JOY TO THE WORLD
HARK THE HERALD ANGELS ( AND ALL THE REST OF US) SING. AS WE TRA- LA- LA- LA- LA OUR WAY THROUGH THE SEASON, WE TAKE A LOOK AT THE STORIES BEHIND OUR FAVOURITES
We all know the words, but it’s far rarer that we know the stories behind our much-loved carols. Why the significance of the holly and the ivy, for instance? Or who knew that one of our seasonal faves is thought to actually be an ode to Bonnie Prince Charlie? Or even that one of our monarchs turned their regal hand to scribing a carol? As it’s time to indulge in a sing-song merrily on high, we explore a history that goes back centuries…
THE FIRST CAROLS
Roads. Sanitation. Irrigation. Medicine. Education. Thanks to Monty Python’s Life of
Brian, we’re widely familiar with what the Romans did for us. Here’s a lesser-known thing to add to the list: Christmas carolling. Sort of. Like so many of our Yuletide traditions – decorating houses in greenery, overeating, present-giving, ritual candle-lighting, drinking – people gathering to walk the streets and sing is mirrored in Saturnalia, the Roman celebration of the winter solstice.
Now, let us consider the man we might regard as the unofficial patron saint of carollers, John Audelay. After being implicated in a violent Easter Sunday brawl in a London church in 1417, the chaplain repaired to Haughmond Abbey, near Shrewsbury. Convinced his blindness and deafness were signs of divine punishment, Audelay worked tirelessly on the enormous volume of work that would serve as penitence:
The Counsel of Conscience (1426), in which we find 25 songs comprising the first-ever collection of English-language carols.
Here, festively enough, we return to drink. This was a time when carols were not just for Christmas, but were just as likely to be sung during celebrations such as harvest-tide. In Somerset, Herefordshire and other ciderproducing regions, ‘wassailers’ would head to orchards and serenade trees directly, a ritual intended to ensure a decent cider-apple harvest the following year. Elsewhere, groups of wassailers would go door-to-door singing and offering hot mulled cider in exchange for gifts (more on this next issue).
Even ostensibly Christian carols can have pagan roots. The words of ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ were first published in 1710 but originate a good deal earlier and are rich in ancient fertility symbolism: holly was linked to masculinity and good, ivy to women and – you’re way ahead of us here – evil, and the song’s performance may have been accompanied by a ritual mating dance.
MIDDLING FORTUNES IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Carols enjoyed mixed fortunes in the Middle Ages. The year 1582 saw the publication of Piae
Cantiones, a collection of late-medieval Latin songs compiled by Finnish clergyman Jaakko Suomalainen, in which we find such Yuletide faves as ‘Good King Wenceslas’ and ‘Christ Was Born On Christmas Day’. The compilation reflected Europe’s changing churchscape following the Reformation, with carols popular among nascent Protestant congregations. Reformer-in-chief Martin Luther encouraged their use in worship and wrote a few himself, while even Henry VIII had a stab at the form with a carol called ‘Green Groweth the Holly’.
Come the First English Civil War, all this was to change. King-deposing Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan followers had no time for festivities, viewing Saturnalia’s debaucherous legacy as a flagrant flouting of God’s law. Worse, Christmas was ‘popish’, straight out of the Roman Catholic tradition – ‘Christ’s Mass’ – with no biblical »
“This was a time when carols were not just for Christmas”
“When the monarchy was restored in 1660, Christmas returned with sufficient vigour to make a centurion blush”
justification. In 1647 Christmas and associated activities were outlawed and carol singing was forced underground.
Naturally, when the monarchy was restored in 1660, Christmas returned with sufficient vigour to make a centurion blush. Still, according to Durham University’s Bennett Zon, sectarianism wasn’t done with carolling just yet. ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’, he argues, is a coded ode to Scotland’s Bonnie Prince Charlie, grandson of James II, England’s last Catholic monarch.
In this theory, proponents of the 1745 Jacobite uprising are thought to be the “faithful” who thought Charlie the rightful heir to the throne, while “Born the king of angels” is code for “Born the king of England”. (Truth be told, we think this story sounds a little unlikely – but must nevertheless concede that Bennett Zon is a professor of music and we, to give full disclosure, are not). CAROLLING HITS A HIGH NOTE Like gothic novels and using opium-laced syrup to quiet infants, the golden age of carols came in the 19th century. William Sandys and Davies Gilbert toured villages collecting old Christmas music from around the country, the subsequent
Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (1833) giving a debut appearance in print to ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’, ‘The First Noel’, ‘I Saw Three Ships’, and plenty more festive standards besides.
With the carol revival in full swing, the Victorian era saw the formalisation of the Christmas Eve service. In 1880, the first Bishop of Truro was seven years away from having a completed cathedral. He did, though, have a temporary wooden building and a plan for encouraging parishioners to try it out. Rather than have the choir sing carols at congregants’ homes, as was customary, everyone gathered for a service of Nine Lessons and Carols. Far from a silent night ensued, and a tradition was born.