Playlist:
* Dominus Dixit Monks of the Maria Einseideln Abbey 1:55
* Kolda na Bozic / Kod Betlehema Ensemble Oni Wytars 2:41
* O magnum mysterium The choir of St. John the Divine church 2:45
* Ave Rosa in Jericho John Fleagle 1:53
* Callenig Julie Murphy 2:27
* The One Horse Open Sleigh Robert DeCormier Singers 3:36
Music notes:
[These longer-than-average music notes are adapted from liner notes that were written for the year 2000 Sampler.]
Dominus Dixit The invention of a system of musical notation in about the 10th century makes the turn of the past millennium the earliest time for which we can read music from historical documentation. At the beginning of the second millennium the music of the Roman Catholic liturgy (i.e., using music for parts of the mass and daily prayers of the clergy) was monophonic plainchant – songs that have a single melody line, with no accompaniment or harmonies.
In around the year 600, Pope Gregory the Great began the process of codifying and standardizing the practices of the Church, supporting such singing but eliminating dance and musical instruments from liturgical music. This effort to establish a standardized church music throughout Western Christendom continued through to Charlemagne as part of his attempt to unity in his vast empire.
This is an example of that music, which was always sung in Latin and is known by Catholics as Gregorian chant. (This type of church music was rejected by most Protestant denominations, but Anglicans still sometimes sing in this style and know it as plainchant.) This song is an introit – the introductory prayer to accompany the procession to the altar at the beginning of the mass. This particular introit is specifically for the first mass on Christmas Day. I can still recognize parts of this from when I was a boy soprano in elementary school. It is sung here by the Benedictine monks of the Maria Einseideln Abbey in Switzerland and is from a 1972 box set of such recordings from various monasteries around Europe.
Kolda na Bozic / Kod Betlehema In the 11th century traditional public multi-day celebration around the time of the Winter Solstice far surpassed the Church’s solemn remembrance of the Birth of Christ. It was the year’s biggest festival lasting several days, celebrated with rituals and customs descended from pagan times. Singing, dancing and feasting were important parts of the festivities. But where could community celebrations be held in the cold and often wet or snowy days of December and January?
In 1010, Bernard of Angers wrote:
According to ancient custom the pilgrims hold their vigils in the Fides Church with candles and lamps. Since they do not understand the Latin chants of the office, they help to pass the long nights away with uneducated songs and other nonsense.
The Church tried repeatedly to restrict these observances. In 1209, for example, the Church issued a statement at the Council of Avignon:
We decree that during vigils for saints in the churches, musicians must not perform either leaping dances with obscene gestures nor round dances; nor shall love songs and similar songs be sung.
The people got around these restrictions by putting religious lyrics to their favorite songs (and, I presume, by toning down the obscene gestures.)
In the 12th and 13th centuries, as the Gothic cathedrals were climbing to the sky, a Virgin Mary cult swept into Europe from the Byzantine Empire (which is why the first major gothic cathedral to be completed became named Notre Dame - our mother.) This was a popular rather than Church-driven movement, and it became a deeply-ingrained part of popular culture for the next two centuries. The status of Mary was raised from being one of many saints to being the Mother of God and Queen of Heaven. Songs about Mary – Marian songs – were the most popular music of the time. Ancient goddess songs were adapted, and new worship songs were written to be sung and danced to year-round, for general amusement at home, in taverns and at festive events.
These two traditional Croatian songs date back at least to those medieval times. Although it is more upbeat and in carole form, the structure of Kod Betlehema sounds to me somewhat like one of the Church’s prayer liturgical responses (perhaps the people at the vigils were not as oblivious to the liturgical music as Bernard of Angers thought.) Both are performed by the Ensemble Oni Wytars of Germany and Ensemble Unicorn of Vienna, with Ellen Santaniello as the lead singer for Kod Betlehema. They are from their 1994 album On the Way to Bethlehem which is subtitled Music of the Medieval Pilgrim.
O magnum mysterium Tomás Luis de la Victoria (1548? - 1611) was one of the most illustrious composers of the High Renaissance. He began his career as a young boy in the choir of the cathedral at Avila, Spain. After his voice broke he was sent to be trained as a priest at the Jesuit College in Rome. He spent many years as an organist in the papal chapel in Rome, where he eventually became its choirmaster. In 1588, he left the Vatican’s musical limelight to return to Spain to become chaplain to King Philip II's sister, the dowager Empress Maria. He was one of the few court composers of his time who wrote exclusively religious music.
The text for this liturgical choral piece is the Matins repository prayer for Christmas day. It is performed by the choir of St. John the Divine, an Anglican church here in Victoria, BC, and was recorded in 1997.
Ave Rosa in Jericho While the English based most of their medieval and renaissance Christmas songs on dances, the Germans, Austrians and Czechs drew most of their seasonal music inspiration from Marian songs and lullabies. The use of a rose as a metaphor for Mary was common in such music. Other songs that use this devise that are more well-known today are There is No Rose of Such Virtue and Lo, How a Rose E-re Blooming.
This 15th or 16th century Marian Christmas carol is in Latin, which I presume means that it was a courtly song rather than one that was popular with the common people. It is approximately contemporary with a more famous Czech Christmas lullaby, Hajej, Nynjej (Rocking, or Little Jesus Sweetly Sleep.) The singer/ harpist here is John Fleagle and it was recorded as part of a live 1990 performance of the Boston-based Christmas Revels.
Callenig The new year was considered to have begun on the winter solstice, but before the invention of calendars and reliable clocks it could only be celebrated when careful observations could confirm that the sun was rising further to the north and therefore the days must indeed be lengthening. That is why it is not a coincidence that both Christmas and New Year’s Day are shortly after the actual solstice event.
One of the ancient midwinter customs that survived all across Europe was ritual luck-visits around or after the time of the winter solstice. In some regions the local variants of luck-visiting adopted a nominal Christian veneer, but in Britain they survived and continued to evolve as secular activities. In England it was often called wassailing (and there will be more luck-visiting music later in this series.)
In Wales the custom survived under the name callenig, which is derived from the Latin word kalends –the beginning of the month or year – and it is on New Year’s day that callenig luck visits take place. All across Europe luck visits had their own distinctive songs. This one from Gwynedd is sung by harpist Julie Murphy and is from her 1996 album A Celtic Christmas. Its first verse translates as:
Well this is the Calend, remember the dayAnd give a calennig freely from your heartFirst day of the year, if you give generouslyYour every day will be blessed without fail.
The One Horse Open Sleigh This is the original tune, lyrics and arrangement for Jingle Bells, arguably the most well-known American Christmas song. It is the first documented secular Christmas song written in North America, and one of a flurry of such songs written in the late 1850s that also includes Up on the Housetop and Jolly Old Saint Nicolas.
Actually, it wasn't intended to be a Christmas song although it certainly has become identified as being one. It is about having a flashy vehicle, driving it recklessly, and using it to pick up adventure-seeking girls. It just happens to be set in the winter because it was inspired by Boston's rowdy annual one horse sleigh (cutter) street races from Medford Square to Malden Square. The song was written in 1857 by James Pierpont but is often misattributed to his father, the famous abolitionist and poet John S. Pierpont. However, the elder Pierpont, a stern Unitarian minister, definitely did not approve of his ne'er-do-well son or his music.
The song was not an immediate success, even after the younger Pierpont changed its title in 1859 to the jauntier Jingle Bells and revised it to the tune and lyrics with which we are now so familiar. However it gained fame later in the century when it a Christmas staple for barbershop quartets, and gained immortality when Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters' lively swing version of it became a huge popular hit in 1949. This version of the song in its original form is by the Robert DeCormier Singers and is from their 1984 album A Victorian Christmas. (I apologize for the recording quality of the last verse. My CD is damaged but I’m using it anyway because I think that the song is a very interesting window into its time.)
Sampler-making recollections
By the year 2000 I had developed a large collection of good selections, especially of unusual older songs, so I set myself a special challenge to celebrate the new millennium: I would make a 90 minute tape that would trace the development of Christmas music over the past 1000 years. I (finally!) dropped the format of vocals on one side and instrumentals on the other. I aimed for it to be listened to from beginning to end as a musical progression of about 9 minutes for each century, with the selections performed in what I thought at the time was a manner authentic to their time.
I had plenty of good material to work with but the biggest challenge turned out to be having the older, unfamiliar early music sound “Christmassy”. I still wanted the sampler to have authentic music but also for it to be entertaining and not an academic study collection. Fortunately, there was lively medieval music available, and some of the older songs are performed authentically but in modern-English translation.
The task was helped by the fact that I was not as knowledgeable then about old music as I am now. For example, I mistakenly associated the wassail songs that were collected in the 19th century with their medieval antecedents. If I made this compilation now those selections would not qualify as representing the earlier time period. I now know that while they are rooted in medieval custom the songs were in a constant state of evolution and change. Thus all of them are frozen-in-time representatives of the 19th century rather than intact medieval artifacts.
However, as I look back on it now, the process of compiling this sampler was particularly influential in shaping both my own interests in this seasonal music and in structuring my subsequent samplers. This was the first one that included detailed liner notes. The liner notes were intended to be a one-time thing but I found that got a lot of satisfaction from the research and creative writing aspect of writing them. But adding them to my annual project has at least doubled the amount of time required to develop a complete Sampler.
