| Works/Mp3 Description |
Genres
Christmas song: Description |
| Buy cd's at Amazon Buy sheetmusic at SheetMusicPlus Subscribe for music downloads to EMusic or Napster |
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. They are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas. The tradition of Christmas carols hails back as far as the thirteenth century, although 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.
HistoryTraditionally, 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" and "Angels from the Realms of Glory" can be traced directly back to the Middle Ages, and are among the oldest musical compositions still regularly sung. Carols suffered a decline in popularity after the Reformation in the countries where Protestant churches gained prominence (although well-known Reformers like Martin Luther authored carols and encouraged their use in worship), but survived in rural communities until the revival of interest in carols in the 19th century. 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.[1] 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. The Concise Oxford Dictionary is more generous, as it defines a carol as a "religious song...associated with Christmas". Though many Christmas carols were written prior to the 20th century, several modern compositions have been written in more recent times. Many of the carols written by Alfred Burt are sung regularly in both sacred and secular settings, and are among the more well-known modern Christmas carols. Traditions featuring Christmas carolsThe website www.oremus.org [1] tracks the first publication of almost every well-known hymn in the United Kingdom. A review of the website's collection confirms that almost all the well known carols were not sung in church until the second half of the 19th century. Hymns Ancient and Modern 1861 - 1874 included: "O, Come All Ye Faithful", "Hark The Herald Angels Sing"; "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night"; "The First Noel", "O Little Town of Bethlehem", "Silent Night", "Away in a Manger", "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" and "Once in Royal David's City". In several cases these hymns are noted in publication as "traditional", meaning they were sung outside the church, and in some cases previously published as folk carols, not hymns. After the Reformation and the English civil war, churches reverted to singing psalms rather than hymns. The father of English hymnody, Isaac Watts didn't compose any carols, but his great successor Charles Wesley composed one. Charles wrote a poem called "Hark! How All the Welkin Rings", which was eventually amended and adapted to become "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing". It was originally written with a solemn-sounding tune. In 1840 Felix Mendelssohn wrote a tune in a cantata which fit the words quite well. William H. Cummings adapted Mendelssohn's tune to fit the words better. "Hymns Ancient and Modern" first printed the new version in 1861. Charles' brother John Wesley was once accused of singing "unauthorized hymns" - you needed church courts to approve hymnals. "Silent Night" comes from Austria where there were no laws against hymns, because there was little dissent from Catholicism. The first English translation was in 1871 where it was published in a Methodist hymnal. Early CarolsNineteenth century antiquarians rediscovered early carols in museums. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, [2] 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 (kolędowanie), 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. The idea of singing carols in church was instituted in 1880 (see article on Nine Lessons and Carols). 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, often this is based on the famous Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge. Some of these services also include other music written for Christmas, such as Benjamin Britten's "Ceremony of Carols" (for choir and harp), or excerpts from Handel's "Messiah." Carols for dancingIt 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, but some examples are very danceable. In the 1680s and 1690s two French composers incorporated carols into their works. Louis-Claude Daquin wrote 12 noels for organ. In 2002 Mark Darlow researched the verses that belonged with the tunes and arranged them for choir and orchestra. Marc-Antoine Charpentier wrote a few instrumental versions of noels, plus one major choral work "Messe de minuit pour Noël" (carols with orchestral links written by Charpentier). In a public radio program titled Carols for Dancing[3] the host of PRI's Sound & Spirit,[4] Ellen Kushner explores the history of Christmas carols and their roots in Medieval and Renaissance dance. Especially for the program, the musicians of Renaissonics,[5] performed the carols in a fashion informed by their work as an award-winning Renaissance dance band. Christmas Carols in classical musicRalph Vaughan-Williams wrote his "Fantasia on Christmas Carols" in 1912. Victor Hely-Hutchinson wrote his "Carol Symphony" in 1927. Christina Rossetti wrote a poem called "In the Bleak Midwinter", and the musical settings of Gustav Holst in 1905 and Harold Darke in 1911 have made it a modern Christmas Carol. Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki extensively quotes the Christmas carol Silent Night in his Second Symphony, nicknamed the Christmas Symphony. Christmas carols in AustraliaIn Australia, 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. In Melbourne, "Carols by Candlelight" is held each Christmas Eve. 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. Star singersIn 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 6th, 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). French Christmas CarolsA 16th century carol, "Ça, Bergers, assemblons nous", was sung aboard Jacques Cartier's ship on Christmas Day in 1535. 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 Noels", was printed in Orleans. Another collection, "Chants de Noels anciens et nouveau", was printed by Christophe Ballard in Paris. The Sheffield CarolsThe 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. References
Media
See alsoExternal links Wikisource has original text related to this article:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Christmas song". Allthough most Wikipedia articles provide accurate information accuracy can not be guaranteed. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Looking for classical mp3 downloads? We index the free-to-download classical mp3s on the internet. Go to our homepage to start your search.
©2006 Classic Cat - the classical music directory. All rights reserved.
Contact us