Today is Advent Sunday. The church season of Advent always has 4 Sundays, so depending on what day of the week Christmas day falls on, the first Sunday of Advent is often in November. I tend to think of it as an excuse for extra chocolate and burning the top bit of the advent candle that’s always blank.
So here’s an ‘extra’ post on top of the 25 daily posts that should be appearing here during December as a sort of advent calendar of Christmas carols. I'm afraid I'm not qualified to examine the music in detail, but there will be a bit about the historical context and the meaning- if any- of the lyrics. Some will be more serious than others.
Carols aren’t exclusive to Christmas, being a traditional musical form with sacred or secular lyrics for singing at all times of the year, but most of the ones that have survived in popular use are Christmas carols (or at least sung at Christmas). Most seem either to have been published in the 19th century, designed to be used as hymns for church services (not necessarily just for Christmas) or early in the 20th, as part of the general trend among the richer classes for collecting traditional folk songs and prettying them up. A few have roots that go back much further, e.g. to medieval mystery plays. Others are still being written. Some are simple retellings of the nativity story (The First Nowell, for example), or of one part of it (We three kings). Others put that story into the context of humanity’s relationship to God in Christian theology (This is the truth, see 5th December). Some call for a response, in terms of praise (O come all ye faithful) or challenge us to think about how we live our lives (It came upon a midnight clear, In the bleak midwinter).
You may not agree with or like everything I'm going to write, and that's fine. Treat it as an academic exercise in understanding a text, if you like, or as if you were analysing a fictional society. But as someone who enjoys singing I find it helpful to try to understand what is meant by the words, even if I don't agree with it. So please think about it and have a (non-public) chat if you'd like me to clarify anything.
In times before widespread literacy, singing was one way to educate people what they were supposed to believe, so it’s easy to see why setting theology to music might appeal. Tunes were often borrowed from other popular songs- Methodist hymnbooks today still often give a choice of tunes for hymns in case the congregation or organist don’t know the ‘official’ one (although this can produce some odd results).
Choosing only 25 out of the dozens- probably hundreds- available was hard, especially as friends made many suggestions, including some I wasn’t familiar with. Sorry if yours didn’t make it! Maybe next year...
To round that up, here’s one of the carols I couldn’t fit in: the ‘Carol of the Bells’ is based on the music of a Ukranian folk song about New Year (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shchedryk_(song)) although with different lyrics in English, published by Peter J. Wilhousky in 1936 (though the musical arrangement by Mykola Leontovych dates to 1916).
Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0uGnm3dGvc
Bet that’s stuck in your head for the rest of the day now. Sorry.
Actually I’m not sorry.
