Playlist
* In Dulci Jubilo Ludwig Guttler Brass Ensemble 2:07
* Hark! The Herald Angels Sing Mario Lanza 2:50
* Christos Genate Nana Mouskouri 1:57
* Gaudete (Christus est natus) Oxford Camerata 1:43
* Curoo, Curoo The Clancy Brothers 2:57
* Carol of the Bells George Winston 3:52
Music notes:
In Dulci Jubilo You may recognize the melody of this as being the macaronic German-Latin Lutheran hymn, or as the Anglican Christmas hymn which borrowed the tune Good Christian Men, Rejoice. Either way, the musical notation is first found in a German manuscript (Codex 1305) from ca. 1400 and many scholars believe that the melody probably existed prior to that date. The great Lutheran hymnist and composer Michael Praetorius created several choral arrangements using it. This instrumental version of the melody comes from one of those cheap no-liner-notes Christmas albums so I don’t know the origins of this brass fanfare arrangement, but it is performed by the Lutwig Guttler Brass Ensemble.
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing The words for this “colossus among carols” were written sometime before 1739 by the influential preacher Charles Wesley who with his equally-renowned brother John were the cofounders of Methodism. It was that dissident protestant sect that brought to England the Lutheran idea that church services should include the whole congregation singing hymns “lustily and with good courage” in their own native language. It was this aspect of Methodism that began to seriously draw church membership away from the Church of England and cause that it to follow the Methodists’ lead and allow such hymns in their own services.
However for over 100 years, despite some tinkering with the poetry of the hymn’s lyrics this song was not particularly popular. It had been given a melody that did not really suit it. Various hymnists tried to fix that problem by writing alternate settings but it was William Hayman Cummings who hit the jackpot in 1855. He didn’t write a better melody for it; he set it to a recently-written song by the German classical composer Felix Mendelssohn that was already falling into obscurity because it was in a choral work that failed to catch on. (It is highly unlikely that such a thing would ever happen now because of copyright laws.)
Mendelssohn’s melody for the second chorus of Gott ist licht (God is light) proved perfect for Wesley’s hymn. In some ways that is surprising. As Christmas music historian William Studwell notes:
The superlative tune, among the very best associated with any Christmas song, is actually an uncarol-like military type march. While most carols fall into one of three types – the jolly Yuletide song, the tranquil nativity hymn, or the stately preocessional – Hark! is in contrast, an arousing, fast-paced, dynamic, unhesitating, unpausing, breathtaking march in 4/4 time. Its bold, stirring, powerful, rapidly cadenced strides vigorously transport the singer or listener on a confident wave of martial music which loudly and joyfully proclaims the story of Christ’s birth.
Here, the singer is Mario Lanza, a young operatic singer who went to Hollywood in the late 1940s and became perhaps the most famous tenor of his time. There his voice complemented movie town’s top female singers such Kathryn Grayson and Ethyl Barrymore, and he got to play the part of his childhood idol Enrico Caruso in that operatic legend’s biopic.
Christos Genate (Christ is born again) The liner notes for Nana Mouskouri’s version of this song just credit it to P. Papatheodorou, who is one of the founders of her back-up group Les Athéniens. I found its Greek lyrics online, and this English explanation of the song’s meaning:
“The lyrics of Nana Mouskouri's song Christos Genate speak of Christ's birth in Bethlehem and the heavenly celebration that ensued. The use of the phrase "Kalin imeran archondes," meaning "Good day, lords," creates a sense of grandeur and reverence. The singer then goes on to sing about the birth of Christ, saying that it was the divine birth and worthy of celebration. … The lyrics use poetic language to describe the scenes of the sky, the multitude of angels singing praise, the cave in which Christ was born, and the wise men who came to pay their respects. The chorus urges the lords to join in the celebration and praise Christ's holy birth.
Gaudete (Christus est natus) This medieval dance carol is one of the late medieval Latin songs that was compiled by Jacobus Finno in Piae Cantiones, first published in 1582. It is typical medieval song of praise, which follows the standard pattern for a carole – a uniform series of four-line stanzas, each followed by a two-line refrain. If the melody sounds familiar that is partly due to the fact that the great British folk-rock band Steeleye Span made it a big pop hit of it in England in 1973 (you can hear their version of it here) and the song has become a Christmas staple for many acapella singing groups ever since. This version is from the Oxford Camerata’s 1993 album Medieval Carols.
Curoo, Curoo This traditional 18th century Irish Christmas song is from my 1969 vinyl album The Clancy Brothers Christmas (when brother Bob was still with the group, and Tommy Makem had not yet joined.) I could not find anything else online about the origins of the song. It is sometimes called The Carol of the Birds but that risks getting it confused with other songs by that name including a more well-known traditional Catalan Christmas song.
Carol of the Bells This is George Winston’s 1982 interpretation of the melody of one of the most widely-recognized Christmas songs. But it is unusual as a “Christmas favourite” song in that most people can’t sing it – they just recognize it as a famous choral song. It sounds timeless, but actually it isn’t really all that old. The melody and its integral arrangement were written by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914. His song had nothing to do with bells or Christmas; it’s a New Year’s song about a sparrow called Shchedryk (bountiful.) Twenty years after its composition the American composer Peter J. Wilhousky adapted it to become the bells song that we all now recognize.
Sampler-making recollections
I got a lot of satisfaction from compiling the first year’s Sampler, and got good feedback, so I decided to do the same thing in 1996. Even though the first year’s selections had been “the pick of the litter” I had plenty of good songs left on my albums. I even stuck with the same general theme of songs about the Nativity story.
As with the first Sampler, there were no liner notes (those did not begin until my 2000 millennium-themed sampler) so the cassette just included a list of the songs and their performers, acknowledgement of what album they had come from, and the year of the recording (when known.) But that year I added a very brief notation of the original source of the song or tune as indicated on the source album’s jacket or liner notes. It was only later that I discovered how unreliable that source of information can be, and that led me to doing my own research, which in turn led to writing liner notes to share the stories behind the songs with others
When I made my first sampler I had not really paid attention to how much variation there was in the volume levels from album to album. I just copied my selections onto a master tape. With this second one I went through a couple of drafts fiddling with the knobs on my amplifier, assessing the results, then re-copying with a readjusted volume and moving a few songs around before making another master. I think it took three drafts to make the 1996 sampler.
By the way, I decided to call these “Christmas samplers” because that is what Vanguard and other record labels back in the days of vinyl called the seasonal compilation albums they issued that had a holiday music track from each of featured recording artists. Sometimes those tracks came from the singers’ or musicians’ own Christmas albums and sometimes they were recorded specifically for the Christmas sampler. They were sold for very low prices because the labels wanted to increase sales by introducing people to performers and styles of music with which they were otherwise unfamiliar. That was always my intention too.
