

United Kingdom

The mass singing in some of the pubs in North Sheffield and North Derbyshire, which takes place in the second half of November and all December, and which is often referred to as 'The Sheffield Carols', has been described as one of the most remarkable instances of popular traditional singing in the British Isles.^{[citation needed]}

Media

• What Child is This

  What Child is This

  O Little Town of Bethlehem

  O Little Town of Bethlehem

  Deck the Halls

  Deck the Halls

  Oh Holy Night

  Oh Holy Night

  Jingle Bells

  Jingle Bells, performed by Piano, flute, clarinet, French horn

  Jingle Bells

  Jingle Bells, performed by Celesta and Violin

  Oh Christmas Tree

  O Tannenbaum

  It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

  It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

  Angels We Have Heard On High

  Angels We Have Heard On High, performed by Clarinet and French Horn

  Angels We Have Heard On High

  Angels We Have Heard On High, Piano solo

  God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen

  A 1917 Edison Records recording of God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen

• Problems listening to the files? See media help.

See also

• Christmas music
• List of Christmas carols
• List of Christmas hit singles
• List of non-religious Christmas songs

References

1. ^ Miles, Clement, Christmas customs and traditions, Courier Dover Publications, 1976, ISBN 0486233545, p.32
2. ^ Miles, pp. 31-37
3. ^ Miles, pp. 47-48
4. ^ Article - Protestant music
5. ^ A Bone, God Wot!
6. ^ Dudley-Smith, Timothy (1987). A Flame of Love. London: Triangle/SPCK. ISBN 0-281-04300-0. 
7. ^ BBC Religion & Ethics
8. ^ Thomas Wright, Songs and Carols Now First Printed, From a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (London: The Percy Society, 1847)
9. ^ carol - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
10. ^ "Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols". BBC. 16 December 2005. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/content/articles/2005/12/16/faith_nine_lessons_feature.shtml. 
11. ^ (Polish) Roman Mazurkiewicz, Z dziejów polskiej kolędy
12. ^ Pope, "Villancico."

External links

• Carols for Dancing
• Free sheet music Christmas carols
• Christmas Carols in New England
• The Salvation Army Carols at Christmas
• Christmas Carols
• Historical Notes on Christmas Carols
• Origin and history of individual carols
• [1]