{"id":1403,"date":"2010-12-13T14:22:08","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T19:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2d823b65bb.nxcli.io\/?p=1403"},"modified":"2018-12-30T12:24:10","modified_gmt":"2018-12-30T17:24:10","slug":"earliest-christmas-carol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/earliest-christmas-carol.html","title":{"rendered":"What is the Earliest (First) Christmas Carol?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/2d823b65bb.nxcli.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/christmas1.png\"><br \/>\n<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/2d823b65bb.nxcli.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/christmas2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1409\" title=\"Christmas Carols\" src=\"https:\/\/2d823b65bb.nxcli.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/christmas2-300x276.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/christmas2-300x276.png 300w, https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/christmas2-1024x942.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/christmas2.png 1131w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(You should click the above time line to get a larger, more readable version).<\/p>\n<p>Before we can answer the question of the first or earliest Christmas carol, we need to deal with some preliminary questions.\u00a0 What is a carol?\u00a0 What is a Christmas carol? And how does one determine a date for\u00a0 Christmas carol?\u00a0 None of these questions are trivial.<\/p>\n<p>The Oxford English Dictionary defines &#8220;carol&#8221; as &#8220;a ring-dance with accompaniment of song&#8221; or &#8220;a song; originally, that to which they danced&#8221; or &#8220;a song or hymn of religious joy&#8221;.\u00a0 The later definition hits the mark most closely. However, we also have a large number of non-religious seasonal songs of similar joyous character, and I will include them as well.\u00a0 But even then there are some little controversies to note:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Is &#8220;Jingle Bells&#8221; really a Christmas carol?\u00a0 The best evidence is that the song was composed for Thanksgiving, not Christmas.<\/li>\n<li>And what about &#8220;Do you hear what I hear?&#8221;\u00a0 This was written in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.\u00a0\u00a0 If you read the lyrics with any care it becomes obvious that the imagery is about missiles not Christmas: &#8220;A star, a star, dancing in the night \\ With a tail as big as a kite.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, both songs appear to have become seasonal standards, regardless of their original meaning, so who am I to argue to otherwise?<\/p>\n<p>Dating carols is also tricky, especially since the tune and the lyrics often date from different times.\u00a0 A great example is &#8220;What Child is This?&#8221; where the lyrics date to 1865, but the tune (Greensleeves) dates to the 16th Century.\u00a0 Where such dates differ I take the later date, the date when the text and the tune were wedded.\u00a0 In some cases the text might have been set to music multiple times, with different tunes in use in different countries.\u00a0 &#8220;While Shepherds Watched their Flocks at Night&#8221; is a great example, set to numerous tunes from 1700 to 1903.\u00a0 In such cases I have taken the date of the version most-familiar in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>[amazon_link asins=&#8217;B000005IVR,B003DZPRNO,B00B48D892&#8242; template=&#8217;ProductGrid&#8217; store=&#8217;ananticdispos-20&#8242; marketplace=&#8217;US&#8217; link_id=&#8217;048e3f30-0c57-11e9-930a-6bb2ccf60deb&#8217;]<\/p>\n<p>The above time line shows the Christmas carols that I knew in my childhood.\u00a0 Your core group of carols may differ from this, based on your age, country, language, ethnicity, religion, etc.\u00a0 Although my horizons would widen as I grew older and went to school, so I can now recognize a broader set of international and ancient carols, from &#8220;In Dulci Jubilo&#8221; to &#8220;Es ist ein Ros entsprungen&#8221; to &#8220;Riu Riu Chiu,&#8221; the above set represents my &#8220;native&#8221; carols, the ones I knew as a child.\u00a0 Everything beyond that I consider to be an import.<\/p>\n<p>[amazon_link asins=&#8217;B00122FUTQ,B002WP3SGE&#8217; template=&#8217;ProductGrid&#8217; store=&#8217;ananticdispos-20&#8242; marketplace=&#8217;US&#8217; link_id=&#8217;3ef78e92-0c57-11e9-980e-5d3e70aceb53&#8242;]<\/p>\n<p>The oldest carol on this time line is, not surprisingly, &#8220;Adeste Fideles&#8221;, published in 1751, with a history that goes back even further.\u00a0 I remember it being sung in church in my youth, with the words slightly modified, coming out with a loud, clear-throated &#8220;Adeste Fideles!&#8221; followed by a muted, &#8220;mumble, mumble mumble&#8221; until a fortissimo &#8220;in Bethlehem.&#8221;\u00a0 Maybe it was different when Latin was still taught in schools.<\/p>\n<p>[amazon_link asins=&#8217;B00123CXGS,B005CJTX6G&#8217; template=&#8217;ProductGrid&#8217; store=&#8217;ananticdispos-20&#8242; marketplace=&#8217;US&#8217; link_id=&#8217;9713b514-0c57-11e9-a653-a580711a1f53&#8242;]<\/p>\n<p>It is also notable, looking at the time line, that there was a &#8220;golden age&#8221; of carol writing, say 1840-1860.\u00a0 We have hardly seen a prominent traditional church carol since then.\u00a0 However, the 20th century has given us a large number of new secular standards and commercial holiday songs.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d be interested in hearing from other traditions and cultures:\u00a0 What is the earliest holiday song that you commonly hear this time of year?\u00a0 Something a mother might sing to a child, or a family or church sing together?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(You should click the above time line to get a larger, more readable version). Before we can answer the question of the first or earliest Christmas carol, we need to deal with some preliminary questions.\u00a0 What is a carol?\u00a0 What is a Christmas carol? And how does one determine a date for\u00a0 Christmas carol?\u00a0 None [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[210],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1403"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2707,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions\/2707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}