2012 Christmas Songbook

7/29/2019 2012 Christmas Songbook

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2 The Times, 2012 Christmas Song Book

Silent Night


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The Times, 2012 Christmas Song Book 3

O Christmas Tree


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Hark! The Herald Angels Sing


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Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Words: Charles Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1739.

Music: Felix Mendelssohn, in his cantata Festgesang an dieKnstler, 1840 (second movement, Vaterland, in deinem Gauen); the

cantata celebrated the 400th anniversary of Johann Gutenbergsinvention of the printing press. This arrangement, by William H.

Cummings, appeared in the Congregational Hymn and Tune Book,by Richard R. Chope, 1857.


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Joy To The World


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Joy To The World

Words: Isaac Watts, The Psalms of David, 1719. Music: ANTIOCH, arranged by Lowell Mason, 1836.


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O Come, All Ye Faithfull


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O Come, All Ye Faithfull


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We Three Kings


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Deck The Halls


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Deck The Halls

"Deck the Halls" is a traditional Yuletide and New Years' carol.The "fa-la-la" refrains were probably originally played on the harp.The melody is Welsh and belongs to a winter carol, Nos Galan. Inthe eighteenth century Mozart used the tune to "Deck the Halls" fora violin and piano duet. But the lyrics we sing now are Americanin origin and are from 1903.The tune is that of an old Welsh air, first found in a musical man-

uscript by Welsh harpist John Parry Ddall (c. 17101782), but un-doubtedly much older than that. The composition is still popular

as a dance tune in Wales, and was published in the 1784 and 1794editions of the harpist Edward Jones's Musical and Poetical Relicsof the Welsh Bards. Poet John Ceiriog Hughes wrote the first pub-lished lyrics for the piece in Welsh, titling it "Nos Galan" ("NewYear's Eve"). A middle verse was later added by folk singers. In theeighteenth century the tune spread widely, with Mozart using it ina piano and violin concerto and, later, Haydn in the song "NewYear's Night."

Originally, carols were dances and not songs. The accompanyingtune would have been used as a setting for any verses of appropri-ate metre. Singers would compete with each other, verse for verse

known as canu penillion dull y De ("singing verses in the south-ern style"). The church actively opposed these folk dances. Conse-quently, tunes originally used to accompany carols became sepa-rated from the original dances, but were still referred to as "carols".

The popular English lyrics for this carol are not a translation fromthe Welsh. The connection with dancing is made explicit in the

English lyrics by the phrase "follow me in merry measure" as"measure" is a synonym for dance. A collection of such sixteenthand seventeenth century dances danced at the Inns of Court inLondon are called the Old Measures. Dancing itself having beenpreviously suppressed by the church was revived during the ren-aissance beginning in fifteenth century Italy.


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Jingle Bells


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Jingle Bells


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Documents

2012 Christmas Songbook