The seasonal songs popular in western music, especially in conjunction with the Christmas season, known as carols, have a rich and complex history full of tradition and controversy in the realms of both sacred and secular music. The concept of singing carols to celebrate holidays developed during the 13 th century in France, although what was to be known as carol music had been around from centuries earlier. It is believed that when troubadour Saint Francis of Assisi had made the first Greccio crib, he began to sing songs honoring the Nativity and the joy of celebration in religion, for this was a strict Puritanical era wherein communal singing, drama, and any type of festivity was looked down upon in the first place, and absolutely abhorred in religion. The concept of singing these carols gained popularity throughout Europe towards the end of Puritan reign and the growth of the Mystery Play throughout the 14 th and 15 th centuries.
The Mystery Plays were dramatic pieces celebrating the birth of Christ. The basic plainsong and antiphon of the time were lacking the drama required by these performances, and soon religious songs for these performances were being written in the vernacular for these plays. The still popular English ‘Coventry Carol’ dates back to this period. By the end of the 15 th century, carols had begun to stand on their own as anonymous pieces of music, and were dung on almost all religious feast days, including Christmas, Easter, and throughout the Spring in celebration of the peoples emancipation from Puritanism. As mentioned earlier, the music that these early carols were based on dates back to the 9 th and 10 th centuries Medieval period, where it was used as dance music. The word carol itself is derived form the Latin ‘chor aula,’ which was a monophonic ring dance accompanied by singing during the Medieval era.
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The form of the early carols followed the binary structure of these dances. It consisted of the stanza, which was basically a verse, and was used as a resting point for the dancers, and the burden, which was a theme repeated at the beginning and ending of each piece as well as between each stanza. It expressed a sort of summary of the music, and was the time for the dancers to really swing. Another early form of the traditional carol was based upon the English ballad. The ballad was a narrative poem set to music to be sung in a group under a leader. Carols like ‘The Cherry Tree Carol’, and ‘The Carnal and the Crane’ were written in this style, in which their main purpose is to retell a popular, often Biblical, story.
The people of this time had grown to think vividly of Bible stories, and this narrative style employed in the ballad carols kept their interest. Other important forms of the carol that developed during the 15 th century were the carol par excellence and the macaronic carol. The carol par excellence flourished between 1430 and 1460, and was verse written in a lilting rhythm solely for the purpose of singing, rather than to tell a story or add to drama like most previous carols. It consisted of both a verse and a refrain. The macaronic carol took Latin text form well-known office hymns and interspersed catchy phrases in the vernacular such as ‘Make we joy’ throughout the piece. The familiarity of the text appealed to anyone that attended church, which was almost everyone in living in Western Europe at this time.
Almost all of these early carols were written in the common Latin metre of eight syllables per line, known as a one-rime iambic tercet, plus a refrain. This is evident with the exception of a few extra syllables in ‘The First Nowell.’ But as the carols progressed and flourished throughout the 16 th century, the ordinary ballad metre and common time were used more often. The simple single monophonic lines developed into three-part polyphony, although the music did remain relatively simple. And in 1521 the first printed collection of carols was issued by Wynkyn de Worde, containing one of the popular Boar’s Head Carols. In 1550 Richard Kel e reprinted de Worde’s collection as Christmas Carols Newly Imprinted, which is the first surviving manuscript containing these early carols. Unfortunately the Reformation that swept Europe in the 17 th century put a severe damper on the growth of the carol.
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In fact, the carol was almost lost altogether during this harsh era. The regulations of the church gradually increased in asperity, and 1647 brought a ban on all religious festival in England, as issued by the Puritan Parliament. Carols were still written, but they were teeming with pathos and lacked the beauty and spirit of their predecessors. Insipid mediocrity was present in most all of the carols dated from this period, and throughout the 18 th century as well. Very few have even survived, although they continued to be printed in Poor Robin’s Almanack form 1663-1776. The two carols that have gained recognition and renown from this era are ‘Hark! the Herald Angels’ and ‘While Shepherds Watched.’ The older carols survived this period amongst the common people orally through folk music and text printed on broadsheet.
The 19 th century brought about an enormous decline in the popularity of carols that ultimately led to their final revival and restoration. Although there was little composition of new carols, as it was said to have been a period of poor musicianship and intelligence within realm of religious-based music by Sir Henry Hadow, there was much printing and collecting of older material that eventually gained back notoriety and glory for the carol. The first half of the century saw many vain attempts at reviving the carol. William Sandys and Davies Gilbert were avid patrons of the carol and published Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern in 1833 and Collection of Christmas in 1823, yet public interest was not sparked.
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Sandys and Gilbert themselves expressed bleak outlooks on the future of carols in their publications, although they did not deter their efforts. This period also threatened the loss of the carol’s true meaning. Poor quality Christmas hymns, which were somber and distasteful songs written for church celebration of the Christmas season were being printed under the title of Christmas carols, and by the late 1840’s the term ‘carol’ merely meant any printed poem or piece of music associated with Christmas. Even the broadsheets began to decrease in quality as more and more solemn, didactic, and dull Christmas hymns were being printed and circulating in the place of the original carols. Both the wealthy and common class people had begun to forget and neglect the original concept of a carol. But not everyone gave up hope.
A small book was published around 1839 by J. Guest, called A New Carol Book, containing invaluable reprints of carols such ‘Hark! the herald angels,’ ‘God rest you merry,’ and ‘The holly and the ivy.’ And in 1869 ‘The Leisure Hour,’ a British magazine, printed an article on the popularity of broadsheet music and reprinted a bunch of older carol music, including ‘God rest you merry.’ It was during this period also that the Oxford Movement, called so due to the location of it’s central activities, or carol revival, took off. A group of intellectuals including Bishop Percy, Sir Walter Scott, and Thomas Wright among others continued to collect and print the old traditional carols. Their labors were mirrored by the ever diligent Gilbert and Sandys They established scholarly foundations solely for this purpose, the most successful being the Percy Society. Eventually musicians, the clergy, and other educated scholars began to rediscover the carol. Although much of the revival work was centered in England, one of the most significant carol collections arrived form Sweden.
Entitled Pipe Canciones, this manuscript contained some of the most beautiful 16 th century carol tunes, and was reprinted in England by Rev. Neale and Rev. Hel more. It’s foreign antiquity caught the attention and admiration of the general public, and special editions were published for church use. Finally, the carol was coming back to life. In 1871 Bramley and Stainer published Christmas Carols Old and New, which was to become the sole most popular and well-loved collection of carols throughout history and is still in use today.
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It became invaluable to the clergy, and inspired the publication of dozens of imitative collections, although none equaled it in fame. By the last decade of the 19 th century, the better carol music had been weeded out form the worse, and it began to be collected in a more systematic fashion. Countries throughout Europe began to amass their old carol folk songs into collections of national music. An innumerable number of old carol tunes that were hidden in the memory of old country folk were rediscovered and published for the first time. Today Christmas remains the most popular season to celebrate with carols. America has birthed her own collection of Christmas carols, although one will find these more modern 20 th century carols to have much less of a connection with religion, if any at all, than the older European carols.
A wide variety of carols form various geographic areas and eras continue to be sung by choirs and vocal ensembles, in churches, and for various forms of entertainment. There have even been instrumental arrangements and contemporary renditions of many of the older carols. Although in many ways the carol has been modernized, especially in the American culture, the beautiful simplicity and antiquity of the music, as well as the remarkable history and tradition they imply, cannot be ignored.
