A Christmas carol is a carol on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French origin. Christmas carols may be regarded as a subset of the broader category of Christmas music.
Nine Lessons and Carols, also known as the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols and Service of Nine Lessons and Carols, is a service of Christian worship traditionally celebrated on or near Christmas Eve in England. The story of the fall of humanity, the promise of the Messiah, and the birth of Jesus is told in nine short Bible readings or lessons from Genesis, the prophetic books and the Gospels, interspersed with the singing of Christmas carols, hymns and choir anthems.
"Good King Wenceslas" is a Christmas carol that tells a story of a tenth century Bohemian king who goes on a journey, braving harsh winter weather, to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen. The Feast of Stephen is December 26, the Second Day of Christmas in Western Christianity. In Eastern Christianity, it is December 27. [Need further clarification on whether it was celebrated on Dec 26 or 27 in Wencesalas's lifetime and region.] During Wenceslas's time, the Julian Calendar was in use. During the 900s, the day that they called December 26 was actually December 31 according to the Gregorian Calendar. And the day that they called December 27 was January 1.
Sir John Milford Rutter is an English composer, conductor, editor, arranger, and record producer, mainly of choral music.
"The First Nowell", modernised as "The First Noel" ", is a traditional English Christmas carol with Cornish origins most likely from the early modern period, although possibly earlier. It is listed as number 682 in the Roud Folk Song Index.
"The Cherry-Tree Carol" is a ballad with the rare distinction of being both a Christmas carol and one of the Child Ballads. The song itself is very old, reportedly sung in some form at the Feast of Corpus Christi in the early 15th century.
The "Huron Carol" is a Canadian Christmas hymn, written probably in 1642 by Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons in Canada. Brébeuf wrote the lyrics in the native language of the Huron/Wendat people; the song's original Huron title is "Jesous Ahatonhia". The song's melody is based on a traditional French folk song, "Une Jeune Pucelle". The well-known English lyrics were written in 1926 by Jesse Edgar Middleton and the copyright to these lyrics was held by The Frederick Harris Music Co., Limited, but entered the public domain in 2011.
The "Coventry Carol" is an English Christmas carol dating from the 16th century. The carol was traditionally performed in Coventry in England as part of a mystery play called The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. The play depicts the Christmas story from chapter two in the Gospel of Matthew: the carol itself refers to the Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod ordered all male infants under the age of two in Bethlehem to be killed, and takes the form of a lullaby sung by mothers of the doomed children.
Church music is Christian music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclesiastical liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn.
"O Little Town of Bethlehem" is a Christmas carol. Based on an 1868 text written by Phillips Brooks, the carol is popular on both sides of the Atlantic, but to different tunes: in the United States, to "St. Louis" by Brooks' collaborator, Lewis Redner; and in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland to "Forest Green", a tune collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams and first published in the 1906 English Hymnal.
"Adam lay ybounden", originally titled Adam lay i-bowndyn, is a 15th-century English Christian text of unknown authorship. It relates the Biblical events of Genesis, Chapter 3 on the Fall of Man.
"Es ist ein Ros entsprungen" is a Christmas carol and Marian hymn of German origin. It is most commonly translated into English as "Lo, how a rose e'er blooming" and is also called "A Spotless Rose" and "Behold a Rose of Judah". The rose in the German text is a symbolic reference to the Virgin Mary. The hymn makes reference to the Old Testament prophecies of Isaiah, which in Christian interpretation foretell the Incarnation of Christ, and to the Tree of Jesse, a traditional symbol of the lineage of Jesus. Because of its prophetic theme, the hymn is popular during the Christian season of Advent.
"O come, O come, Emmanuel" is a Christian hymn for Advent, which is also often published in books of Christmas carols. The text was originally written in Latin. It is a metrical paraphrase of the O Antiphons, a series of plainchant antiphons attached to the Magnificat at Vespers over the final days before Christmas. The hymn has its origins over 1,200 years ago in monastic life in the 8th or 9th century. Seven days before Christmas Eve monasteries would sing the “O antiphons” in anticipation of Christmas Eve when the eighth antiphon, “O Virgo virginum” would be sung before and after Mary's canticle, the Magnificat. The Latin metrical form of the hymn was composed as early as the 12th century.
"While shepherds watched their flocks" is a traditional Christmas carol describing the Annunciation to the Shepherds, with words attributed to Irish hymnist, lyricist and England's Poet Laureate Nahum Tate. It is listed as number 936 in the Roud Folk Song Index.
"I syng of a mayden" is a Middle English lyric poem or carol of the 15th century celebrating the Annunciation and the Virgin Birth of Jesus. It has been described as one of the most admired short vernacular English poems of the late Middle Ages.
"See, amid the Winter's Snow", also known as "The Hymn for Christmas", is an English Christmas carol, written by Edward Caswall and first published in 1858. In 1871 Sir John Goss composed a hymn tune for it, "Humility", and as "Hymn for Christmas Day", it was included in Christmas Carols New And Old, the anthology edited by Henry Ramsden Bramley and John Stainer.
"Bóg się rodzi" is a Polish Christmas carol, with lyrics written by Franciszek Karpiński in 1792. Its stately melody is traditionally known to be a coronation polonaise for Polish Kings dating back as far as during the reign of Stefan Batory in the 16th century. The carol is regarded by some as the National Christmas hymn of Poland, and, for a short time, it was also considered a national anthem, for instance by poet Jan Lechoń. It has also been called "one of the most beloved Polish Christmas carols".
"As with Gladness Men of Old" is an Epiphany hymn, written by William Chatterton Dix on 6 January 1859 (Epiphany) while he was ill in bed. Though considered by many as a Christmas carol, it is found in the Epiphany section of many hymnals and still used by many churches. The music was adapted by William Henry Monk in 1861 from a tune written by Conrad Kocher in 1838. The hymn is based on the visit of the Biblical magi in the Nativity of Jesus.
"Lullay, mine liking" is a Middle English lyric poem or carol of the 15th century which frames a narrative describing an encounter of the Nativity with a song sung by the Virgin Mary to the infant Christ. The refrain is an early example of an English lullaby; the term "lullaby" is thought to originate with the "lu lu" or "la la" sound made by mothers or nurses to calm children, and "by" or "bye bye", another lulling sound.
"Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her" is a hymn text relating to the Nativity of Jesus, written by Martin Luther in 1534. The hymn is most often sung to the melody, Zahn No. 346, which first appeared in a 1539 songbook and was probably also composed by Luther. This classic Christmas carol remains popular and has inspired many choral and organ works by other composers.
