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The traditional story of this song comes from the town of Oberndorf, Austria in the winter of 1818. The priest of this town was a young man and also a musician called Joseph Mohr. Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge, a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint." Today carols are regularly sung at Christian religious services. Some compositions have words that are clearly not of a religious theme, but are often still referred to as "carols". For example, the 16th-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 Library's Cottonian Collection as a Christmas carol. [12] As recently as 1865, Christmas-related lyrics were adopted for the traditional English folk song " Greensleeves", becoming the internationally popular Christmas carol " What Child is This?". Little research has been conducted on carol singing, but one of the few sociological studies of caroling in the early 21st century in Finland determined that the sources of songs are often misunderstood, and that it is simplistic to suggest caroling is mostly related to Christian beliefs, for it also reinforces preservation of diverse national customs and local family traditions. [13] The Little Drummer Boy’ was originally known as The Carol of the Drum, and the text is based on an old Czech carol. It was written by American classical music composer and teacher Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1940. It was recorded by Bing Crosby and David Bowie in 1977, with the new addition of the ‘Peace On Earth’ countermelody which has since become an accepted part of the song.
This carol was written by Edward Caswall in 1858, who was also the translator of many popular hymns. The music Humility was written by John Goss in 1871. O Holy Night Based on a traditional English folk song, there are conflicting stories about the metaphorical meaning of the ‘three ships’, from real ships carrying the relics of the three Magi, to camels which were called ‘the ships of the desert’. The whole point of the book is that he changes for the better, and right from the start there are hints that he wasn’t and isn’t irredeemably bad. For example, he never removed Marley’s name from the sign above his office. I don’t think the reason was solely parsimony because during and after the ghostly encounters, we see different aspects of Scrooge, surely exposed by the ghosts, not actually created by them. So maybe part of the reason for leaving the name was a fondness for the memory of his friend and partner - a link to happier times. The first emotion produced in Scrooge by the Ghost of Christmas Past is sadness at this own boyhood loneliness, but the second emotion is his joy in the books that consoled him and helped him empathize with others: The Arabian Nights, the old romances ( Valentine and Orson), and realistic fiction ( Robinson Crusoe). In Ebenezer’s coming transformation, the sadness and its memory are of course necessary, but no more necessary than this joy.
The legend
The minister Philip Brooks wrote this carol after a visit to Bethlehem in 1865. He asked their church organist to compose the melody. The carol has since become of the most-performed Christmas songs the world over. The carol is actually sung to a different tune in the United Kingdom, by the iconic British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Christina Rossetti originally wrote the words to this carol as a Christmas poem. The tune most often associated with In the Bleak Midwinter is Cranham, composed by Gustav Holst, but it has also been put to music by organist Harold Edwin Darke. Silent Night In the 13th century, in France, Germany, and particularly, Italy, under the influence of Francis of Assisi, a strong tradition of popular Christmas songs in regional native languages developed. [3] 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. [4] The songs now known 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.
Another carol about the Annunciation, but told in a more traditional way. The tune is from the 13th or 14th century - hundreds of years older than the words, which were adapted from a Basque carol with some poetic additions. Just one more if you have time? Great. A bit too much fourth wall breaking here today, sorry for that. The ghostly visitors are not of the Christian kind, but ghost stories were popular in Victorian England. Each ghost is very distinctive in appearance and manner. Christopher Morris, musician – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022 . Retrieved 4 October 2016. Plumpton, Alfred; Hemans Mrs (12 March 1890). Oh, lovely voices of the sky: hymn for Christmas. [Melbourne: David Syme & Co.] – via Trove.This tune started off as ‘Le Rose Blu’ by Ciro Dammicco, but became a song about Christ after several adaptations. The song makes no explicit mention of Christmas, but it became heavily associated with Christmas after a cover by Johnny Mathis reached Christmas No. 1 in the U.K. Charts. The earliest carol, like this, was written in 1410. Sadly only a very small fragment of it still exists. The carol was about Mary and Jesus meeting different people in Bethlehem. Most Carols from this time and the Elizabethan period are untrue stories, very loosely based on the Christmas story, about the holy family and were seen as entertaining rather than religious songs. They were usually sung in homes rather than in churches! Traveling singers or Minstrels started singing these carols and the words were changed for the local people wherever they were traveling. One carols that changed like this is 'I Saw Three Ships'. Carol-singing men on a square in Ljubljana - Johann Weikhard von Valvasor [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Also, during the Victorian period, many orchestras and choirs were being set up in the cities of England and people wanted Christmas songs to sing, so carols once again became popular in churches and concert halls. Many new carols, such as 'Good King Wenceslas', were also written in the Victorian period. Hark! The Herald’ – an 1840 tune from Mendelssohn. ‘ Silent Night’? Composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr. ‘ Good King Wenceslas’? – 1853 lyrics set to an older tune. The list goes on… A contemporary carol written by British composer and clergyman Michael Perry in the 1960s. Lyrics from the carol have appeared on postage stamps from the Carribean islands Nevis and St. Kitts. This lively and energetic carol first shot to fame in 1969.
This folk hymn compares Jesus to the tree of life from the Garden of Eden. The simple rhyme scheme of the text and the soaring melody are a welcome addition to any carol service. The text has been set by various composers including Jeremiah Ingalls, Elizabeth Poston and John Rutter. Horsley, Charles Edward (12 March 1862). All my heart this night rejoices: Christmas hymn. Melbourne: C.E. Horsley – via Trove.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.
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