HOLLY WREATHS, the smell of pine, mulled wine and cinnamon, the feasts of eating, snow (if we’re lucky), Christmas comes complete with an array of ritual and traditions including decorating the Christmas tree and writing letters to Santa Claus.
Yet aside from his annual circumnavigation of the globe, the most wondrous aspect of this season is the music. Many of the finest songs that most of us will recognise, regardless of what country we come from, are traditional European Christmas carols, ranging from Silent Night, first performed in a church in Austria on Christmas Eve in 1818 and since its translation into English in 1871 all over the world, and the First Noël, to British composer John Rutter's contemporary works including Angels' Carol, Mary's Lullabyand Shepherd's Pipe Carol.
We have all sung the poignant Away in a Manger, an enduring favourite with young school children as is The Little Drummer Boyand O Little Town of Bethlehem. Rousing choral pieces such as O Come All Ye Faithfuland Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,quasi-militaristic in their pomp, certainly inspire a mood for celebration. The wonder of Christmas music is that most people, even the worst singers among us will join in; and it is difficult to fully slaughter the robust melody of God Rest You Merry Gentlemenor of G ood King Wenceslas,which commemorates a king's seasonal act of kindness to a poor man. Christmas carols are there to be sung by all, they are a communal activity. Although there is no denying that the central Europeans, particularly the German and the Austrians, have a powerful carol tradition, and the Poles also love their Christmas music, the English are seen as pioneers in the genre. A Shropshire rector John Awdlay compiled a collection of about 25 carols for Christmas dated 1426. This may seem very early and yet Martin Luther was a great champion of carol singing and encouraged the practice following the Reformation.
Long before it became associated with choirs in church lofts accompanied by an organist, carol singing was performed by groups standing in the snow outside homes and inns in 18th- and 19th-century England, and even earlier, during the late medieval period. Carol singing or “wassailing” as it was known was an English rural custom.
The image of a chorus of singers, holding their song books in their gloved hands and reading their music by the light of a lantern held aloft by the tallest singer is fixed in the popular imagination of what an old English Christmas looked like. Fiddlers and flautists urged their freezing fingers to provide instrumental support. Long before the trick or treaters of Halloween took to knocking on doors in the expectation of chocolate and sweets, were the carol singers offering a song in exchange for a donation to charity. Dickens celebrated carol singing as did Thomas Hardy. Some carols are the domain of soloists. The opening verse of Once in Royal David's Cityis traditionally sung by a solo choir boy at the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols. The text, written by Cecil F Alexander, a Wicklow woman married to William Alexander, Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, later the Anglican Primate for Ireland, was first published in Hymns for Little Childrenin 1848.
Possibly the most beautiful of all carols is the haunting and solemn O Come, O Come Emmanuel, a 15th-century French processional hymn devised for Franciscan nuns. Originally sung in Latin, " Veni, Veni", it was translated into English in the 19th-century and quickly entered the Christmas repertoire of world famous choirs such as that of King's College Cambridge. The word "come" is vital, as Christmas carols are about anticipation, the wonderful is about to happen: it goes beyond religion, it is rooted in belief. More than anything else, it is the carols that formally announce Christmas, not the retailers and certainly not the unseemly panic.
If the English appear to have a monopoly on carol singing, the Irish are also great believers in Christmas music. Ite O'Donovan's Dublin Choral Foundation, the Lassus Scholars and Piccolo Lasso have recorded two albums of Christmas music, Sing Choirs of Angelsand Angel Tidings, both include arrangements of traditional Irish carols. The Great Christmas Concert in which soloist Miriam Murphy performs with the Lassus Scholars, conducted by Ite O'Donovan, takes place for its 16th year tomorrow night at The National Concert Hall in Dublin. Among the works sung by Miriam Murphy will be the much loved O Holy Night, composed by Frenchman Adolphe Adam in 1847 as Cantique de Noël.Although a solo piece, it could be considered the people's carol in Ireland.
ON THURSDAY the Irish Baroque Orchestra with Resurgam, under Jeffrey Skidmore, adds its voice to Christmas with a performance of Handel's indefatigable favourite Messiahin Triskel Christchurch, Cork, followed on Friday with further performances at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and on Saturday in St Nicholas Collegiate Church, Galway. All over Ireland carols are now being sung, church choirs are preparing for Christmas morning. The Service of Nine Lessons and Carols will be performed at many of the larger churches and cathedrals, including St Kevin's Church, Harrington Street, Dublin, at 3.30pm on December 18th.
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1634-1704) composed his beguiling Messe de Minuit Pour Noëlfor Christmas night, while the early German master Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672), who had studied the Italian Giovanni Gabrieli in Venice, wrote many pieces for Christmas including a Christmas oratorio in 1664. Born exactly a century after Schutz is God's own composer, the immortal Johann Sebastian Bach, whose glorious Christmas Oratorio(1734) which opens with a fanfare and an exuberant chorus "Rejoice! Exult!" complete with kettle drums, is too rarely performed. It should be performed, as it has the feel of an anthem. It is not an oratorio, but rather a series of six cantatas intended to be sung over the course of six services beginning with Christmas morning and sung in sequence until the Epiphany. It heralds Christmas week and also the return of the sun.
Make the most of the carol season. Tradition maintains that it is bad luck to sing a carol once Christmas night has passed.