Cambridge Christmas Eve #106: plus ça change

Last week, the exemplar of the modern English choral sound — Kings College Cambridge — reprised their 106th annual Christmas Eve service of Nine Lessons and Carols. The recording of the live BBC broadcast is available until January 23 and the bulletin is available at KCC’s Lessons & Carols website.

The service, created in 1918 and broadcast (almost) continuously since 1928, was central to defining and promoting the distinctive “English” choral sound after World War II.

Both the service and the sound were created by the legendary Arthur Henry Mann (1850-1929), the former Norwich chorister who was appointed to lead KCC in 1876. The transformation of KCC — and English choral music — was brilliantly described by Timothy Day in I Saw Eternity the Other Night, his 2019 book about the choir, which I was fortunate to review in 2021 for the Journal of Anglican Studies.

Changed and Now Different

Although I listen every year, the last time I published a systematic analysis was for 2020’s recorded Covidtide performance. Some things are different and some are not: as the French would say, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. 

This year most noticeable change is the near absence of the work of Stephen Cleobury (1948-2019), who conducted more Christmas Eve broadcasts (37) than any other, with the longest tenure of any KCC music director since Mann.

In 2018 — the centennial of Lessons and Carols and Cleobury’s final Christmas Eve service — both Cleobury and KCC pulled out all the stops, with a major promotional push, a documentary and two CDs — one in anticipation of the centennial and one capturing the centennial service.

The December 2018 service included one piece arranged by Cleobury (“Seven Joys of Mary”), and one edited by him. It also (characteristically) featured three hymns with Cleobury descants: “Once in Royal David’s city,” “While shepherds watched their flocks,” and “Hark, the herald angels sing.” The first was the standard arrangement to open the KCC service for many years: it is listed as the opening descant in the oldest online program for KCC — the 1997 service recorded in the archives of KCC’s 2019 website (as well as 2000, 2010 and many services in between).

As every year since December 2019, the service was led by Daniel Hyde (1980- ), who succeeded Cleobury as music director in October 2019, less than two months before his death. A choral scholar at KCC under Cleobury in 2000, Hyde used the Cleobury opening descant in 2019 and 2020, but not any service since. In fact, none of the hymns sung by the choir since 2021 have included one of Cleobury’s familiar descants.

Changing but the Same

While the service is world-popular for the singing, the original point was the lessons. As the 2020 booklet summarized

Wherever the service is heard and however it is adapted, whether the music is provided by choir or congregation, the pattern and strength of the service, as [Eric] Milner-White pointed out, derive from the lessons. ‘The main theme is the development of the loving purposes of God ...’ seen ‘through the windows and the words of the Bible’.

Unlike the original 1918 service created by Mann and Rev. Milner-White — but like all services from 1997-2007 and since 2018 — the first reading censors God’s pronouncement from Genesis 3:16 as being offensive to modern sensibilities:

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

However, consistent with KCC’s official hymnal, the 1986 New English Hymnal — and unlike (say) Hymnal 1982 — the new-born King was “born that man no more may die” and “to raise the sons of earth.”

The service also continues to introduce new music, both the annual new commissioned carol (instituted by Cleobury in 1983) and another new work in memory of Cleobury.

Congregational Hymns

This year, the congregation had a chance to sing five hymns:

1. Once in Royal David’s City, verses 3-6
2. O Little Town, verses 1-4. Americans are reminded that it's always Ralph Vaughan William’s Forest Green and not the St. Louis we hear on the radio.
3. The First Nowell, verses 1,2,4,6 (and all refrains)
4. O Come All Ye Faithful, verses 1-7
5. Hark! the Herald-Angels Sing, verses 1-3. As in the New English Hymnal used at King’s College (but unlike Hymnal 1982) Jesus was “Born that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth.”

According to David Sniden’s KCC database, the first hymn and the last two are unchanged for all services since 1997, and were part of the original 1918 service (although in 1918 the choir performed a carol before the first hymn).

With Cleobury’s descants banished, #1 had a descant by Philip Ledger (who led KCC from 1974-1982) and #3, #4 and #5 descants by David Willcocks (1957-1973). For Adeste Fideleis, verse 6 uses the Willcocks descant while the refrain to verse 7 was reharmonized by Hyde.

A pleasant surprise was the descant by Thomas Armstrong to #2 (“O Little Town”), which seems quite traditional (if not retro) compared to the more flowery descants of the past two or three decades. This descant was previously sung by KCC (under Cleobury) in 2016 and captured on this KCC audio recording among several found on YouTube. 

Armstrong is a common name, but the liner from a 2015 Christmas CD from Queen’s College Oxford helpfully notes that the descant is by “Thomas Armstrong (1898 – 1994)”. Armstrong was the organist at Christ Church, Oxford from 1933-1955. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

[I]n 1923 he … pursue[d] composition studies at the Royal College of Music with Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, and R. O. Morris. …As a composer, Armstrong belonged to the gentle English tradition of Parry, Vaughan Williams, Howells, and Finzi; …. His own compositions are unjustly neglected, many remaining unpublished. One aspect of his music, however, is more familiar than people realize, for some of the striking descants sung in Christmas carol services and concerts were written by him. He acknowledged Vaughan Williams to be the greatest influence of anybody on his life.

This Year’s Carols

Beyond the hymns, there were only a handful of choral pieces that (if (s)he were just listening without a program) the average listener would say “that is a carol.” Two are familiar carols: “The angel Gabriel” and “Come ye faithful Christians” (aka Hereford Carol).

Another is Cleobury’s 2012 arrangement of “King Jesus hath a garden.” It’s not one I’ve heard before, but it sounds like a traditional carol — perhaps because the tune has been sung by the Dutch for nearly 400 years. A third is Ledger’s “A spotless rose is blooming,” written by Ledger in 2002 for KCC using a German text translated by Catherine Winkworth. All seem consistent with Percy Dearmer’s 1931 explanation of the role of a carol of expressing the joy of the season:

The typical carol gives voice to the common emotions of healthy people in language that can be understood and music that can be shared by all. Because it is popular it is therefore genial as well as simple; it dances because it is so Christian, echoing St. Paul’s conception of the fruits of the Spirit in its challenge to be merry — ‘Love and joy come to you’. (Dearmer, 1931, p. v-vi)

Two pieces are more like what one scholar termed an “anthem carol” — although not strophic, they (mostly) have the feel of a traditional Christmas carol — both because of the texts and also because they are written by well-known sacred composers.

The first was the KCC debut of “And all the stars looked down,” premiered at the 2022 Christmas concert of the Lord’s Taverners: John Rutter adapted a Chesterton poem to new music written in Cleobury’s memory. The other was “O radiant dawn,” written by James MacMillan using the text for Dec. 21 from the Advent “O Antiphons” (also verse 5 of the Veni Emmanuel Advent hymn).

Other “Carols”

In one way or another, the other pieces don’t quite sound like carols. Perhaps the closest was this year’s carol commissioned by KCC — “He smiles within his cradle” by Cheryl Frances-Hoad — which uses dynamics and other familiar carol techniques, even if the harmony is not what most listeners would expect.

Two other ones were also close. One is “Benedicamus Domino,” a 1924 carol by Peter Warlock. Listening to it again, there were two reasons that I didn’t care for it. First, with the unfamiliar Latin words racing by, I had no idea what they were singing (the program includes an English translation). Second, the texture of the BBC broadcast seemed muddy — whether due to my home stereo, the chapel’s notorious acoustics or the BBC audio mixing, I can’t really say. With the same speakers, another YouTube recording captures joyous sentiment of the refrain translated “Hurrah, this is our year!”, with a Dec. 23 performance by Magdalene College, Oxford.

The other is the 2006 setting of “Adam lay ybounden” by Matthew Martin, former music director of Keble College, Oxford. As with the YouTube Covidtide performance by Pembroke College Cambridge, it has an atmospheric feel to it rather the rigid stanzas of the more familiar carol by (former KCC music director) Boris Ord. But to me, that feel means that the sound and texture pre-empt the teaching value of the text — and thus (IMHO) the Ord rendition is more suitable for a services of Lessons & Carols, where historically the carols has taught as much (or more) than the lessons.

The remaining three, written in the last 40 years, feel out of place at a celebration of the birth of baby Jesus. They may be a triumph for modern music, but not something I would expect earn a lasting spot in the (vast) Christmas repertoire (but then I have a strong bias against modern tonality).

This Year’s Sung Service

For the record, here is the full list of this year’s choral and congregational music (with composition dates where available). Past and present KCC music directors are shown in italics.

1. (Hymn) Once in Royal David's city: C.F. Alexander; music by Henry Gauntlett, arranged by A.H. Mann, descant by Philip Ledger
2. Out of your sleep: 15th century; music by Robin Nelson (1999)
3. Adam lay ybounden: 15th century; music by Matthew Martin (2006)
4. Illuminare Jerusalem: 16th century; music by Judith Weir (1985). Commissioned by KCC.
5. O radiant dawn: Liber Usalis; music by James MacMillan (2007)
6. (Hymn) O Little Town of Bethlehem: Phillips Brooks; traditional English tune arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams, descant by Thomas Armstrong
7. King Jesus hath a garden: 17th century Dutch (Heer Jesus beeft een Hofken) translated by G.R. Woodward; traditional Dutch tune adapted by Charles Wood, arranged by Stephen Cleobury
8. A spotless rose is blowing: 14th century German (trans. Catherine Winkworth); music by Philip Ledger (2002), originally composed for Stephen Cleobury and KCC.
9. The Angel Gabriel: Sabine Baring-Gould; Basque carol, arranged by David Willcocks
10. Come ye faithful Christians (Hereford Carol): traditional English; English folk tune, arranged by Christopher Robinson (2012)
11. Who is there that singeth so (Sir Christèmas): 15th century English; music by William Mathias (1971)
12. (Hymn) The First Nowell: traditional Cornish; traditional Cornish tune, arranged by David Willcocks (1961)
13. He smiles within his cradle (The Cradle): 17th century Austrian; music by Cheryl Frances-Hoad (2023). Commissioned by KCC.
14. And all the stars looked down: G.K. Chesterton; music by John Rutter (2022), composed in Cleobury’s memory
15. Benedicamus Domino: 15th century English; music by Peter Warlock (1924)
16. (Hymn) O come all ye faithful: J.F. Wade translated by Frederick Oakley et al; music by J.F. Wade, arranged by David Willcocks and Daniel Hyde
17. (Hymn) Hark! the herald-angels sing: Charles Wesley et al; music by Felix Mendelssohn, descant by David Willcocks

References

• Day, Timothy. I Saw Eternity the Other Night: King's College, Cambridge, and an English Singing Style. Penguin UK, 2018.
• Dearmer, Percy, “Preface”. In Percy Dearmer, Martin Shaw, and Ralph Vaughan Williams (eds.) The Oxford Book of Carols, Oxford University Press, 1931, pp. v-xxvi.
• Stoker, Richard. “Armstrong, Sir Thomas Henry Waitunlocked (1898–1994),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography." (2004), https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/54713 

Loyal Lutheran Listeners Love Christmas Carols

On Friday, @IssuesEtc repeated their annual listener poll of favorite Christmas hymns and carols. Here I analyze in detail how the 20 songs selected map onto #Lutheran (and #Anglican) hymnody, as well as how this relates to the availability of recordings (a topic I discussed this month for Advent hymns).

The December 23 show demonstrated the skill of the show’s host, Pastor Todd Wilken, who soon begins his 25th year behind the microphone. He expertly merged 41 votes (from phone calls, email, Tweets and Facebook comments) for these pieces. But more generally, this episode is a masterful use of the radio (or MP3-delayed podcast) format, with brief (and mostly interesting) listener suggestions interspersed with playing recordings of the crowd favorites.

The Nominees

Formally entitled “What Is Your Favorite Christmas Hymn, and Why?” Friday’s two-hour show played 20 musical pieces. I looked each one up on Hymnary: Hymnary’s total of hymnals using the hymn (listed below) includes alternate translations. 

In alphabetical order (with the start times indicated), these 20 pieces were:

1. “All my heart this night rejoices” [01:26:40]: translated from “Fröhlich soll mein Herze springen” by Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676); 267 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/all_my_heart_this_night_rejoices. 

2. “Angels we have heard on high” [00:39:10]: translated from “Les Anges dans nos Campagnes”, an 18th century French carol; 213 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/angels_we_have_heard_on_high. Performed by Solo Deo Cantorum.

3. “Break forth, O beauteous heavenly light” [00:52:40]: by Johann Rist (1607-1667); 55 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/break_forth_o_beauteous_heavenly_light. Performed by Robert Shaw Chamber Singers.

4. “For unto us a child is born” [01:13:55]: by G.F. Händel (1685-1759).  Performed by Bach Collegium Japan.

5. “From heaven above to earth I come” [00:58:30]: translated from “Vom himmel hoch” by Martin Luther (1483-1546); 147 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/from_heaven_above_to_earth_i_come_to_bea. 

6. “God rest ye merry gentlemen” [01:29:50]:, an 18th century English carol; 116 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/god_rest_ye_merry_gentlemen. Performed by King's College Choir.

7. “Hark the herald angels sing” [00:17:20]: by Charles Wesley (1707-1788); 1350 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/hark_the_herald_angels_sing_glory_to. Performed by King's College Choir.

8. “Joy to the world” [00:02:35]: by Isaac Watts (1674-1748); 1814 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/joy_to_the_world_the_lord_is_come. Performed by John Rutter & Cambridge Singers.

9. “Let our gladness have no end” [00:24:50]: translated from “Narodil se Kristus Pán”, 15th century Bohemian carol; 10 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/let_our_gladness_have_no_end. Performed by Children's Choirs of St. Paul Lutheran Church (Fort Wayne).

10. “Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming” [01:36:20]: translated from “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen”, 16th century German carol; 106 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/lo_how_a_rose_eer_blooming. Performed by LPR Choir.

11. “O come, all ye faithful” [01:05:25]: translated from “Adeste Fidelis” by James Frances Wade (1711-1786); 924 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/o_come_all_ye_faithful_joyful_and_triump. Performed by King's College Choir.

12. “O Holy Night” [00:21:50]: translated from “Cantique de Noël” by Placide Cappeau (1808-1877); 45 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/o_holy_night_the_stars_are_brightly_shin. Performed by Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

13. “O how Joyfully” [01:33:40]: translated from “O du Fröhliche” by Johann Daniel Falk (1728-1826); 129 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/o_du_frohliche_o_du_selige. Performed by Kapelle of Concordia University Chicago.

14. “O Jesus Christ, thy manager is” [00:47:55]: translated from “O Jesu Christ, Dein Kripplein Ist” by Paul Gerhardt; 7 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/o_jesus_christ_thy_manger_is. 

15. “Of the father's love begotten” [00:31:50]: translated from “Corde natus ex Parentis” by Prudentius (348-405+); 218 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/of_the_fathers_love_begotten. Performed by Cantorei of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne.

16. “Praise God the Lord ye sons of men” [00:06:15]: translated from “Lobt Gott Ihr Christen” by Nikolaus Herman (c.1500-1561); 115 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/praise_god_the_lord_ye_sons_of_men. Performed by LPR Choir.

17. “Silent Night” [01:18:25]: translated from “Stille Nacht” by Joseph Mohr (1792-1848); 749 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/silent_night_holy_night_all_is_calm_all. Performed by Musica Sacra.

18. “What child is this” [00:44:45]: by W. Chatterton Dix (1837-1898); 197 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/what_child_is_this_who_laid_to_rest. Performed by Richard Proulx & The Cathedral Singers.

19. “What sweeter music” [01:44:15]: by Robert Herrick (1591-1674).  Performed by John Rutter & Cambridge Singers.

20. “Where shepherds lately knelt” [00:10:30]: by Jaroslav Vajda (1919-2008); 9 hymnals. https://hymnary.org/text/where_shepherds_lately_knelt_and_kept_th. 

Note that two are not actually hymns (and don’t appear in hymnals). One is “For until us a child is born,” the 12th movement from Part I (the Advent section) of Händel’s. The other is “What sweeter music,” a carol written by John Rutter (based on a 16th century poem) for the 1987 King’s College Cambridge Lessons & Carols service.

Of the 18 hymns, 7 were originally in German — perhaps not surprising for a radio show serving the main Lutheran denomination established by German immigrants to the U.S. Meanwhile, 2 were from French and 2 from Latin — all four of these are popular American carols, as are two of the German ones.

Performers

Some performers were announced, while in other cases Shazam identified the recording for me.

Not surprisingly, six familiar pieces were performed by professional caliber English choirs: King’s College Cambridge (3), John Rutter and his Cambridge Singers (2) and Richard Proulx and The Cathedral Singers (1). Four came from similar caliber American choirs, with one each by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Musica Sacra, Robert Shaw Chamber Singers and Solo Deo Gloria Cantroum, and one Japanese group (Bach Collegium Japan).

Five of the German Lutheran hymns were credited to US Lutheran performers, including elite choirs from Concordia Chicago and the Fort Wayne seminary. Three German hymns and one 20th century LCMS hymn were uncredited, but some sounded like the LPR Choir (credited with two performances).

Singing these Hymns at Christmas

To see how much these hymns could be sung by congregations — and to judge how “Lutheran” these hymns are — I looked at the latest hymnal of the largest U.S. Lutheran jurisdictions:

• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006)
• Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod: Lutheran Service Book (2006)
• Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod: Christian Worship (1993)
• Evangelical Lutheran Synod: Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (1996)

For Anglican comparison, also searched the latest Church of England hymnal used in most English choral recordings (New English Hymnal), The Episcopal Church hymnal also used by ACNA parishes (Hymnal 1982), and the main hymnal of Continuing Anglicans (Hymnal 1940). (Note I am ignoring variations in tunes and text, which were a big deal for Advent hymns I examined earlier).

	Denomination	TEC	TEC	CoE	ELCA	LCMS	WELS	ELS
Seq	Text	H40	H82	NEH	ELW	LSB	CW	ELH
1	All my heart this night rejoices	32	545		273	360	37	115
2	Angels we have heard on high	42	96		289	368	63	116
3	Break forth, O beauteous heavenly light	25	91			378	44
5	From heaven above to earth I come				268	358	38	123 & 124
6	God rest ye merry gentlemen	40	105					126
7	Hark the herald angels sing	27	87	26	270	380	61	125
8	Joy to the world	775	100		267	387	62	138
9	Let our gladness have no end				291	381
10	Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming	17	81		272	359
11	O come, all ye faithful	12	93	30	283	379	55	133
14	O Jesus Christ, thy manager is					372	40	161
15	Of the Father's love begotten	20	82	33	295	384	35	181
16	Praise God the Lord ye sons of men							148
17	Silent Night	33	111	34		363		140
18	What child is this	36	115	40	296	370	67	145
20	Where shepherds lately knelt					369	54

No surprise that the Händel (#4) and Rutter (#19) choral pieces were not in hymnals, and only a small surprise that “O Holy Night” (#12) is not.

The big surprise was the absence of two German Lutheran hymns in the German hymnal: “O du Fröhliche” (#13) was not in any current hymnal, while “Lobt Gott Ihr Christen” (#16) was only in the hymnal of the (historically Norwegian) ELS (although both tunes were used elsewhere in recent Lutheran hymnals). Also, the hymn by 17th century Lutheran Pastor Jacob Rist (#3) with its Bach harmonization seems more popular among Episcopalians than Lutherans.

The Winner: a Favorite for 16 Centuries

Thirteen of the hymns were nominated by only one caller (or correspondent), including such perennial favorites such as “Angels we have heard on high” and “Silent night.” Three received two votes; those with more were

• 3 votes: ”Joy to the world” and “O come, all the faithful”
• 5 votes: “Hark the herald angels sing”

Most of the reasons for the votes were either because of what the text teaches, or strong personal memories or sentiments associated with the hymn.

With 11 votes, the landslide winner was “Of the Father’s love begotten,” a 4th century hymn by Prudentius that I blogged about in 2008 (based on an Issues Etc. discussion of the hymn by a LCMS seminary Professor Arthur Just) and 2010. Of course, I’m particularly excited because the hymn was introduced into the English-language repertoire by John Mason Neale, the great hymn translator of the 19th century.

What was particularly interesting were many of the comments by those who wrote to nominate the hymn. I tried to transcribe all 11 comments, but here are some excerpts:

• Elaine: “because of the transcendent beauty of the music and the lyrics”
• Joshua: “text and tune are beautiful, and a long part of the church’s history”
• Janet: “because I have always loved ancient melodies and texts”
• David: “it’s been sung by Christians since the fourth century”
• Jennifer: “the simplicity of the plainchant makes you focus on the fabulous lyrics which take you from the beginning of time to the end, full of the gospel message combined that with the age of the hymn and I love thinking about all the saints before who have sung the same words”
• Brandon: “I love the beautiful simplicity of that ancient hymn. It’s a joy to hear or sing — with or without accompaniment — yet the majesty of the lyrics can still awe.  And given its age I like how by singing it, the church unites across time and space in language to honor the birth of our savior.”

To me, this is the epitome of the argument for what I call “timeless hymns” and this hymn’s place at the front of the panoply of such hymns.

I realize that those who call and nominate a hymn are not a cross-section of a parish or denomination. Still, I think it suggests that the arguments that we have to dumb down worship to reach Christian worshippers are giving up much too easily.

References

• Joint Commission on the Revision of the Hymnal, The Hymnal 1940 Companion, 3rd ed. (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1951).
• Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrot, The New Oxford Book of Carols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992)
• Joel W. West, “Singing Together for the Advent of our Lord,” North American Anglican, December 22, 2022, URL: https://northamanglican.com/singing-together-for-the-advent-of-our-lord/

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas Carols

Today was both the 12th day of Christmas, and the last service of Christmastide. As with most Anglican churches, our music director had to schedule something from the Christmas section of the hymnal — after using many of the best known hymns on Dec. 24 (two services), Dec. 25 and Dec. 29 (1st Sunday after Christmas). As we prepare for 353 days without Christmas carols until the afternoon of December 24, three pieces of music this music stood out.

Sussex Carol

My daughter was thrilled that the offertory anthem was the David Willcocks arrangement of the Sussex Carol (”On Christmas night all Christians sing"). She is a huge King’s College fan, and after listening to the 100 Years of Nine Lessons and Carols for the past year, she has the melody, words and many of the descants memorized (particularly those of Willcocks and Philip Ledger). Although I have a number of recordings of this carol, the Willcocks is instantly recognizable on the third verse, the first of two verses with a descant: the boy sopranos are soaring over the top with choral colorings that accentuate the harmonies (but have little to do with the words).

Hymnary says this carol is found in 39 hymnals

• Lutheran (ELCA): Lutheran Worship (1978), Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2008)
• Presbyterian Church USA: Glory to God (2013)
• Southern Baptist Convention: the unofficial Celebrating Grace (2010), more progressive than the official Baptist Hymnal (2008)

As far as I can tell, these do not list descants in the main hymnal (but sometimes these have auxiliary descant books). However, the Willcocks arrangement with descant is in his Carols for Christmas.

Of the Father’s Love

Beyond the King’s favorite, my heart was gladdened that two of the three hymns were by John Mason Neale, the great Victorian hymn translator (and subject of my first music publication). The communion hymn was “Of the Father’s love begotten.” (H40: 20; H82: 82). This hymn was the subject of one of my first posts on this blog, back 11 years ago.

The text (at the end of the 4th century) by Prudentius. The Neale translation of “Of the Father sole begotten” first appeared in his 1851 Hymnal Noted. According to my 2018 paper in The Hymn, it was the 4th most popular hymn in 20th century US hymnals of the 105 texts and tunes in Hymnal Noted.

The Latin text (“Corde natus ex parentis”) was intended as a Christmastide evening hymn, and the tune (Divinum mysterium) was listed by Neale as a 13th century melody. The initial verse was later changed to “Of the Father’s love begotten” by H.W. Baker for  Hymns Ancient & Modern.

Hymnal Noted had 6 verses, but H40 only has 5 (H82 has only 4). The English Hymnal (#613) has 9 and the New English Hymnal (#33) has 7, but both use a later translation by R.F. Davis (“Of the father’s heart begotten”).

My favorite verse today — one I hadn’t noticed before — is V4 in H40:

Thee let old men, thee let young men,
Thee let boys in chorus sing;
Matrons virgins, little maidens,
With glad voices answering:
Let their guileless songs re-echo,
And the heart is music bring,
Evermore and evermore!

It has significant modifications from Neale’s V5

Thee let age, and Thee let manhood,
Thee let choirs of infants sing;
Thee the matrons and the virgins,
And the children answering:
Let their modest song re-echo,
And their heart its praises bring,
Evermore and evermore.

Even so, there are two reasons I like it. First, it suggests the true joy of singing to the gift of the Christ child from God the Father. Second, it alludes to an antiphonal or responsive style of singing — 1000+ years before Neale and the Victorian choirs — which is a wonderful image of continuity for such a timeless hymn.

We closed out this unison hymn with a descant written by our music director that (AFAIK) is only sung at our church.

Good Christian Men Rejoice

We closed with the familiar “Good Christian men, rejoice!”. It was first published in 1853 by Neale and Thomas Helmore in Carols for Christmastide.  As Neale’s preface explains, the texts (except for Good King Wenceslas and Toll! Toll!) are free translations from the 16th century Swedish Lutheran Piae Cantiones (available online in a 1910 reprint). In Neale’s book, “Good Christian Men” is listed as “perhaps 14th century.” Our hymnal (H40)— like the original text — includes only three verses: at a normal tempo, the carol seems like it’s over almost as soon as it’s begun.

The 1853 book included Helmore’s adaptation of medieval tunes for each carol — in this case, the instantly recognizable In Dulce Jubilo. The harmonization in Hymnal 1940 is credited to Hymnal 1916 (#549), from the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA (PECUSA).

Interestingly, the harmonization was done by Winfred Douglas. In 1916, the name might not have meant much, but twenty years later, he had edited and published Hymnal 1940. Unlike Hymnal 1916 and 1906's The English Hymnal, H40 contained a section with settings of mass and daily office chants for regular, congregation-sung chanting. The hymnal thus played a key role in 20th century American hymnody by introducing (or re-introducing) to the world many plainchant settings, adaptations and harmonizations.


Hymnary says this carol in 197 hymnals. This total includes the gender-neutered variant “Good Christian friends” that was introduced by the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship, and then copied by Hymnal 1982 and subsequent Methodist, Presbyterian and even Catholic hymnals — as well as Celebrating Grace.

Alas, the 1853 book held an influence far past its modern-day holdings: it’s not on the British, Oxford or Cambridge libraries, and WorldCat lists only one copy, in the Royal College of Music. No copies have been scanned by Archive.org or Google Books, but all the texts are included in the posthumous 1914 Collected Hymns, Sequences and Carols of John Mason Neale.

In defense of Victorian carols

In my defense of Anglican hymnals against exaggerated claims by @LutheranSatire, I got a little pushback. My previous defense was that these anachronistic “snow” carols are comparatively rare. For example, in the latest U.S. Anglican hymnal, Book of Common Praise 2017, of the 56 Christmas hymns (not counting Advent or Epiphany), two are these “snow” hymns: “In the bleak midwinter” and “Snow lay on the ground.”

The Satirical Accusation

In the original video, “Luther” (i.e. Pastor Hans Fiene) argued with two upper-crust Englishmen (one a vicar with clerical collar) over how they wrote hymns. Their hymn begins

The snow was cold
And the snow was bright
And the snow was all around
Christ was born
On the day that God
Sent snow upon the ground.

to which “Luther” said (in effect) that it really snow in Bethlehem, and snow is not the reason why the first Christmas was such an important event in human history. He chastised them to get past the snow and tell the message of why God sent his son to the earth. The author’s summary of the video is

Instead of focusing on theology, the British love meditating on snow, silence, and livestock in their Christmas hymns. Martin Luther finds this annoying.

How Bad Are The Four Worst Hymns?

As I noted yesterday, there are four 19th century Anglican hymns that mention this cold/snow theme, and all open with this theme — in most cases, the “worst” verse in the sense that it proved “Luther’s” point.

So, according to the “Luther” standard, I went back (using the Hymnary.org lyrics) and tried to find how well the author got around to telling a message about the meaning of Christ’s birth. Here is what I found

Worst	Best
1. In the Bleak Midwinter
In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, in the bleak midwinter, long ago.	Our God, heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain; heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign. In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.
2. The Snow Lay on the Ground
The snow lay on the ground, The stars shone bright, When Christ our Lord was born On Christmas night. Venite adoremus Dominum; Venite adoremus Dominum.	And thus that manger poor Became a throne; For He Whom Mary bore Was God the Son. O come, then, let us join The heavenly host, To praise the Father, Son, And Holy Ghost.
3. See Amid the Winter's Snow
See, amid the winter's snow, born for us on earth below, see the tender Lamb appears, promised from eternal years. Hail! Thou ever-blessed morn! Hail, redemption's happy dawn! Sing through all Jerusalem, "Christ is born in Bethlehem."	Lo, within a manger lies He who built the starry skies; He, who throned in height sublime, sits amid the cherubim! Hail! Thou ever-blessed morn! Hail, redemption's happy dawn! Sing through all Jerusalem, "Christ is born in Bethlehem."
4. ’Twas in the Winter Cold
’Twas in the winter cold, when earth Was desolate and wild, That angels welcomed at His birth The everlasting Child. From realms of ever bright’ning day, And from His throne above He came with humankind to stay, All lowliness and love.	Grant me Thyself, O Savior kind, The Spirit undefiled, That I may be in heart and mind As gentle as a child; That I may tread life’s arduous ways As Thou Thyself hast trod, And in the might of prayer and praise Keep ever close to God.

Of these, I would say #2 and #3 eventually make a theological point that would satisfy the pickiest Luther-ite; by emphasizing a subjective response, #4 never quite gets there although the sentiment is appropriate; and #1 never really gets past the contemplation into explaining the significance of Christ’s birth.

Remember that

1. is the famous English carol sung most years by King’s College Cambridge, and the only one sung regularly at Anglican churches; 
2. is found in recent Anglican hymnals but not in any top 10 or top 25 list of Christmas hymns at Anglican churches;
3. is an English Catholic hymn not found in US Anglican hymnals, but was published in the Lutheran Service Book (2006), the most recent hymnal from Pastor Fiene’s denomination;
4. is so obscure that it’s only been found in five hymnals total since it was published in 1871 and thus is irrelevant to any claims about what Anglican think, sing or say.

Update: To be fair, “In the Bleak Midwinter” is also the one with the greatest cultural impact. Amazon lists a total of 189 digital recordings of this hymn, including more than a dozen by English cathedral or chapel choirs, including King’s College Cambridge (both Holst and Darke). It also has (relatively sober) recordings by the Cambridge Singers, Chanticleer, the King's Singers, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Pop recordings include the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Moody Blues, Dan Fogelberg, James Taylor, Julie Andrews, Sarah Brightman, and (of course) Keith and Kristyn Getty. (The total is inflated somewhat by including instrumental recordings without the problematic text, such as the one by The Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines).

So, in effect, the criticism by “Luther” boils down to a single poem by Christina Rossetti, one that the editors of The English Hymnal decided in 1906 to pair with a purpose-written Gustav Holst tune for the first new Anglican hymnal of the 20th century. Even stipulating this omission, does this justify the suggestion that Anglican Christmas hymns tend to be “inferior hymns”?

Victorian Christmas Anachronisms

The 19th century brought not on the rise of distinctively English hymns and carols, but also anachronistic characterization of Bethlehem winters. @LutheranSatire has been particularly caustic in its evaluation, with Pastor Hans Fiene (in his alter ego M. Luther) ridiculing two Victorian gentlemen as they compose “Inferior Anglican Christmas Hymns”.

On the one hand, the enthusiasm of Victorian England was admirable, as a single hymnal — Hymns Ancient & Modern — became the first in Britain (AFAIK in the world) so sell over 8 million copies in less than 50 years (Long 1971; Orford 2017). Nowhere was this enthusiasm greater than at Christmas. As the “Victorian Era” website says

What better way to get into the festive spirit then singing a Victorian Christmas carol. During this era, they were very into joyful choruses of Christmas songs and had revived old medieval songs whilst adding their own spin and writing new ones!

These were meant for both the relaxed occasions such as when singing amongst friends and family and the other songs were meant for more religious, respectful occasions.

And some of the 19th century carols, including many of those by J.M. Neale, were translations or reharmonizations of ancient or medieval hymns that were centuries old. If there was snow involved — as in Neale’s “Good King Wenceslas” — it was in Britain and not 31° N of Bethlehem.

Other winter excesses cannot be traced to the Victorians. This includes the “in kaltem winter” (“cold of winter”) in the 16th century carol “Es ist ein Ros” (“Lo, how a rose e'er blooming” to Anglicans) or the 20th century American secular ditties like “Let it Snow!” (1945) or “Frosty the Snowman” (1950).

Nonetheless, by searching through Hymnary and my Anglican hymnals, I found exactly four Anglican hymns that, to a greater or lesser degree, might attract the scorn of Pastor Luther Fiene. (Although one might be hypocritical for a 21st century LCMS pastor to attack).

1. In the Bleak Midwinter

This poem by English poet Christina Rossetti was commissioned by and published by an American magazine in 1872. It is by far her most popular work (Beall 2015). As a hymn, it has been published in at least 70 hymnals. None of these are by the Missouri or Wisconsin synod Lutherans, but it does appear in the latest (2006) and most ecumenical ELCA hymnal, Evangelical Lutheran Worship.

The first stanza is the one that would cool any appreciation by Pr. Fiene:

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter, long ago.

As a hymn, it first appeared in The English Hymnal (1906), with a new tune written for this text: Cranham by Gustav Holst. (Yes, that Gustav Holst.) According to Hymnary.org, it accounts for 63/70 of the hymnals printing of the text; six are Castle by Don Cason and one Adventist hymnal that used Uinta by the hymnal’s editor.

However, not found in any hymnal is the 1909 setting of the hymn by Harold Darke — instead in choral anthem books. However, it is a regular favorite of the King’s College Cambridge annual Lessons & Carols service — according to David Sinden, of the last 23 broadcasts, 11 had Darke and two Holst. It was also once voted the best Christmas carol of all time.

2. The Snow Lay on the Ground

For the first Sunday after Christmas, we sang “The Snow Lay on the Ground” (Hymnal 1940: 41; Hymnal 1982: 110; Book of Common Praise 2017: 81; New English Hymnal: 28). Hymnary.org says it appears in 39 hymnals, and quotes Julian (1907) in summarizing its origins as

This appears to be a West of England traditional carol, and is given as such in R. R. Chope's Carols, 1875, No. 44, where it begins "The snow lay deep upon the ground." In the Crown of Jesus, 1862, No. 146, it begins “The snow lay on the ground" and is marked, with regard to the tune, as "Christmas Carol, sung in Rome by the Pifferari from the Abruzzi Mountains." The text of 1862 is in the Arundel Hymnal, 1902, and many others. 

The 39 hymnals include Episcopalian and Catholic Hymnals, but neither Hymns A&M (1861-1904) or The English Hymnal (1906) nor any Lutheran hymnal. Again, it’s the first verse that would boil Fiene’s blood:

The snow lay on the ground,
The stars shone bright,
When Christ our Lord was born
On Christmas night.
Venite adoremus Dominum;
Venite adoremus Dominum.

3. See Amid the Winter's Snow

Surpisingly popular is “See Amid the Winter’s Snow,” penned in 1858 by Anglo-Catholic (turned Roman Catholic) hymnist Edward Caswall. Among the 140 hymnals listed by Hymnary, it’s found in the Anglican hymnals of Canada and Ireland, the 1990 Presbyterian Hymnal, and (natch) numerous Catholic hymnals. (But no Episcopalian or American Anglican hymnals).

Again, the first stanza fits the problematic pattern:

See, amid the winter's snow,
born for us on earth below,
see the tender Lamb appears,
promised from eternal years.
Hail! Thou ever-blessed morn!Hail, redemption's happy dawn!Sing through all Jerusalem,"Christ is born in Bethlehem."

However, it appears that Luther’s influence is limited among the German-American Lutherans, as it is hymn #373 Pastor Fiene’s favorite hymnal — the current (2006) LCMS Lutheran Service Book.

4. ’Twas in the Winter

Here my ignorance is more excusable, as this 1871 text by Irish clergyman Rev. Charles Ingham Black appears in only five hymnals. The most prominent is nearly 150 years ago, from John Stainer’s Christmas Carols New and Old.

I doubt our fussy German-American pastor has heard of this hymn, but if he did, again he’d turn straight to the first verse

’Twas in the winter cold, when earth
Was desolate and wild,
That angels welcomed at His birth
The everlasting Child.
From realms of ever bright’ning day,
And from His throne above
He came with humankind to stay,
All lowliness and love.

Summary

I don’t think four hymns support Pastor Fiene’s claim for a trend for Anglican anachronistic Christmas carols, particularly given there lack of popularity:

• None was published in the dominant Victorian hymnal, Hymns Ancient & Modern, during Victoria’s life — either the 1861 or 1889 editions.
• Only one (#1) was found in The English Hymnal, the Edwardian collection of Victorian hymns published in 1906.
• Only two (#1,#2) were published the American Anglican/Episcopal hymnals of the 20th and 21st centuries. 
• A third hymn (#3)— as bad as the others — was selected by his LCMS colleagues to be published in his preferred hymnal

So to paraphrase an English playwright back: methinks the pastor doth protest too much.

The most influential 19th century Anglican hymnwriter, John Mason Neale, did not write any Christmas carols (other than Wenceslas) that survive to this day; his best-remembered hymns are for Easter and Palm Sunday. However, his most reprinted Advent hymn — a translation of a medieval Latin text written centuries before Herr Doktor Luther was born — contains exactly the sort of timeless truths Pastor Fiene would espouse.

In its current form (from the 1861 edition of Hymns A&M) , “O come, O come, Emmanuel” is the second hymn in my favorite hymnal (#357 in Pastor Fiene’s hymnal)

Oh, come, Oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

References

• Beall, Mary Kay, “In the Bleak Midwinter,” The Hymn, 56, 4 (Autumn 2015), 47-49.
• Julian, John, Dictionary of Hymnology,  London: Murray, 1907. URL: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/julian_j/
• Long, Kenneth R., The Music of the English Church (New York: St. Martin’s, 1971), p. 334
• Orford, Barry A., “Music and Hymnody” in Stewart J. Brown, James Pereiro, and Peter Nockles, eds., The Oxford Handbook of the Oxford Movement (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 376-386.
• Christmas Carols New and Old, by Henry R. Bramley & John Stainer (London: Novello, Ewer & Co., 1871). URL: https://archive.org/details/christmascarolsn00staiiala

Update: See further discussion of these four hymn on Dec. 30

A Cause for Caroling: BBC Reprises Xmas Radio Series

Back in December 2013, the BBC 4 radio ran a 10-part series entitled “A Cause for Caroling.” Hosted by Oxford choir director (and former choirboy) Jeremy Summerly, it traces the history of Christmas carols. It was really interesting, and — allowing for the strong point of view – I learned a lot.

Under the BBC business model, it was only available for a 30 days on BBC.co.uk and then blocked in favor of selling a two hour CD on Amazon’s UK or US website. However, it came back in December 2015 — and starting on Dec 11, the BBC began making the episodes available for 30 days each.

Below I provide the official abstracts of the series and the ten 15-minute episodes. The BBC also originally released two one-hour “omnibus” episodes — which separately summarize week 1 and week 2 — but these have not been available since 2013.

Below are the abstracts for the 10 episodes

1. A Carol’s a Carol, to Begin With

The first programme in a ten part series in which choral conductor and scholar Jeremy Summerly tells the story of the Christmas Carol in Britain. He begins by trying to capture something of the caroling traditions of today and then heads back into the misty caroling past discovering what he believes is the first carol in the English language.

2. Spreading the Medieval Word Made Flesh

The second programme in Jeremy Summerly's ten part series tracing the history of the Christmas Carol in Britain. Today he discovers the impact of the Franciscans in using the carol to make the birth of Jesus a focus for the church and harnessing the energy of popular music to that end.

3. From Coventry to Agincourt

In the third programme in the series Jeremy finds a developing professionalism in carol singing and writing in the details of a manuscript held by Cambridge University, and he reveals the background of the Coventry carol's mystery play setting. The combination of energetic drama and more refined singing men makes this period a caroling golden age but with clouds on the horizon.

4. Carol Crisis? What Crisis?

In the fourth programme in the series Jeremy describes the impact of the Reformation and later Puritan attitudes to music in general and carols in particular. The development of the Medieval carol may have been arrested but there was never a serious threat to folk caroling and it wasn't long after the Commonwealth that carols, or rather one particular carol, was back in church.

5. The Ghosts of the West Gallery

In the fifth programme of his series telling the story of the Christmas Carol Jeremy Summerly visits Dorchester where Thomas Hardy captured the caroling tradition that had matured through the 17th and 18th century but which faced extinction in the 19th. The West Gallery tradition of musicians and singers in parish churches was an integral part of community life in Hardy's Wessex as elsewhere. Jeremy explains the origins of that tradition and the fuguing carols so beloved at the time and why it was that their days were numbered.

Along with folk musician Tim Laycock he gets to see the carol manuscripts from which Hardy's great grandfather played and sang on Christmas night in 1800.

6. A Second Golden Age

In the sixth part of his story of the Christmas Carol Jeremy Summerly reaches the 19th century and publications of old folk carols from what was thought to be a dying tradition. However, by mid-century, with the Tracterean movement in the Church of England at its height the carol and the singing of carols was once again hugely popular. It was the publication of a 'Christmas Carols New and Old by Henry Ramsden Bramley and John Stainer in 1867, that marked the height of another caroling golden age. However, it was now big business and there were reputations at stake when folk carol collectors saw their work hoovered up by the might of Bramley and Stainer. Jeremy also tells the story of the little 16th century Finnish manual 'Piae Cantiones' that provided a series of memorable re-workings of fifteenth century words and melodies, including In Dulce Jubilo and Good King Wenceslas.

7. Folk Carol Survival and Revival

In the seventh programme in his series describing the gathering history of the Christmas Carol in Great Britain Jeremy Summerly returns to the Gallery tradition that was squeezed out of 19th century Church worship but steadfastly refused to die. It's now in rude health in several parts of the country but nowhere is it more energetically sustained than in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire. With the guidance of Dr Ian Russell who holds folk carol festivals and the enthusiasm of pub carolers who sustain the tradition Jeremy shares a pint and a clutch of fuguing carols which flower happily in the 21st century while having roots in the 18th and 19th.


He also finds out about an American offshoot of the gallery style that's been preserved in the icy blasts of Pennsylvannia USA since it was first seeded there in the middle of the 19th century.

8. The Birth of Nine Lessons with Carols

In the eighth programme of his series charting the development of the Christmas Carol in Britain Jeremy Summerly reaches the critical moment at which the 19th century enthusiasm for carols sung in church resulted in a vehicle in which they could take a leading role. It was developed by Bishop Benson of Truro who, in 1880 found himself holding services in a huge wooden shed while a new cathedral was being built next door. To celebrate the new diocese and capture the enthusiasm he recognise in the nonconformist tradition of carol singing in Cornwall, Benson developed a narrative service running from Adam's original sin to the birth of Christ and the impact of the word made flesh.

Jeremy visits Truro and then follows Benson's service to the moment in 1918 when a war-wearied Dean of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, Erich Milner-White decided to use the service as part of his college's Christmas celebrations. The changes he made survive to this day.

9. Import and Export

The penultimate programme in Jeremy Summerly's series tracing the history of the Christmas Carol in Britain. Jeremy picks up the story in the first half of the 20th century with carols from all over the world becoming more popular in this country much to the irritation of Ralph Vaughan Williams who continued to champion the folk tradition, albeit in a refined choral form. This was a time when the grandeur of Victorian caroling gave way to a leaner aesthetic with the Oxford Book of Carols being published in 1928, the same year in which the BBC broadcast the King's College, Cambridge Nine Lessons and Carols for the very first time. As it became an established favourite the carols used, gathered in many cases over centuries, become known both nationally and indeed internationally.

10. Ring in the New

Jeremy Summerly concludes his history of the carol in Britain pondering the success of new carols over the last century. While King's College, Cambridge organist Stephen Cleobury insures a supply of newly commissioned carols for his massive international audience Jeremy wonders whether the popular songs from Berlin's 'White Christmas' to Slade's 'Merry Christmas' don't help sustain a more genuine caroling tradition.

He also recalls his own first experience of carols at Lichfield cathedral where John Rutter's 'Shepherd's Pipe Carol' was an astonishing discovery for the eager young chorister.

And Jeremy also ponders the continued appeal of the carol and why, while it's been in decline throughout its history, it continues to thrive.

Do beloved carols teach the wrong lessons of Christmas?

Just before Christmas, First Things reposted a 2012 article (orginally written in 2009) about the importance of hymn doctrine in Christmas carols. It was the perfect topic for this blog -- the intersection of hymn theology and the most popular church hymns of the year -- but it was also at the busiest time of the year, the last few days before Christmas.

Now, on the 4th day of Christmas, I thought I'd use the article to interpret the Anglo-Catholic (Hymnal 1940) services we attended this year.

Our Christmas 2015

This year our family went to church twice to observe American Christianity's second greatest feast day, marking the Nativity of Our Lord.

The first was on Christmas Eve at our home parish, where our youngest was singing in the youth choir. As seems to be the norm for Protestant and Catholic churches nowadays, Christmas Eve is the main event: at our parish (like many others), there are two packed services, first around dinner time (for families) and the second around midnight (for adults). As elsewhere, the former was marked by lot of cute kids reenacting the Nativity scene, while the latter included the widest variety of Christmas tunes.

The second service said Mass with hymns)was a much smaller service (in terms of liturgy and attendance) held at 9am in the morning. As we have done every year since 2003, we visited Holy Trinity in San Diego with my wife's parents — first as an ECUSA parish in their long-standing sancutary, since 2011 an ACNA parish hot-bunking with Missouri Lutherans and led by the recently-named president of Forward in Faith, Rev. Lawrence Bausch.

The Wright Thesis

Provocatively entitled “How NT Wright Stole Christmas,” the article was by Peter Leithart, Reformed theologian and president of the Theopolis Institute of Birmingham, Alabama.

The premise of the article is that the theological writings of Scottish professor (and former CoE Bishop of Durham) N.T. Wright have ruined popular Christian interpretations of the significance of Jesus Christ.

Leithart argued that Wright first ruined movies about the Crucifixion, including The Passion of Christ:

I realized that N. T. Wright has spoiled every Jesus film.  Once you’ve read Wright, you realize that none of the movies get Jesus right.  … No film ever gives us what Wright says we should be looking for: a “crucifiable” Jesus, a Jesus who does something so provocative to make the Jews murderously hostile.  In the movies, Jesus is a hippy peace-child, a delicate flower of a man, a dew-eyed first-century Jewish Gandhi.  Why would anyone want to hurt Him?

He continued (in 2009):

Just this year, I had another realization.  N. T. Wright has spoiled Christmas too.

He made me see the fairly radical difference in tone and content between Advent and Christmas hymns.  Advent hymns, as you’d expect, are full of longing, and the language of the prophets.  Advent hymns are about Israel’s desperations and hope, and specifically  hope that the Christ would come in order to keep Yahweh’s promise to restore His people, and through them to restore the nations.
…
Advent hymns are about Israel.  They are deeply and thoroughly political.  Advent hymns look forward not to heaven but the redemption of Israel and of the nations, the coming of God’s kingdom on earth.

When we turn to Christmas hymns, these themes almost completely drop out.  How many Christmas hymns mention Israel?  Many refer to Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus, but Jerusalem?

Christmas hymns focus a great deal of attention on the details of the Christmas story, as is fitting.  There are shepherds and angels, Mary and Joseph and the baby in a manger, magi from the east. Sometimes the details are inaccurate (we don’t know there were three kings), Jesus did cry when He was a baby.  And Christmas seems to elicit some of the worst and most sentimental poetry ever written.

With this gauntlet thrown down, how did this year's services fare?

Christmas Eve

While the choirs performed various introits and anthems (including a version of “In the Bleak Midwinter”, #44 in H40), the congregation sang four hymns:

• 236 Once in royal David's city. This focuses on the details of the Christmas story, but does emphasize Jesus is fully Man and fully God.
• 42 Angels we have heard on high. Pretty much only about the Christmas story.
• 33 Silent night! Other than "Son of God," again a Christmas story.
• 27 Hark, the herald angels sing. While there are obviously angels and shepherds, the second verse seems to very clearly emphasize Christ the savior (even if it only partially links to the OT prophecies):

Christ, by highest heaven adored,
Christ, the everlasting Lord,
late in time behold him come,
offspring of a Virgin's womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see:
hail, the incarnate Deity,
pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Hark, the herald-angels sing
glory to the new-born King.

Christmas Day

• 12 O come, all ye faithful. Other than the allusion to John 1 in verse 6 ("Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing"), clearly a version of the Christmas story.
• 775 Joy to the world! [Only published in the final revision of H40, this includes the familiar US tune, unlike #319]. Of all this year’s hymns, the clearest exception to the Leithart thesis.
• 36 What child is this? Very clearly the manager, shepherd & Magi story.
• 30 The first Nowell.  Ditto.
• 21 O little town of Bethlehem. As the title suggests, it is much like the two previous hymns. The exception is the final verse: contrary to the Leithart stereotype, Fr. Bausch asked the congregation to mediate on this verse, which is entirely about the meaning of the coming of our savior:

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
descend to us, we pray;
cast out our sin and enter in,
be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
our Lord Emmanuel!

Joy to the World!

The real exception for our observance this year was Joy to the World! For many years, I remembered it as the exit hymn for a Christmas eve service: at the parishes I was at, on Christmas (as at Easter) the rectors wanted to select something that captures the exultation of the great feast and (perhaps being cynical) leaves people all pumped up.

I don't really care for the melody, because of the great range, the voice leading and that it's at the high end of my range. It's a little more interesting when I have a hymnal with Lowell Mason's harmony (which I've learned) and the organist is playing that harmony. Still, between the tune and the lyrics, it seems like a simple hymn — less nuanced than some of the others.

However, in retrospect I was selling short the 1719 text by the great Isaac Watts

Joy to the world! the Lord is come:
let earth receive her King;
let every heart prepare him room,
and heaven and nature sing,
and heaven and nature sing,
and heaven, and heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the world! the Savior reigns;
let us our songs employ,
while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground;
he comes to make his blessings flow
far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found,
far as, far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
and makes the nations prove
the glories of his righteousness,
and wonders of his love,
and wonders of his love,
and wonders, wonders of his love.

Nothing of this year's services better fits Leithart's standard for an ideal Christmas carol: no baby Jesus, shepherds, angels or Magi. Instead, a song focused entire on the redemption of the world by coming of our King and Savior.

As the preface in morning prayer (at least in the 28 BCP) says from Advent 1 to January 13: “O come let us adore him.”

Golden Age of Christmas Carols

Every reader of this blog knows about the importance of the Tractarian (Oxford) movement of 19th century England in revival traditional hymnody, notably with the efforts of John Mason Neale that culminated with the publication of Hymns Ancient & Modern in 1861.

However, thanks to the excellent BBC 4 series hosted by Jeremy Summerly, I realized that the 19th century brought a comparable advance (and preservation) of Christmas carols.

The sixth episode, “A Second Golden Age”, outlines the role of Neale and Sir John Stainer in the 19th century carol revival. The episode was broadcast Dec 16 (and the BBC inexplicably cancels their back episodes after 7 days). In the episode, the cause of Stainer is advocated by Prof. Ian Bradley, author of the familiar hymn reference.

The episode identifies the key books of carols of the 19th century, all of which are out of copyright and thus (most) are available free online.

In 1822, Davies Gilbert published a collection of medieval Christmas carols that included “A Virgin Most Pure” and “The First Nowel.” A second, enlarged edition was published in 1823.

Many years later, Neale acquired a copy of Piae Cantiones, a 16th century compilation of Latin carols from Swedish-speaking Finland. From this, in 1853 he and Thomas Helmore published their own collection that includes “Good Christian Men Rejoice” and his own carol, “Good King Wenceslas.”

From the same source, Neale translated the text “Of the Father’s love begotten”, which was later published in Hymns Ancient & Modern with modification by H.W. Baker.

Finally, with H.R. Bramley, Stainer published his own collection of 20 carols in 1867, expanded to 42 in 1871 and 70 in 1878. This included “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” “Once in Royal David’s City” and “What Child is This.” As Prof. Bradley notes, this put a large supply of singable carols in the hands of local vicars. Percy Deamer (the textual author of The English Hymnal and Songs of Praise) says “mainly to Bramley and Stainer that we owe the restoration of the carol”.

When looking for these books, I found background information at the website Hymns and Carols of Christmas (HCC) and so link that below. Some information can also be found at the IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project).

References

Theodoric Petri, Piae Cantiones, Greifswald, Sweden, 1582 (Reprinted in London 1910 and available from the U. Rochester Sibley Library). Summarized at HCC

Davies Gilbert, Some Ancient Christmas Carols, London, 1822 (available at Google Books) Summarized at HCC

Thomas Helmore and John Mason Neale, Carols for Christmas-tide, London, 1853. Summarized at HCC.

Henry Ramsden Bramley and John Stainer, Christmas Carols, New and Old, London, 1871 (Available at the CCEL) Summarized at the HCC.

Henry Ramsden Bramley and John Stainer, Christmas Carols, New and Old, London, 1878 (Available at the Internet Archive)

Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols, 1400-1700, London, 1910 (Available at Google Books) Summarized at the gcc.

My latest Christmas album

When visiting friends last weekend, our (English) host showed me a Christmas CD of which he knew I'd approve. And I did. So I bought it from Amazon. It seems to be out of print, so I bought it used, and it arrived Friday.

A major attraction was that it contained performances by two leading English cathedral choirs, from Wells and Salisbury. The recordings were made in 1978 and 1987, respectively, although the latter says it was a benefit concert (for cathedral restoration) "in the presence of the H.R.H The Prince of Wales." Apparently HRH has made restoring Salisbury Cathedral a personal priority.

Whether through the original scheduling or the culling of duplicates, most of the traditional carols are on the Wells part of the CD, but I did very much like the Salisbury rendition of “In the Bleak Winter.” The texture of several of the Wells carols (notably “Once in Royal David’s City” and “Coventry Carol”) show how a choir can vary and build emotional intensity on a simple carol in a way that congregation singing cannot.

I have 29 Christmas albums on my MP3 player. Most recordings of Christmas carols seem to be schmaltzy commercial versions by secular musicians, so it’s nice to hear the traditional songs of Christian worship interpreted by (Anglican) church choirs.