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Tracing the origins of Christmas music



Christmas music has returned for the season, and we will hear it for the next three weeks or so wherever we go and wherever we listen. I knew the background story of  “Silent Night,” but that’s about the only carol with whose origins I was familiar. Research turns up some surprising and unusual material about the origins of some of our other familiar carols. 

“Good King Wenceslas,” for instance, honors the good deeds of a 10th Century Duke of Bohemia, named Wenceslas (Vaclav in Czech). He became duke at the age of 13, and upon reaching age 18 he terminated the regency and assumed control of the government.

Rick Morain

Wenceslas ruled Bohemia for the next several years, whereupon his younger brother, the aptly-called Boleslav the Cruel, assassinated him at the too-young age of 28. Wenceslas was a strong defender of the Christian faith, and legends about him soon sprouted. It was said that every night, barefooted, he visited churches, giving alms to widows, orphans, and prisoners.

Because of his piety, the Holy Roman Emperor posthumously conferred on him the honorary title of  “king”, hence the term “Good King Wenceslas.” Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1997.

The carol about him has a complex origin. The words were written in 1853 by John Mason Neale, an English hymnwriter. But the melody goes back to a 13th Century carol first published in a Finnish songbook in 1582. 

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” bears even more ancient origins. It was first recited in Latin within 8th or 9th Century monasteries. That same Englishman, John Mason Neale, published the first English translation of the text in 1851. Very soon his countryman Thomas Helmore paired Neale’s translation with the tune we know, which dates from the 15th Century in France.

The hymn’s message seems in a sense more Jewish than Christian, calling for the ransom of Israel “that mourns in lonely exile here/Until the Son of God appear.” In that vein, Emmanuel seems more like the Jewish concept of a Messiah, a savior and liberator figure. But “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” remains a beloved Christmas carol to Christians.

“God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” supposedly dates from the 16th or 17th Century in England. The phrase “God rest ye merry,” meaning “May God grant you peace and happiness,” first appears in the English language about 1534.

The phrase doesn’t refer to “merry gentlemen,” but rather to peace that gentlemen would be granted by God. The comma properly defines the meaning of the phrase.

The melody supposedly sprang from a reaction to the somber, dark religious songs of 15th Century Christianity. The carol instead celebrates the birth of Jesus in joyful terms, earning it considerable popularity among the laity of the church.

And “Deck the Halls” dates from the 16th Century, when it was sung as a Welsh winter tune celebrating New Year’s Eve. The original lyrics advertised the beauteous charms of the singer’s sweetheart, definitely not in the orthodox Christmas tradition. It was remodeled in the mid-19th Century with the lyrics we sing today by Scottish songwriter Thomas Oliphant, who earned a living writing new words for old melodies.

But Oliphant’s version, which ordered celebrants to “fill the mead cup, drain the barrel,” underwent further sanitizing, and the alternate words “don we now our gay apparel” first appeared in an 1866 American songbook.

The late cartoonist Walt Kelly of  “Pogo” fame parodied the song in 1963 with lyrics that begin “Deck us all with Boston Charlie.” Kelly’s version, which boasts six verses, stands as a tour de force of doggerel poetry; you can look it up on line. 

“The Twelve Days of Christmas” was first published in London about 1780, probably derived from a children’s memory game. Varying versions of the song appear in several other countries and their respective languages, including Scotland, Sweden, and France.

France is probably the song’s native land. Partridges didn’t fly to trees, like pear trees, in England. The key to the “partridge in a pear tree” line probably lies in the French word “perdrix” for partridge; perdrix is pronounced “pear dree” in French, which no doubt became “pear tree” in England.

And “Carol of the Bells” holds special meaning this year. Its music is the 1914 creation of Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych, with English lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky. Wilhousky, who was arranger for the NBC Symphony Orchestra, was also of Ukrainian extraction. 

Composers are constantly writing Christmas music yet today, and some of it has entered the collection of traditional Yuletide songs we all know. Christmas, more than any other day of celebration, seems to generate musical inspiration, both traditional and modern. 

May it always be so.

Rick Morain is a reporter and columnist with the Jefferson Herald. 

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