From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Contents 1 History 2 Traditions featuring Christmas carols 3 Early Carols 4 Carols for dancing 5 Christmas Carols in classical music 6 Star singers 7 French Christmas Carols 8 The Sheffield Carols 9 References 10 Media 11 See also 12 External links

Traditional they are often 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 amongst the oldest musical compositions still regularly sung. Carols suffered a decline in popularity after the Reformation in the countries where Reformation settled (although prominent Reformers like Martin Luther authored carols and encouraged their use in worship), but survived in their rural communities until the revival of interest in Carols in the 19th century. The first appearance in print of "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen", "The First Noël", "I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In" 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."

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), is described in Cottonian collection in the British Museum as "A Christmas Carol." Ref: [1].

It is difficult to draw a distinction between a Christmas carol and a Christmas song. For something to be sung by a church choir, or sung in the street by amateurs, the 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. Since the 1970s instrumental versions of Christmas carols (loudspeaker musak) have been played in shopping malls. The Concise Oxford Dictionary is more generous, as it defines a carol as a `religious song...associated with Christmas.`

The website www.oremus.org [2] tracks the first publication of almost every well-known hymn in the UK. This makes it easy to confirm 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 gave us: "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 the above hymns are noted as "traditional". This means that 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 was Isaac Watts (1674 - 1748). He didn't compose any carols, but his great successor Charles Wesley (1707 -1788) 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 had a solemn tune. In 1840 Felix Mendelssohn wrote a tune in a cantata which fitted the words quite well. William H Cummings adapted the tune to fix the words better. "Hymns Ancient and Modern" first printed the new version in 1861. Charles' brother John Wesley (1703 - 1791) was even 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.

Nineteenth century antiquarians rediscovered early carols in museums. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, ^[1] 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 some other countries (e.g. 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 stuff,money, mince pies, or a glass of an appropriate drink. 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."

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, 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^[2] the host of PRI's Sound & Spirit,^[3] Ellen Kushner explores the history of Christmas carols and their roots in Medieval and Renaissance dance. Especially for the program, the musicians of Renaissonics,^[4] performed the carols in a fashion informed by their work as an award-winning Renaissance dance band.

Ralph Vaughan-Williams wrote his "Fantasia on Christmas Carols" in 1912. Victor Hely-Hutchinson wrote his "Carol Symphony" in 1927.

Christina Rosetti 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.

There is also a tradition of performances of serious music relating to Christmas in the period around Christmas, including Handel's "Messiah," the "Christmas Oratorio" by J. S. Bach, and "L'Enfance du Christ" by Berlioz.

In 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 during the weeks leading up to Christmas. In Melbourne, "Carols by Candlelight" is held each Christmas Eve. Performers at the concerts including opera singers and 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.

Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker" was first performed on December 17th 1892, and has come to be a Christmas tradition. It is performed more frequently at Christmas than at any other time of the year.

Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki extensively quotes the Christmas carol Silent Night in his Second Symphony, nicknamed the Christmas Symphony.

In Austria, Belgium and Germany, children dress up as "The Three Kings" and carry an imitation star on a pole. They go from house to house from New Year's day to January 6th, and sing religious songs. The children are called "Star singers". If they are rewarded with sweets, they may eat them. If they are rewarded with money, it is given to a Catholic church or to a charity. They put a chalk mark "C.M.B" 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).

"Ça, Bergers, assemblons nous" is from the 16th century, and was sung aboard Jacques Cartier's ship on Christmas Day 1535. Perhaps the best known traditional French carol is "Il est né, le divin Enfant!", which comes from Provencal. In 1554 "La Grande Bible des Noels" was printed, in several versions in Orleans. It was a collection of French carols. "Chants de Noels anciens et nouveau" (1703) was printed by Christophe Ballard (1641 - 1715) in Paris.

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.

1. ^ http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9020427/carol
2. ^ http://www.wgbh.org/carols
3. ^ http://www.wgbh.org/pages/pri/spirit
4. ^ http://renaissonics.com/h/index.html

• List of Christmas carols
• Carol of the Old Ones
• Christmas music

• The Hymns and Carols of Christmas a comprehensive and scholarly site
• Illegal hymns
• Early carols
• Hark The Herald Angels Sing
• The Boar's Head Carol
• Star singers
• A Tudor Christmas
• Carols for Dancing
• Christmas Tunes Information on Christmas Carols
• ChristmasCarolMusic.org free SATB sheet music for voices and all instruments
• Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern complete 1833 book by William Sandys
• Christmas Carols and Singing Greeting Tags
• The Salvation Army Carols at Christmas
• Scandinavian Yuletide Voices Christmas Carols from Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark
• Favorite Christmas Carols (lyrics and scores)
• Easybyte - free easy piano arrangements of many Christmas carols
• Some traditional Christmas carols from county of Nice, France.
• Jingle bell's fantasy (harp and flute)
• Christmas carols by ICA kids [high bitrate mp3 downloads]

v • d • e Christmas
Main	History • The Nativity • Bringers of gifts • Decorations • Economics • Customs • Arts and media
Christianity	Nativity of Jesus • Nativity scene • Jesus • Mary • Joseph • Archangel Gabriel • Three Wise Men • Adoration of the shepherds • Star of Bethlehem • King Herod • Massacre of the Innocents • Saint Nicholas Day • Twelfth Night • Epiphany (Christian) • Advent • Christmastide
Folklore	Father Christmas • Saint Nicholas • Santa Claus • Mrs. Claus • Santa Claus' reindeer • Elves • North Pole • Other characters
Traditions	Twelve Days of Christmas • Christmas tree • Wassailing • Yule log • Stockings • Ornaments • Lights • Christmas cards • Christmas markets • Plants • Food • Feasts • Events • Traditions by country: Philippine, Polish, Worldwide
Media	Fiction • Films • Plays • Television: Episodes, Specials • Music: Albums, Hit singles and tracks, Carols, Other Christmas music and songs
Society	Christmas controversy • Christmas creep • Christmas truce • Language • Black Friday • White Christmas • Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004 • Related holidays • List of winter festivals