Soundtracking: The History of Christmas Carols

	SOUNDTRACKING The History of Christmas Carols! Soundtracking is a weekly column featuring indie, alternative, and all around amazing music - published by music correspondent Laura Cushing on Gather.com. Soundtracking includes interviews, CD reviews, band and concert news, music trivia, playlists and much more!

This week on Soundtracking:  The History of Christmas Carols!

When you sing a Christmas carol during the holiday season, you are participating in a very traditional activity. How traditional may surprise you - the first recorded Christmas carols come from the 13th century!  This week, Soundtracking looks at the history of caroling in general, and the origins of some of your favorite songs. This is the first week of a four part holiday Soundtracking special.

Medieval Origins:
The word carol comes from the Middle English 'carole' which meant 'a round dance with singing.' This word in turn came from Old French, which derived from the Late Latin 'choraula', which meant 'choral song' , which in turn came from the Greek  'khoros' which meant 'choral dance.' So as you can see, the word itself has a long tradition involving groups of people singing and dancing - which is interesting, becaue it has retained that at least partially to this day.  Around 1300, the first known carols appeared as songs with a verse/refrain alteration, often on a religious subject.  During the 14th-15th century, carols were considered a form of art music. A songbook of period carols known as The Fayrfax Manuscript survives this day. They were written to be performed by small groups of singers at court.  By the 16th century, carols were declining in popularity. They were even banned between 1647 and 1660 in England by Oliver Cromwell who thought that Christmas should be a solemn day. A revival occured in the 18th century - and this is the time period that many of our traditional carols come from.

Wassailing:
Here we come a-wassailing
Among the leaves so green;
Here we come a-wand'ring
So fair to be seen.

Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail too;
And God bless you and send you
A Happy New Year

So why do carolers come to our homes? That tradition dates back further than Christmas carols, to a celebration called 'wassailing'. Wassail was a spicy ale or cider.  The word Wassail is from the Anglo-Saxon toast wæs þu hæl, meaning 'be thou hale'. As an Old English word, 'wassail' likely dates back before 1000 AD. The tradition of wassailing comes from feudal times, when the serfs would come to recieve a wassail in exchange for wishing their lord goodwill.  Though this sounds like a pleasant enough practice, during the early days of New England  wassailing often involved rowdy neighbors bursting into the homes of wealthier townsfolk and demanding free food or drink least they curse the homeowner.

This rowdy demand for food is doccumented in the lesser-known later verses of  'We Wish You A Merry Christmas' :

Now, bring us some figgy pudding; now, bring us some figgy pudding;
Now, bring us some figgy pudding and bring some out here!
For we all like figgy pudding; for we all like figgy pudding
For we all like figgy pudding: so bring some out here!
And we won't go until we've got some; We won't go until we've got some;
And we won't go until we've got some; so bring some out here!

Wassailers are demanding figgy pudding, a traditional Christmas dessert - and there is the veiled threat of violence if they don't get their treat.

 Revivals:
Durring the 18th century, Christmas caroling picked up again.  Scholars began rediscovering medieval music. Many carols of this time period are written based on medieval chord patterns, and some directly using medieval music with a new lyrical overlay. In the 19th century,  caroling became widely practiced again.  Many traditional favorites stem from this time period - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,  The First Noel, I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In and so on.

Carols were sung in churches by choirs and churchgoers alike; and wassailing from door to door with groups of friends or charitable organizations became prevelant.  Charles Dickens wrote his classic A Christmas Carol during this time period. The book exemplifies a lot of Christmas tradition at the time, including carolers.

Modern Times:
In modern times, the definition of a carol is sometimes less than clear. While some dictionaries seek to make distinctions between 'Christmas carol' and 'Chrismas song', others lump both together.  The Oxford English Dictionary defines a carol as 'a religious song associated with Christmas', while other sources include both secular and religious songs in the definition - instead dividing by factors such as whether they are able to be sung by a group or choir as opposed to only being suited for an individual singer. For example, under this definition, White Christmas would be a Christmas song and not a carol, because it is slow-paced and not suitable for group singing.

Origins of Some Individual Carols:
Sometimes the stories behind individual songs are fascinating! Let's take a look at the stories behind some popular traditional songs:

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the new-born King;
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!"

 The words for this spiritual song were penned in 1739 by Charles Wesley (brother of John Wesley), a leader of the Methodist movement and author of many hymns. It was originally written as Hark! how all the welkin rings (welkin being a word for 'heaven'). In those days,  hymns were often just written words that would be put to a tune at the choir's discretion.  The music for 'Amazing Grace' and 'Christ The Lord Is Risen Today' were often used to back this song. The tune that is almost always used for this song in modern times is actually based on a chorus written by Felix Mendelssohn as part of a song he wrote commemorating printer Johann Gutenberg and his invention of the printing press.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember Christ our Saviour
Was born on Christmas Day
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray

O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

Published in Britian in 1833 in a book of Christmas songs, this song also appears in Dicken's A Christmas Carol.  "...at the first sound of — "God bless you merry, gentlemen! May nothing you dismay!"— Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost."  Interesting to note is that the merry is not refering to the temperament of the gentlemen  - but rather, as traditionally printed the comma indicates that the gentlemen are being wished a pleasant and easy rest.

 Good King Wenceslas

Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even;
Brightly shone the moon that night, tho' the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight gath'ring winter fuel.

In additon to being difficult to spell, Good King Wenceslas is also lyrically complex. This carol consists of five quatrains in trochaic heptameter. Each quatrain has a feminine rhyme scheme of AABB.  The music itself comes from a thirteenth century spring carol, Tempus Adest Floridum (It Is Time For Flowering). The words were written by Reverend John Mason Neal in 1853.  For the curious, Good King Wenceslas is my personal favorite Christmas carol.

Silent Night:

Silent night, Holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin Mother and Child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace

Originally Stille Nacht , as written in German in Oberndorf, Austria by Father Josef Mohr. Mohr wrote the words in 1816. On Christmas even in 1818, Mohr asked his friend and church organist Franz Gruber to arrange a piece with vocals and guitar for church services.  It was finished in time for midnight mass, and was popular with the parishoners. Silent Night / Stille Nacht has been published in 300 languages and is one of the most popular carols of all time.  It was sung in the trenches in 1914, during the Christmas Truce between English and German soldiers, because it was one of the few carols that both sides knew. 

Carol of the Bells

Hark how the bells,
sweet silver bells,
all seem to say
throw cares away
 
Sometimes known as  the Ukrainian Bell Carol, this tune was adapted from 'Shchedryk' a Ukrainian traditional song by Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych. First performed in 1916 at Kiev University, it was introduced to American audiences on October 5, 1921 at Carnegie Hall. The English lyrics below were added in 1936 by Peter Wilhousky of NBC Radio. The music reminded him of lovely ringing bells, hence the words.

For more information:
The Hymns and Carols of Christmas
Christmas carol sing-along 
Caroling Corner (lyrics to many carols) 
Christmas Carol (wikipedia) 

Every carol has a story! Some of them are very fascinating -  why not look up the origins of your favorite song and tell us the story in a comment?

 For more information on this holiday series (and a brief survey) - check out this article.

 
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		Laura Cushing, Music Correspondent  - Soundtracking
	Laura's column, 'Soundtracking' is published every Saturday in Gather Essentials:Music. Soundtracking is your guide to indie and alternative music -- featuring musician interviews, CD reviews, MP3 mixes, and discussions. Laura Cushing is a 37 year old writer from the New Jersey Pines. In addition to music journalism, she writes fiction and poetry. Keep up with Laura's music series by joining her network, or subscribing to her content.