Posted on 12/10/2007 10:37:26 AM PST by NYer
The carol, as a religious song for a particular season, dates back to the 13th century but it hit glory days during the next century gaining widespread popularity. Over the following hundred years the carol developed musically and as a literary form in its own right, but was silenced by the Reformation in England and replaced by the metrical Psalm. A resurgence of carols in the 18th century has helped them become the sine qua non of the Christmas season.
‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ was penned in 1739 by Charles Wesley, whose brother John founded the Methodist church.The original title was “Hark how all the welkin rings / Glory to the King of Kings”, welkin meaning ‘the heavens’. Wesley is said to have thought of the hymn while listing to church bells one Christmas day. Originally set to slow and sombre music, Felix Mendelssohn composed the tune sung today in 1840 to commemorate Gutenberg’s printing press. The lyrics were adapted to ‘Hark the herald angels sing’ by William H Cummings in 1855, to fit Mendelssohn’s melody.
O Come All Ye Faithful, is popularly thought to have been written by a 13th-century saint. But the crescendoing carol, originally in Latin and entitled Adeste Fidelis, dates instead to 1743. It was written by John Francis Wade, a Roman Catholic who fled France during the Jacobean rebellion and worked as a music teacher in England. The carol was first translated into English in 1789 for use in the Protestant Church. There are almost 50 different English versions, the most well known was translated in 1841 by Frederick Oakeley an Anglican priest who wrote “Ye faithful, approach ye”. But after his conversion to Catholicism in 1845 Oakeley rewrote the opening lines as ‘O come all ye faithful / Joyfully triumphant.’
O Little Town of Bethlehem was written by Rev Phillips Brooks a Philidelphian vicar, after a horseback ride from Jerusalem to Bethlehem where he helped at Midnight Mass, in 1867. He wrote the following about the journey in 1865.
"I remember standing in the old church in Bethlehem, close to the spot where Jesus was born, when the whole church was ringing hour after hour with splendid hymns of praise to God, how again and again it seemed as if I could hear voices I knew well, telling each other of the Wonderful Night of the Saviour's birth."
The tune ‘Forest Green’ was adapted for the carol by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Away in a Manger, the Nativity play favourite, was first printed anonymously in the Lutheran book, Little Children’s Book for Schools and Families in 1885. Verse three was added by John T McFarland, and the words were set to music composed by James Murray in Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses in 1887.
Silent Night has a disputed history. Traditionally the tale goes that Mohr and Gruber wrote it on Christmas Eve in Oberndorf, Austria when they found the church organ was eaten away by mice or rust, depending on which story you believe, and had to improvise with voices and a guitar. This charming account has been dispelled as folklore since the discovery of a manuscript that indicates Gruber wrote the score a few years after Mohr wrote the emotive lyrics in 1816. The carol apparently began its journey around the world when master organ builder Karl Mauracher, who had been working on the Oberndorf organ took a copy of it away with him. It is now translated into 150 languages. On Christmas Eve in 1915, from the trenches of World War One, the carol could apparently be heard coming from the German line.
Once in Royal David’s City was written in Hymns for Little Children by Mrs Cecil F. Alexander, the wife of the Bishop of Derry in 1848. The following year, Henry Gauntlett discovered the poem and set it to music.
While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night has an illustrious origin as the creation of Poet Laureate Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady in 1703 during the reign of Queen Anne. At that time only the Psalms were sung in the Anglican Church and Nahum and Tate were famous for paraphrasing them into rhyme to be sung. The melody of the carol comes from Handel’s opera ‘Siroe’.
In the Bleak Midwinter was written by poet Christina Rossetti for Scribner’s Monthly as their Christmas poem. There are many musical arrangements for the carol the most famous was composed by Gustav Holst in the early 20th century.
See Him Lying in a Bed of Straw is a relatively recent addition to the carol canon. Written by Michael Perry and arranged by Stephen Coates it’s a modern gospel carol that is becoming a classic.
Joy to the World is credited to Isaac Watts in 1719, who is known at the 'Father of English Hymnology'. The rousing music by Lowell Mason is said to have been inspired by Handel’s Messiah, in particular the refrain “And heaven and nature sing”.
Here are the top Carols being sung in churches across the country this year according to our poll.
Methodist
Evangelical
Baptist
Church of England
The Catholic Church in England and Wales Network and the Elim Pentecostal Church were unable to provide any details.
“Oh come all ye ambivalent” hardihar.
hahah, the Brutal one is INDEED brutal.
Not being a fan of Celine Dion, I do appreciate her rendition more than Renee Fleming’s, only because I’m not an opera fan.
What say you, Publius?
I take that back...Celine Dion slaughtered the last part of “O Holy Night.” I do not care for all that “up and down and up” again of the voice...what do you call that “technique” Publius?
Well, there are a ton to choose from, and I agree, I've heard better. But next to that "brutal" rendition, it was pretty good!
Celine Dion has a beautiful voice, and begins O Holy Night very nicely. But I realized while listening to her sing O Holy Night that she wouldn’t have the range to hit that high note in soprano because she is alto.
Something wrong with the rhythm of the 2nd stanza?? I can’t quite figure it out.
All of the other reindeer (all those who hated Jesus)
Used to laugh and call him names (nailed him to a cross)
They never let poor Rudolph (all those who truly loved Him)
Join in any reindeer games (Suffered their greatest loss)
Sorry, I was just going by memory. My wife actually came up with the lyrics and the kids sing it. Please feel free to take artistic license to adjust for minor rhythm problems. If you have any suggestions, just post them here.
My new favorite our choir is performing at the live Nativity Saturday:
Come Thou Fount, Come Thou King—(Thomas Miller)
Come Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above;
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it, mount of Thy redeeming love.
I was lost in utter darkness ‘til You came and rescued me;
I was bound by all my sin when Your love came and set me free;
Now my soul can sing a new song, now my heart has found a home;
Now Your grace is always with me, and I’ll never be alone—
Come, Thou Fount, come Thou King, come Thou Precious Prince of Peace.
Hear your bride, to you we sing, Come Thou Fount of our blessing.
Come, Thou Fount, come Thou King, come Thou precious Prince of Peace.
Hear your bride, to you we sing, Come Thou Fount of our blessing.
Oh to grace, how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be;
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter; bind my wandering heart to Thee;
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart Lord, take and seal it, for Thy courts above!
Come, Thou Fount, come Thou King, come Thou Precious Prince of Peace.
Hear your bride, to you we sing, Come Thou Fount of our blessing.
Come, Thou Fount, come Thou King, come Thou precious Prince of Peace.
Hear your bride, to you we sing, Come Thou Fount of our blessing.
I was lost in utter darkness ‘til You came and rescued me;
I was bound by all my sin when Your love came and set me free.
She nails the high notes alright, she cracked my computer screen.
Thanks.
I thought maybe I was forgetting a verse or singing it differently.
:>)
I don’t have a sound card, so I can’t listen to any of that stuff. I don’t have a favorite version of that carol. But I would expect Fleming to follow Adolph Adam’s notes and sing it in the original key. Beyond that I couldn’t say.
Am I the only one who can’t sing in church without crying? I am ALWAYS overcome with the beauty of hymns. I mean, I’m not breaking down sobbing, but there’s always a tear rolling down my cheek when I think of the heartfelt emotions put into writing a hymn in the first place. :)
O Holy Night is a glorious hymn.
Holy cow, this thread is alive again? LOL.
Thanks for bringing it alive.
Ping, all you crazy folks.
;o) hee hee
“I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day” by H.W. Longfellow.
All the verses together tell a story, and I especially like this next-to-last verse:
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”
I saw the Boston Pops Holiday Concert this weekend. They did an amazing arrangement of The Twelve Days of Christmas. For each day, they changed the tune/style of music. The one that sticks out in my mind is the fifth day, which was sung to the music of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
I LOVE that version! We saw them on Christmas Eve last year. No one wanted that song to end - which is unusual because normally we’d be gouging out our eardrums halfway through that song.
I seem to remember one of the verses sung to Bohemian Rhapsody or another Queen song.
Where’s “Santa Baby”?
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