Christmas Music Through The Ages
New York (NAPS) - Call
ed noels in France, le pas
toral! in Italy and Weihnacht
slieder in Germany, carols are
everywhere the welcomed
sound of Christmas. Groups
of friends and relatives
gathered around a piano as
they sing Christmas carols are
a twentieth-century tradition.
Yet few of those who hear
and sing them know their
surprising history - a tale well
worth giving ear to.
When was the first carol
sung? Scholars think caroling
probably began in the early
church when Nativity plays,
accompanied by songs of joy,
told the story of Christ's
birth. One of the earliest
choruses of praise, gloria in
exceUis deo (glory to God in
the highest) is still sung by
cprolers at Christmas time.
Early Latin-speaking worship
pers must' have shouted it
forth with a magna vox (also
Latin, for "great voice").
Though many people
don't realize it, carols were
originally connected not only
with song but with dance:
The Old French word carole
meant "a ring dance accom
panied by song." An English
carol dating from 1350 has a
refrain which refers to a
round dance: "Honnd by
honnd we schulle ous take
and joye and blisse schulle we
make."
Early carol composers
didn't confine themselves to
Christmas themes - a collec
tion of Carolles Newly Im
printed (1550) contained
more Crucifixion than Nativi
ty carols! On the other hand,
quite a few carols of this time
were not sacred in mood, but
simply light-hearted invita
tions to feasting and toasting.
The Boar's Head carol, a big
hit in 16th century England
and still sung annually by the
students of Queen's College,
Oxford, actually celebrates
the course of a Christmas
dinner, in these words: "The
boar's head in hand bear I;
Kedeck'd with bays and rose
mary. And I pray you mas
ters, be-merry...."
The custom of outdoor
carol singing is many hun
dreds of years old. It seems to
have started in the Middle
Ages when groups of people
went from house to house to
sing by torchlight.
Yet despite these joyous
beginnings, the Christmas
carol eventually ran into
some rough weather. As the
Puritan influence grew strong,
carols became gloomy and
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grim; finally the Puritans
made it a crime even to print
them or sing them publicly!
After Puritanism waned in
England, carols made a come
back - but in the 17th and
18th centuries were con
sidered a rustic, socially in
ferior form of song! By 1882,
a writer named William Hone
was predicting that carols
were dying out and in a few
years' time would be heard
no more!
Even as he spoke, a new
upsurge of interest in carols
was beginning. Today, Christ
mas carolers enjoy the music
all the more when they ex
perience the excellent tone of
a fine piano. These instru
ments, like the songs them
selves, are enduring. The
Baldwin piano, for example,
uses only selected solid
spruce for its sound board.
The plate - of grey cast iron
- withstands the tremendous,
continual tension of the
strings and provides the
necessary extreme rigidity for
the tone-producing elements.
Baldwin pianos - both old
and new - can last a lifetime.
When you hear your fav
orite carols sung in church,
outside your window; or on a
precision phonograph, can
you tell which of them are
ancient and which are com
paratively recent?
Some authorities think
that The Twelve Days of
Christmas originally belonged
not to Christmas but to the
turn of the year; its roots
may go far back into pagan
times. Good King Wenceslaus,
a British favorite, was bor
rowed from a Swedish song
book of 1582. God Rest Ye
Merry, Gentlemen, may also
date back to the 16th cen
tury. Some say Adeste Fi
deles was composed by St.
Bonaventure before 1274 -
but the earliest surviving man
uscript is dated 1790 and
signed by John Francis Wade,
a music dealer in France.
Joy to the World was
taken from a hymn written in
1719 by Isacca Watts: its cur
rent music was adapted from
Handel's Messiah. John Wesly
wrote Hark the Herald Angels
Sing in 1737; its musical ac
companiment was adapted in
1855 from one of Men
delssohn's works. O Little
Town of Bethlehem is less
than 100 years old; it was
written in 1868 by Phillips
? ? ? 1
Brooks.
The most beloved carol of .
all -- Silent Night ?? has an j
interesting story behind it. '
According to information
supplied by Baldwin re- i
searchers, it was hastily writ- I
ten in 1818 by an Austrian '
parish priest, Joseph Mohr, as
a surprise for his parishioners, <
Mohr feared they would be
disappointed when they
learned that the church organ j
had broken down! He took '
the poem to his friend,
church organist Franz
Gruber, who completed the j
famous melody in a few 1
hours. At midnight mass that
evening, the two of them sang i
the masterpiece -- to a guitar j
accompaniment.
Some of the most popular
Christmas music of all times J
has been composed in the {
20th century. The greatest
seller of any phonograph rec
ord to date is Irving Berlin's ]
White Christmas; first record- 1
ed in 1942, it had sold ;
40,000,000 copies as of De- .
cember 31st, 1963 - and is I
still going strong. The Little '
Drummer Boy is another re
cent record best-seller lhat 1
promises to become a Christ- J
mas classic.
Ancient and traditional or 1
up-to-the-minute modern, I
Christmas songs play a vital |
role in setting the mood of '
the season. For after all, " j
'Til the season to be jolly." ji
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