Christmas carol

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The Catalan Christmas carol "El Noi de la Mare" ("The mother child"), performed on a concert guitar.

A Christmas carol is a song that is sung for Christmas because the lyrics are related to the holiday. Songs with a liturgical meaning are sung at Christian church services , other songs are also sung for giving presents in the family and at Christmas parties in a wide variety of settings. They also form the basis for many concerts , which are mainly organized by choirs . Christmas carols gain commercial importance in the run-up to Christmas due to their presence on radio and television or as background music at Christmas markets and in department stores .

Conceptual differentiations

The term "Christmas carol" is used in different broad meanings. This, as well as the variety of Christmas carols, is related to the long and eventful sociocultural history of the Christmas carol, which determines the variety of Christmas songs that exist today.

In the English language there is the term "Christmas carol", which does not include all Christmas carols, but only those in which the music takes on a more traditional form related to the medieval song form carole . So would White Christmas z. For example, according to this definition, no “Christmas carol”, but “only” a song, because the musical style does not correspond to the tradition of the Christmas carols. Regarding the text, however, no distinction is made between such carols and other Christmas carols.

However, there are also different cross-lingual definitions of what can be described as a Christmas carol. Some songs have only a wintry, but not an explicitly Christmas-religious reference. However, they are only sung around Christmas; so z. B. Jingle Bells , whose text is about a sleigh ride that could just as easily take place around February. There are also songs that are closely related to Christmas customs but are more likely to be classified as begging or drinking songs, for example the song A Bone, God Wot! 16th century, which can be attributed to the Wassailing tradition but is classified as a Christmas Carol by the British Museum's Cottonian Collection .

"Christmas carol" - "winter song"

In the most common parlance, “Christmas carol” refers to all songs that are sung during the Christmas season, including so-called “ winter songs ” without an explicit Christmas reference, such as snowflakes and white skirts . These songs are strongly associated with Christmas because they often appear alongside Christmas carols in the narrower sense in corresponding song collections. They also appear in a secularized Christmas context - for example at Christmas markets. A narrower term excludes precisely these winter songs from the “Christmas carols” and is limited to confessionally bound works, the text of which expressly refers to the Christian Christmas feast, that is, to the birth of Jesus Christ. A time has arrived for us and plays a special role in this context, as it is both secular and ecclesiastical and can be sung.

"Christmas carol" - "Advent song"

An even finer differentiation , which comes from the liturgy , distinguishes between “Christmas carol” on the one hand and “ Advent song” on the other. In the church year , Advent (from Latin adventus - "arrival") symbolizes the time before the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ, the time of waiting for the Messiah announced in the Old Testament . The Advent songs therefore express, often with reference to the Old Testament, the longing for the arrival of the promised Messiah. Examples are for example Now come, the Gentile Savior , A ship is coming loaded or How should I receive you . In contrast to these Advent songs, "Christmas carol" in the narrowest sense describes songs that celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. In the church year the Christmas festival cycle lasts until the feast of the baptism of the Lord , the Sunday after Epiphany (January 6th); regionally, the Christmas season is celebrated until Candlemas on February 2nd, the end of the Christmas season before the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council . Therefore liturgical songs from this period are also counted among the liturgical Christmas carols.

There are also Christmas carols called nativity songs or shepherds ' songs.

history

The oldest Christmas carols in western culture were Latin hymns , which were sung in mass and in the prayers of the hours . In the Middle Ages, the custom developed to combine these with German songs, the Leisen . An example of this is “ Praise be to you, Jesus Christ ” ( EG 23 ), the first stanza of which comes from 1380 and which was sung for the sequence of the midnight mass “Grates nunc omnes”. This German-Latin hybrid form has been preserved in some Christmas carols, for example in In dulci jubilo and in Quempas .

" In dulci jubilo " in Klug's hymn book (1533)
“Gelobet seystu Jhesu Christ” in the Geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn (1524) by Johann Walter
Martin Luther's "From heaven high, there I come" (1567)

In the Middle Ages, Christmas carols first appeared in the church liturgy. There is no evidence that these first Christmas carols were sung at home. As a rule, they have Latin texts, or mixed Latin-German texts. (An example of this is: “ Dies est laetitiae ” with the German stanzas “ The day that is so joyful ”). They were part of the midnight mass, usually end with the cry Kyrie eleison ("Lord, have mercy") and are therefore referred to as quiet people. (An example of this is “ Welcome to us, Lord Christ ”.) Another root of the Christmas carol was the child's cradle , a Christmas custom developed in women's convents, and the mysticism cultivated there . The German Christmas carol " Joseph, dear Joseph mein ", a lullaby recorded by the monk of Salzburg (14th century), comes from this group .

The singing of Christmas carols in the church service received clear impulses from Martin Luther , who - in accordance with his Reformation thought to hold the mass in German - created a series of Christmas carols in German. Luther translated already established Latin texts into German in order to connect his texts to the liturgical tradition and to fill familiar melodies with understandable texts. He initiated a wave of Protestant songs that saw itself as a militant counter-movement to Catholic church singing. In spite of all the Reformation criticism of forms of popular Christmas custom, Martin Luther did not shy away from taking up popular tunes, and with " Vom Himmel hoch " created a Christmas carol that was the adaptation of a wreath song .

However, since the 17th century, songs have also been written that were initially intended for private or domestic devotion and from there sometimes found their way into church music and then into the hymn books. This includes “ I'm standing at your crib here ” by Paul Gerhardt . It was not until the 18th century that the Christmas carols found their way into a largely secular family room and flourished there in the 19th century, as shown by numerous new poems. The Christmas carol as a church chorale wandered as a solo song with piano accompaniment into the 'parlor' of the bourgeoisie. In 1870/71 some Christmas carols were written in the German national style.

In the 19th century, songs from other countries also found their way into the German-speaking area. Friedrich Heinrich Ranke wrote the Christmas carol “Herbei, o ihr believers” in 1823 (from the Latin “ Adeste fideles ”, music probably by John Francis Wade , 1711–1786, EG 45), and Johannes Daniel Falk (1768–1826) and Heinrich Holzschuher (1798–1847) wrote “ O you cheerful ” on the melody of the Italian Marian song “O sanctissima, o purissima, dulcis virgo Maria”. Karl Riedel (1827–1888) made the Bohemian song “ Come, you shepherds ” at home in Germany and initiated a renaissance of older Christmas carols such as “Den die Hirten praise” and “ Es ist ein Ros sprung ”.

Autograph of " Silent Night, Holy Night " in the handwriting of Franz Xaver Gruber (around 1860)

The best known and probably the most widespread Christmas carol “ Silent Night, Holy Night ” also dates from the 19th century. As well as numerous other Christmas carols from the English-speaking world, such as For example, the first printed versions of “ God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen ”, “ The First Noel ”, “ I Saw Three Ships ” and “ Hark! The Herald Angels Sing ”, all of which appeared in Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (1833) by William B. Sandys . Composers like Arthur Sullivan helped restore the Christmas carol to its popularity, and it was from this period that songs like “ Good King Wenceslas ” and “ It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, ” a New England Christmas carol written by Edmund H. Sears and Richard S. Willis .

Merry Christmas , painting by Viggo Johansen

At the same time, however, the changes in piety and the emergence of civic Christmas celebrations in the German-speaking world in the 19th century gave rise to songs for the first time that no longer talked about the birth of Jesus. The best known of these songs to this day is " O Tannenbaum ", which was originally not a Christmas carol, but rather a sad love song by August Zarnack , whose second verse began with "O Mägdelein, O Mägdelein, how wrong is your mind". It was later rewritten by Ernst Anschütz . The Santa Clause ( " Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star ") and natural-romantic elements ( " Let It Snow ") are other subjects that were added in the 19th century.

This trend was picked up again in the 20th century during the National Socialist era , for example by Hans Baumann with “ High Night of the Clear Stars ”, which has remained very popular in the generation that grew up with it. In the Third Reich, the Hitler Youth made efforts to de-Christianize and mythize the Christmas festival, which is also reflected in many profaning changes to the poetry. These re-seals have mostly not been able to prevail. However, “ A time has arrived for us ”, the complete rewording and transformation of the Aargauer Sterndrehermarsch, a description of the Christmas story, into a winter hiking song is known to this day.

In the GDR , too, there were new examples of non-Christian Christmas carols with songs such as " Are the lights lit ", " A thousand stars are a cathedral " and " Anticipation, most beautiful joy " (music: Hans Naumilkat ; text: Erika Engel-Wojahn ). In the GDR, Christian ideas should not be in the foreground, the texts were shaped by political and socialism. Since not the birth of Jesus, but Christmas was celebrated as a socialist peace festival, winter dominated as the theme in many songs.

In German-speaking Switzerland, there are examples of modern cross-style and cross-denominational Christmas carols with songs such as " Es schneielet, es beielet ", " Zäller Wiehnacht " by Paul Burkhard and new compositions " Am Himmel vo der Wält " (from Roland Zoss' children's Christmas music ).

In the course of the globalization and commercialization of Christmas, foreign-language (especially English-language) songs increasingly came to the German-speaking area. In addition, Christmas carols are already played during Advent today . For some years now there have been more and more pure Christmas radios on the Internet, which play Christmas carols without interruption from the beginning of November to the end of December. The tradition of Advent is preserved especially in the churches; Instead, Advent carols will be played and sung there until December 24th .

Well-known Christmas carols

See list of German-language Christmas carols and list of foreign-language Christmas carols

See also

Portal: Christmas  - Overview of Wikipedia content on Christmas

literature

expenditure

  • Siegfried Köhler and Johannes Weyrauch: Our most beautiful Christmas carols. 27 popular songs for Christmas time . Leipzig undated [1970]
  • Hildegard Meyberg (Hrsg.): Let's sing in the Christmas season: songs a. Canons. Auer, Donauwörth 1985, ISBN 3-403-01602-1 .
  • Wolfgang Schneider: The most beautiful Christmas carols. Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt / M. – Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-458-34931-6 (Insel-Taschenbuch 3231)
  • Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann : The book of Christmas carols. Musical arrangement by Hilger Schallehn. 10th edition, Music series: No. 8213. Atlantis-Musikbuch-Verlag, Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-254-08213-3 (1st edition: Schott, Mainz 1982, ISBN 3-7957-2061-3 )
  • Michael Beck et al. : Singing in Advent - public domain songs - copying allowed . 3rd edition, Frankfurt / M. 2013, download ( PDF , 4.4 MB ; 4.4 MB)

Studies

  • Irmgard Benzig-Vogt: From the child in the crib to the child in the cradle. The Christmas carol of the Nazi era. In: Neue Musikzeitung 46 (1997/98), pp. 49–51 ( digitized version )
  • Friederike Lepetit: Christmas - a socialist peace festival? Christian motifs and traditions in music lessons in the GDR using the example of Christmas. Ed. Kirchhof and Franke, Leipzig – Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-933816-31-9 .
  • Martin Rößler : "Since Christ was born ..." Texts, types and themes of the German Christmas carol (= Calw Theological Monographs. Volume 7). Calwer, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-7668-0680-7 .
  • Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann: The Christmas party. A cultural and social history of the Christmas season. Bucher, Lucerne a. a. 1978, ISBN 3-7658-0273-5

Web links

Wiktionary: Christmas carol  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wikisource: Christmas carol  - sources and full texts
Commons : Christmas carol  album with pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ see: Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann: The book of Christmas carols. 151 German Advent and Christmas carols. Cultural history, notes, texts, images. With piano and organ accompaniment . Mainz, u. a .: Schott 1982
  2. ↑ For this section cf. also: G. Hartmann: Christmas music . In: Marc Honegger, Günther Massenkeil (ed.): The great lexicon of music . Freiburg, Basel and Vienna: Herder 1978, Vol. 8, pp. 344-345
  3. ^ Konrad Ragossnig : Handbook of the guitar and lute. Schott, Mainz 1978, ISBN 3-7957-2329-9 , p. 104 ( Carola ).
  4. ↑ http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/a_bone_god_wot.htm
  5. ↑ cf. Advent . In: Berlin Bishops' Conference (ed.): Gotteslob. Leipzig: St. Benno 1978, p. 184
  6. ^ Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann: The church chants of the Middle Ages and the early modern times . In: The Book of Christmas Carols. 151 German Advent and Christmas carols. Cultural history, notes, texts, images. With piano and organ accompaniment . Mainz, u. a .: Schott 1982, p. 8
  7. ↑ See the foreword in: Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann: Das Buch der Weihnachtslieder. 151 German Advent and Christmas carols. Cultural history, notes, texts, images. With piano and organ accompaniment . Mainz, u. a .: Schott 1982, pp. 6-7
  8. ^ Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann: Martin Luther and the Protestant Christmas carol . In: The Book of Christmas Carols. 151 German Advent and Christmas carols. Cultural history, notes, texts, images. With piano and organ accompaniment . Mainz, u. a .: Schott 1982, pp. 97-98
  9. ^ Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann: The Christmas Hazus music of the 19th century . In: The Book of Christmas Carols. 151 German Advent and Christmas carols. Cultural history, notes, texts, images. With piano and organ accompaniment . Mainz, inter alia: Schott 1982, pp. 150–153
  10. ^ Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann: Singing under the "Jultanne" . In: The Book of Christmas Carols. 151 German Advent and Christmas carols. Cultural history, notes, texts, images. With piano and organ accompaniment . Mainz, inter alia: Schott 1982, pp. 226-227.
  11. ↑ See Irmgard Benzig-Vogt (Lit.).
  12. ^ GDR Christmas carols. Retrieved August 6, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Christmas radio on the Internet