![]() If you have any suggestions or comments on the guidelines, please email us. We cannot post your review if it violates these guidelines. ![]() Avoid disclosing contact information (email addresses, phone numbers, etc.), or including URLs, time-sensitive material or alternative ordering information.Please do not use inappropriate language, including profanity, vulgarity, or obscenity. Be respectful of artists, readers, and your fellow reviewers.Feel free to recommend similar pieces if you liked this piece, or alternatives if you didn't.Are you a beginner who started playing last month? Do you usually like this style of music? Consider writing about your experience and musical tastes.Do you like the artist? Is the transcription accurate? Is it a good teaching tool? Explain exactly why you liked or disliked the product.Today, lots of new choral Christmas music is often commissioned by leading choirs like The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and lots of leading living composers, including Arvo Pärt, Eric Whitacre and Bob Chilcott, have written beautiful contemporary carols. Read more: Which are ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ and what are the lyrics to the song? John Tavener’s exquisite carol, ‘The Lamb’, for example, was used in the soundtrack to Paolo Sorrentino’s film, The Great Beauty (definitely not a Christmas film), which was released in the UK on 6 September 2013 (well outside the Christmas season). ‘Coventry Carol’, for example, is believed to have originated from Medieval Coventry Mystery Plays, traditionally performed in the middle of the summer.Īnd there are instances of carols being used in different contexts that take them outside Christmas. Interestingly, some carols throughout history seem to celebrate a period outside the Christmas season. It’s certainly considered in poor taste to sing carols much before, or beyond, this period – no doubt amplified by ongoing superstitions such as it being bad luck to keep decorations up beyond the Twelfth Day of Christmas (which is 5 January, for anyone unsure). The end of Christmas is usually marked by the feast of Epiphany, the day in Christianity where the revelation of baby Jesus is celebrated (usually 6 January). The lead-up to Christmas is best seen as being from the start of Advent – the period marked by the first of the four Sundays before Christmas – until Christmas Day. Plenty of people do, and while we’re sure some sing Christmas carols all year round, it’s traditional to stick to singing carols in the lead-up to Christmas Day, if we’re to take Oxford’s definition of carols literally (see top of article). “Oh, well I wish it could be Christmas everyday, When the kids start singing and the band begins to play.” rock band Wizzard first sung in the 1970s. O Holy Night – Choir of King's College Cambridge Why aren’t Christmas carols sung all year round? Groups continue to sing – in squares or door-to-door – and it’s with unrestrained joy that we continue to sing carols in Christmas church services, in the chilly air or in restrained-yet-merry tones inside our houses as we put up the tree. It became known as wassailing and continues today, of course. Called ‘waits’, these collections of singers used to gather to perform for passers-by, who traditionally thanked them with tasty offerings of drinks or mince pies. The notion of groups of carollers assembling in public spaces was a 19th-century one, according to Oxford. Read more: The real story behind ‘Silent Night’Ĭarol singers sing outside No. ‘ Good King Wenceslas’? – 1853 lyrics set to an older tune. ‘ Silent Night’? Composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr. ‘ Hark! The Herald’ – an 1840 tune from Mendelssohn. Many of today’s most popular carols are dignified 19th-century offerings with tuneful melodies, rich harmonies and Christmassy sounds abundant. And in 1880, it’s believed the Christmas carol service was invented in Truro by an Edward White Benson, who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury. King's College Cambridge 2010 #10 God Rest You Merry, GentlemenĬarols and their words continued to be disseminated, even in the 16th century when Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans tried to ban the singing of carols.Ĭarols were being collected and printed widely by the 19th century.
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