Singing Christmas carols in the streets is still a tradition in some parts of this country although its has been reduced in significance as young children falteringly sing at your front door \u2018We wish you a merry Christmas\u2019\u2019 in the hope that you will part with some money to increase their pre-Christmas funds. \u2018How about singing a Christmas carol\u2019 I said to a couple yesterday. \u2018We don\u2019t know any\u2019 they replied.<\/p>\n
The word carol came from a Greek dance called a choraulein, which was originally accompanied by flute music. The dance later spread throughout Europe and became especially popular with the French, who in time replaced the flute music with singing. People originally performed carols on several occasions during the year. By the 1600’s, carols involved singing only, and Christmas became the main occasion for singing them, and the birth of Jesus their subject.<\/p>\n
Most of the popular carols we sing today were originally composed in the 1700’s and 1800’s although often the music goes back to earlier times. The words of the famous carol \u00abSilent Night\u00bb are said to have been written on Christmas Eve in 1818 in Oberndorf, Bavaria. The church organ had broken down and the town was snowbound. The Parish Church\u2019s pastor, Joseph Mohr, wrote the lyrics that evening and handed them to organist Franz Gruber, who composed the original melody for two voices and choir with guitar accompaniment. Just in time for midnight mass! By 1955, \u00abSilent Night\u00bb had apparently become the most recorded song of all time, though some pop groups may have beaten them since.<\/p>\n
\u00abSome of the imagery in carols have pagan roots, as in Northern Europe, Christmas itself has. \u2018The Holly and the Ivy\u2019, is an example, where nearly all of the imagery deals with themes of birth and rebirth. The carol \u00abWhat Child Is This?\u00bb is another. The melody is from the Tudor tune \u00abGreensleeves,\u00bb which once featured bawdy lyrics filled with anything but religious imagery. In 1865, William Dix, an Englishman, wrote \u00abThe Manger Throne,\u00bb and the verses evolved into \u00abWhat Child Is This?\u00bb<\/p>\n
For many of us Christmas can\u2019t be Christmas without carols, and many if not most of the churches in the U.K. will celebrate the oncoming festival with services devoted to carols old and new.<\/p>\n
B.R.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Singing Christmas carols in the streets is still a tradition in some parts of this country although its has been reduced in significance as young children falteringly sing at your front door \u2018We wish you a merry Christmas\u2019\u2019 in the hope that you will part with some money to increase their pre-Christmas funds. \u2018How about singing a Christmas carol\u2019 I said to a couple yesterday. \u2018We don\u2019t know any\u2019 they replied. The word carol came from a Greek dance called a choraulein, which was originally accompanied by flute music. The dance later spread throughout Europe and became especially popular with <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\n