This carol is actually a French operatic-style concert aria whose original title was "Cantique du
Noel". Its composer was of the Jewish faith and is best known (apart from this piece) for
having written the score of the ballet "Giselle". The lyricist created a scandal later in life by
embracing socialism, which (along with the revelation that the composer was Jewish) caused
the piece to be condemned by the archbishop of Paris.
Although "Cantique de Noel" achieved great popularity when it first appeared, Roquemare's
subsequent Socialist sympathies and the revelation that Adam was a Jew resulted in condemnation
from the Catholic church; the archbishop of Paris denounced the piece as being "utterly devoid of
the spirit of religion". None of this ultimately prevented the piece from achieving worldwide
popularity. The English translation by John Sullivan is the standard for performances in the U.S.
and the U.K. "O Holy Night" became especially popular among abolitionists in the U.S. during the
Civil War era due to the sentiments expressed in Verse 3: "Chains shall He break; for the slave is a
brother, and in His name all oppressions shall cease."
O Holy Night
This quintessentially English carol is set to a tune entitled "Chestnut", of which there are
several versions. It is the only Christmas carol mentioned by name in Dickens' "A Christmas
Carol"; a small boy begins to sing it at Scrooge's window, but flees when the old miser seizes
a ruler and rises from his desk. It is sung throughout England to a number of different tunes
and there are numerous variations of both the text and the traditional melody. Which is it?
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Although hearing the melody of this 18th century English carol automatically inspires Yuletide
thoughts, the lyrics make no mention of the manger, the town of Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph, the
ox and ass, the angels, the wise men, the shepherds, or the star. In fact, the carol never actually
mentions the birth of Christ, only his coming.
The correct answer was Joy to the World
This carol was written in 1941 by the American composer Katherine K. Davis, though it has
sometimes been listed as a traditional Czech carol. It describes a humble gift given to the Christ
Child out of great love and became extremely popular when recorded in 1957.
Your Answer: The Little Drummer Boy
Davis was born in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1892 and studied music at Wellesley College and at the
New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Nadia Boulanger. Known today almost
exclusively for "The Little Drummer Boy", she considered herself a serious composer and penned,
among other works, no less than seven complete operas. "Drummer Boy" was one of a number of
pieces written while she was teaching at the Shady Hills School for Girls in Philadelphia and was
frustrated by the lack of music for women's voices (originally, the song was in two parts- soprano
and alto- with accompaniment; later arrangements for four-part a-capella chorus have the men
singing "rum-pum-pum" etc.). Davis wrote both words and music for the song; she said that it came
to her while she was trying to take a nap (shades of Phillips Brooks and "O Little Town of
Bethlehem") and that the words "practically wrote themselves". The song was recorded by the Von
Trapp Family Singers as the "Carol of the Drum" (it was credited as a "Czech carol") and has been
recorded by numerous choirs and popular singers since then. Davis died in 1980 at the age of 88.
TRIVIA FACT: "The Little Drummer Boy" was the favorite Christmas carol of President Richard
Nixon.
it was not until the fourth century, when Christmas was formalized as a feast and fixed to Dec. 25, that a songbook started to take form
In the 13th century, Francis tried to break the Christmas celebration from its tedious husk, mostly by making the birth of Christ into a live theatrical event.
He organized nativity pageants featuring real hay, real animals, and, for the first time, real music: Deviating from tradition, he allowed for narrative songs
in audiences’ native languages, turning Christmas music into an opportunity for mainstream creativity. Drinking songs were given Yuletide lyrics (greatly
to the church’s horror) and disseminated by traveling entertainers. Christmas began to take on a life of its own, beyond the exigencies of the sacred feast.
Those halcyon days didn’t last. Martin Luther was a strong backer of the new, folkier Christmas music, which dovetailed with his new and folky thinking
about Christianity, but certain of his disciples were not. Christmas in the English-speaking world died a second death when the Puritan movement—which
did not believe in religious song, let alone general merriment—banned Christmas celebrations altogether in 1647 by Parliamentary law, with the support of
Oliver Cromwell. Their suspicion of the holiday managed to cross the Atlantic as well. For a time, persons in the Massachusetts Bay Colony found to be
observing Christmas (“consumed in Compotations, in Interludes, in playing at Cards, in Revellings, in excess of Wine, in mad Mirth,” to quote the
complaints of the Rev. Increase Mather) faced a fine.
In 1840, Queen Victoria married Prince Albert, a German who made it one of his projects to import Continental-style Christmas as “an echo of … the old
time, of what we thought and felt”—in essence, to invent an English Christmas tradition where little had previously existed.
When people speak about the “Christmas spirit,” they mean a form of reassurance virtually expunged from modern life: the comfort of continuity, the
pleasure of return, the knowledge that not everything we have will one day disappear. Christmas carols are our mainstream window to the past and, as a
consequence, the closest thing we have to a guarantee of our own era’s future. Nathan Heller Slate's "Assessment" columnist 2011