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Duke University
Medical Center
Intercom
VOL. 24, NO. 50
DEC. 23, 1977
DURHAM, N.C.
Carols may be as old as Christmas
By Earl Wolslagel
Duke NevVs Bureau
The Christmas carol, as much a part of
the American heritage at this season as
the Christmas tree, tinsel, holly, gift-
giving and Santa Claus, has been with us
for hundreds of years. In fact, singing at
Yuletide goes back to the earliest
centuries of Christianity;
Some people contend that the first
carol was that of the choir of angels
singing "Glory to God in the highest and
on earth peace to men of good will," in the
Biblical story of Christmas.
Perhaps the earliest of still-surviving
folk customs, carol singing is practiced,
with understandable differences, in some
form or another by Christian peoples in
nearly every land on earth, according to
reference librarians at Perkins Library.
Many are overused
Many "traditional", carols sung and
heard nowadays are overused and "in the
process of popularization from cathedral
to shopping center have become tired and
worn out," according to Dr. Waldo Beach,
a professor in the Divinity School.
Beach singles out such "hit" carols as
"Silent Night," "O Little Town of
Bethlehem," and "Hark, the Herald
Angels Sing."
An authority in the field of Christian
ethics. Beach has made a study of the
Christmas carol over a period of many
years. His hobby is collecting rare and
unusual carols.
Shares discoveries
Each year. Beach invites friends "with
good voices and the genuine spirit of the
season" to his home to sing each year's
new finds — and some old favorites — a
practice that has led to the publication of a
whole new group of "beautiful and
ecstatic new carols," he says.
Many of Beach's discoveries are
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Intercom on holiday
Because of the holidays. Intercom will not
be published next week. The next issue
will be available Friday, Jan. 6.
A holiday edition of Heartbeat will be
published Wednesday, Dec. 28.
included in his anthology, "Christmas
Wonder," published by Fortress Press.
Beach declares that the earliest
Christmas music was not really the
"carol," but the "plainsong" of about the
12th century. Unlike carols, plainsong
more often follows the free rhythm of
prose rather than verse.
Plainsong is still sung in Roman
Catholic services, but it is sung in unison
and without the harmonization of other
voices.
Into the vernacular
At the time of the Reformation, when
religious ideas were being translated
away from the Latin and the formal
setting of the church, the tradition of
carol singing, most of it at Christmas —
but also at Easter, Epiphany and on other
holy days — grew strong.
"A nice myth," Beach says, is that
Martin Luther, the great Reformation
leader, was responsible for "Away in a
Manger," one of the great carols sung
widely in America and England.
There is no convincing evidence that
Luther had anything to do with this
particular carol. Beach said. Rather, there
is strong belief that it originated among
German Lutherans in Pennsylvania,
perhaps in mid-19th century, and was
later popularized in England.
iContinucd on page 4)
'TIS THE SEASON—Speech and Hearing Center personnel put up a tree
in the waiting room and decorated the walb to help spread a little
Christmat cheer. Patient Allen Whitehurst is>caught taking a close look
at the tree ornaments. (Photo ty Parker Herring)