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HOLIDAY Song Treasures
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November 2012
A special publication of the I75 Newspaper Group Troy Daily News • Sidney Daily News Piqua Daily Call
November 2012 • • Page 2
The history of Christmas Carols Carols were first sung in Europe thousands of years ago, but these were not Christmas Carols. They were pagan songs, sung at the Winter Solstice celebrations as people danced round stone circles. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, usually taking place around the 22nd December. The word Carol actually means dance or a song of praise and joy! Carols used to be written and sung during all four seasons, but only the tradition of singing them at Christmas has really survived! Early Christians took over the pagan solstice celebrations for Christmas and gave people Christian songs to sing instead of pagan ones. In AD 129, a Roman Bishop said that a song called 'Angel's Hymn' should be sung at a Christmas service in Rome. Another famous early Christmas Hymn was written, in 760AD, by Comas of Jerusalem for the Greek Orthodox Church. Soon after this many composers all over Europe started to write carols. However, not many people liked them as they were all written and sung in Latin, a language that the normal people couldn't understand. By the time of the Middles Ages (the 1200s), most people had lost interest in celebrating Christmas altogether. This was changed by St. Francis of Assisi when, in 1223, he started his Nativity Plays in Italy. The people in the plays sang songs or 'canticles' that told the story during the plays. Sometimes, the choruses of these new carols were in Latin; but normally they were all in a language that the people watching the play could understand and join in! The new carols spread to France, Spain, Germany and other European countries. 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 dif-
ferent 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'. When Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans came to power in England in 1647, the celebration of Christmas and singing carols was stopped. However, the carols survived as people still sang them in secret. Carols remained mainly unsung until Victorian times, when two men called William Sandys and Davis Gilbert collected lots of old Christmas music from villages in England. Before carol singing in public became popular, there were sometimes official carol singers called 'Waits'. These were bands of people led by important local leaders (such as council leaders) who had the only power in the towns and villages to take money from the public (If others did this, they were sometimes charged as beggars!). They were called
'Waits' because they only sang on Christmas Eve (This was sometimes known as 'watchnight' or 'waitnight' because of the shepherds were watching their sheep when the angels appeared to them.), when the Christmas celebrations began. Also, at this time, 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. Many new carols,such as 'Good King Wenceslas', were also written . New carols services were created and became popular, as did the custom of singing carols in the streets. Both of these customs are still popular today! One of the most popular types of Carols services are Carols by Candlelight services. At this service, the church is only lit by candlelight and it feels very Christmassy! Carols by Candlelight services are held in countries all over the world. Perhaps the most famous carol service, is the service of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College in Cambridge, UK. This service takes place on Christmas Eve and is broadcast live on BBC Radio (and all over the world). In my house, we listen to it and it means Christmas has really started!! The Service was first performed in 1918 as a way of the college celebrating the end of the First World War. It is always started with a single choir boy singing a solo of the first verse of the Carol 'Once in Royal David's City'. Sing along to Once in Royal David's City! (on a different site) A service of Nine Lessons and Carols, has nine bible readings (or lessons!) that tell the Christmas story with one or two carols between each lesson. Sometimes you get carol services which are a combination of nine lessons and carols and carols by candlelight! So you have nine lessons and carols by candlelight!
November 2012 • • Page 3
Silent Night
The original lyrics for the song in German, "Stille Nacht", was written by Joseph Mohr and the melody was composed by Franz X. Gruber. It is said that there exist over 300 translations of the song in the world. 180 years ago the carol "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht" was heard for the first time in a village church in Oberndorf, Austria. The congregation at that Midnight Mass in St. Nicholas Church listened as the voices of the assistant pastor, Fr. Joseph Mohr, and the choir director, Franz Xaver Gruber, rang through the church to the accompaniment of Fr. Mohr's guitar. On each of the six verses, the choir repeated the last two lines in fourpart harmony. On that Christmas Eve, a song was born that would wing its way into the hearts of people throughout the world. Now translated into hundreds of languages, it is sung by untold millions every December from small chapels in the Andes to great cathedrals in Antwerp and Rome. You can read claims that "Silent Night" was sung on Christmas Eve in 1818 and then forgotten by its creators. Of course, the latter are easily discounted by manuscript arrangements of the carol by both Mohr and Gruber which were produced at various times between 1820 and 1855.
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November 2012 • • Page 4
Feliz Navidad
"Feliz Navidad" is a Christmas song written in 1970 by the Puerto Rican singer-songwriter JosĂŠ Feliciano. With its simple Spanish chorus (the traditional Christmas/New Year greeting, "Feliz Navidad, prĂłspero aĂąo y felicidad" or "Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year" and equally simple English verse "I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart", it has become a classic Christmas pop song in the United States, the Philippines, Canada and throughout the Spanish-speaking world. Feliciano's version of "Feliz Navidad" (in which he plays both an acoustic guitar and a Puerto Rican cuatro) is one of the most downloaded and aired Christmas songs in the United States and Canada. The addition of the horns as a final touch was the idea of producer Rick Jarrard. It was also recognized by ASCAP as one of the top 25 most played and recorded Christmas songs around the world. "Feliz Navidad" has been covered by many other artists including Celine Dion, David Hasselhoff, Moby (on his album Moby Presents: Alien Sex Party), El Vez, Jon Secada, Fenix TX, Home Grown, the ska-punk band Voodoo Glow Skulls, the Von Trapp Children, Anca Parghel, The Wiggles, 1910 Fruitgum Company, and Michael BublĂŠ.
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November 2012 • • Page 5
Jingle Bells
Ok - this is one great story: brace yourself. Jingle Bells is not a Christmas song. It's the 19th Century equivalent of "Little Deuce Coupe." Written by James Pierpont in 1857, (Republished in 1859) it memorializes the 'Cutter' drag races in Boston, where spiffed out sleighs would race between Medford and Malden Squares, and the drivers would try to pick up the local chickies. Young James was a rogue; he abandoned his family several times, took up arms for the Confederacy (his father was a Boston Abolitionist minister), and, after his first wife died, he abandoned his children to take another wife, who may or may not have already been pregnant with Pierpont's child. He was living the fast times in the horse and buggy days, but if you really look hard, you'll see that Rock and Roll was out there, even before it had a beat.
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November 2012 • • Page 6
Deck The Halls
The music to Deck the Halls is believed to be Welsh in origin and was reputed to have come from a tune called "Nos Galan" dating back to the sixteenth century. In the eighteenth century Mozart used the tune to Deck the Halls for a violin and piano duet J.P. McCaskey is sometimes credited with the lyrics of Deck the Halls but he only edited the Franklin Square Song Collection in which the lyrics were first published. The first publication date of Deck the Halls is 1881. The author is unknown but the words are said to originate in America.
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November 2012 • • Page 7
Away In A Manger
Although some believe this carol was penned by Martin Luther, German religious reformer and author of a number of beautiful hymns, it is almost certainly of late- 19th century American origin. Verses 1 and 2 appeared anonymously in Little Children’s Book for Schools and Families, by J. C. File, Philadelphia, 1885, and verse 3 is by John Thomas McFarland (1851-1913). The tune given here is that most used in England, the 'Cradle song' by American Gospel song writer W. J. Kirkpatrick (1838-21). Another popular tune for it in the U.S.A. is 'Mueller', probably written by James R. Murray, 1887.
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November 2012 • • Page 8
The First Noel
The word Noel is Old French and comes from the Latin word Natalis, meaning birth or birthday. Related words are found in many languages around the world. Nowell in Old English, Natal in Spanish, Natale in Italian, Nadal in Provencal. These were expressions of great joy, originally shouted or sung to commemorate the birth of Christ. Although the music and lyrics are traditional, the words first appeared in English print in a collection of William Sandys in 1833. Most experts believe it is originally from 16th or 17th century France. Others (apparently struck by the Three Wise Men's politeness to a foreigner) contend it couldn't possibly be French, and has English roots.
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November 2012 • • Page 9
Hark the Herald Angels
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Charles Wesley (his brother, John Wesley, founded the Methodist church) is credited with authoring over 3,000 hymns. The lyrics to Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (1739) is one of them. Actually, what he wrote is "Hark how all the welkin rings/Glory to the King of Kings." ("Welkin" means, apparently, "heaven".) A colleague, the Calvinist Whitfield, substituted the familiar opening line over the protests of the author. Thank welkin for Whitfield. The celebratory music used in "Hark! The Herald Angel Sings" is from the second chorus of a cantata by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) written in 1840 to commemorate Johan Gutenberg and the invention of printing. William Cummings, in 1855, ignored both of their wishes totally. Being dead by that time, neither one had a snappy comeback. So as the welkin rang with protests of "You got Mendelssohn in my Wesley!", and "You got Wesley in my Mendelssohn!", Cummings had synthesized a Christmas song for the ages without doing a lick of work on his own part.
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November 2012 • • Page 10
Oh Come All Ye Faithful
By the eighteenth century, Adeste Fideles was popular in Germany and France. There it was called "The Midnight Mass," because monks changed it into a Christmas Eve processional. In the early eighteenth century, it was possibly used by wealthy French Catholic families in their private chapels. In 1751, Wade was back in Lancashire, but he appears to have lived primarily in Douai. He died there on August 16, 1786, at the age of 75. The hymn has been translated into English many times. The earliest known, from 1789, opened with "Come, faithful all, rejoice and sing." By 1892, there were over 38 translations according to John Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology. William Studwell estimated almost 50 translations by the late 1990s. But the most popular is that by an English priest: Frederick Oakeley was born September 5, 1802, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. His father was Charles Oakeley, governor of Madras. Oakeley attended Christ Church, Oxford, and took Holy Orders with the Church of England in 1828. By 1839, he was preaching at the Margaret Street Chapel, London. It was there in 1841 that Rev. Oakeley translated the Latin hymn Adeste Fideles into English. Originally, the first line was "Ye faithful, approach ye." 2337509
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A Tannenbaum is a fir tree (die Tanne) or Christmas tree (der Weihnachtsbaum). Although most Christmas trees today are Fichten (spruce) rather than Tannen, the qualities of the evergreen have inspired musicians to write several “Tannenbaumâ€? songs in German over the years. The best known version (above) was penned in 1824 by a Leipzig organist named Ernst AnschĂźtz. The melody is an old folk tune. The first known “Tannenbaumâ€? song lyrics date back to 1550. A similar 1615 song by Melchior Franck (1573-1639) goes: “Ach Tannebaum, ach Tannebaum, du bist ein edler Zweig! Du grĂźnest uns den Winter, die lieben Sommerzeit.â€? - The English version above is a literal translation by your Guide, not the traditional English lyrics for the song. There are at least a dozen English versions of this carol.
November 2012 • • Page 12
Angels We Have Heard On High The words of the song are based on a traditional French carol known as Les Anges dans nos campagnes (literally, "Angels in our countryside") composed by an unknown author in Languedoc, France. That song has received many adjustments or alignments including its most common English version that was translated in 1862 by James Chadwick, the Roman Catholic bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, north east England.
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igns of the season are all around, and that means it's time to express our appreciation to all of our neighbors and friends. We hope you enjoy this special time surrounded by the ones you love, and hope the coming year brings lots of glad tidings your way.
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