Christmas Music: Upon A Winter's Eve

I hope you enjoy the subject matter of  today's post.  What I have listed here are a few of the earlier sounds of Christmas music past---way past---that I have in my collection on CD.  It's quite the variety,  including Medieval,  Renaissance,  Victorian,  and American Appalachia.  These are the discs that tend to be in my CD player most often this time of year - yes,  I am still a CD buyer.  I prefer physical ownership to streaming.  Same with my movie collection.  Anyhow,  the music presented here is traditional Christmas music in nature,  *mostly*  from the British Isles,  performed on period and traditional instruments like the hammered dulcimer,  penny whistle,  mountain dulcimer,  fiddle,  brass instruments,  and very old guitars and pianos/piano fortes.  

Is the music here completely 100% period correct?

Lanterns and greens...

Well...not necessarily 100%...but it does give it a good go;  the sounds herein express more of  a  feeling  of the period.  These are 20th and 21st century musicians and,  in some cases,  their time carries over.  That being said,  the sound is still strongly period-sounding to my ears,  and we should remember that the ordinary folk of those centuries gone by more than likely did not hear these carols performed in such a manner as what's on a few of  these discs;  I am pretty well certain the old carols as performed and sung in their time for the majority of the populace---mostly farmers---was not quite as upscale as what some of the sounds here impart,  for it was more the well-to-do that heard it performed by  (accomplished)  musicians.  Rather,  I am willing to bet what our 18th century & earlier ancestors heard sounded no different than those performed and sung by the congregations in small churches of today,  with a mixed bag of voices - some good...and some,  well,  not so good - or perhaps played by a lone fiddler in a tavern on a Christmas Eve,  maybe with a few drunken voices thrown in,  or most likely they were heard in homes by ordinary non-professional singers like mothers and fathers and grandparents with voices no better  (or worse)  than our own.  

Some of the carols mixed in here are of that type.

But,  in the same way we remember our own parents singing along to the old tunes,  I'm sure it was as special as could be to the children  (and others)  listening in days of old,  and well,  either way,  this historic music is much more pleasant to listen to,  in my opinion,  than hearing today's overplayed  "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree,"  "Jingle Bell Rock,"   "Felice Navidad,"  "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,"  "Last Christmas  (I Gave You My Heart),"  "All I Want For Christmas Is You,"  and "Holly Jolly Christmas"  once,  and sometimes even twice an hour on the radio for two months.  Or the horrible hippopotamus and donkey songs.  Ugghhh!  Or even those  'diva'  tunes without any Christmas-y feeling to them at all.

But,  the evocation of the old world and colonial spirit does reign in each of  the following CDs,  giving us that wonderful old-time spirit rarely heard and felt today.

From Barry Phillips and Friends we can hear the sounds of Christmas from colonial America.  Some of this music was newly composed in America at that time,  while others are of the older folk tunes brought over from Europe. But it does remind one of what a Christmas gathering at a more well-to-do house or concert hall may have sounded like.  In fact,  the first cut -  "The Merry Wassail" - is such a fun tune.  You may recognize it as the instrumental break from the  "Ding Dong!  The Witch Is Dead"  hit single by The 5th Estate from 1967  (though this is truly an ancient melody).  That alone makes this CD worth the money.

(From Amazon):  "Seasonal music from the Autumn Equinox to the New Year!  This album celebrates music from Great Britain and other lands where Celtic people settled.  From harvest time to the old Celtic new year called  ''Samhain''  (now called Hallowe'en),  into the time of the Winter Solstice and the longest nights,  and onto the coming promised light of Christmas and the New Year - throughout this time,  our ancestors braced for the coming cold with the warmth that a winter's hearth  (and a good pint)  could bring."

The Toronto Consort specializes in music of the Middle Ages,  and this collection of both vocal and instrumental tunes celebrating Christmas,  St. Stephens Day,  New Years Day,  and 12th Night is done in the very old world style.  A booklet comes along with this set,  covering the group's history as well as the history of the music itself.

This is one of the most traditional pieces I own.

Sing We All Merrily by Linda Russell has introduced me to carols that have become standards in my house:  All You That Are Good Fellows,  A Virgin Unspotted,  the very old Cherry Tree Carol,  and a great instrumental version of Ding Dong Merrily On High.
The vocals for most tunes here are provided by Ms. Russell herself,  and the instrumentation is wonderful.

We hear songs and carols of Christmas almost daily from November through the end of December,  and many times without even thinking,  we may find ourselves humming or singing along.

But have you ever given thought to the idea that many of these same carols we sing along to are the same tunes our long ago ancestors knew and may have sung as well?

Christmas canticles of some form have been around for millennia,  and,  believe it or not,  a few from the ancient times still remain in our midst.  For instance,  from 12th century Ireland comes The Wexford Carol,  medieval England gave us The Boars Head Carol and The Gloucestershire Wassail.  God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen is said to be from the 15th century.  Bring A Torch Jeannette Isabella and Coventry Carol are both from the mid-1500s,  with the mid-to-late 1600s bringing us All You That Are Good Fellows,  I Saw Three Ships,  The Huron Carol,  and The First Noel.  The Holly and the Ivy is from around 1710,  Joy To the World was written in Virginia in 1719,  Hark! The Herald Angels Sing was written in 1739,  and O Come All Ye Faithfull is from the 1750s - all being examples of the many carols from 12th century Europe through the late American colonial period.  In fact,  by the mid-18th century,  most of these Christmas songs began showing up in New England hymnals.

Upon A Winter's Eve by Black House Ceilidh is very much a sound of Christmas Past...nearly ethereal in some ways---atmospheric in others...and even includes a twinge of highland thrown in here and there.  As stated on the inside cover:  "I wanted to present these carols as simple,  elegant,  and organic:  much as they would have been heard when people ate seasonally,  warmth was a luxury,  and music was always performed live."

The mix of tunes are ancient in origin:  Coventry Carol,  God Rest You Merry Gentlemen,  Wexford Carol,  Good King Wenceslas,  and To Drive The Cold Winter Away,  all done in a traditional manner.  My favorites are those played by a lone fiddle - hauntingly beautiful.

I play this often to set the old world Christmas mood.

Light a candle in a darkened room and put this on.

Drift away to Christmas past...long past...

Awesomely wonderful collection that truly emotes a feel of  "historical tradition that is lost in our modern world."

The artists succeeded in keeping this real.

Colonial Christmas by Craig Duncan has a light pop touch mixed with tradition. 
This instrumental collection isn't bad at all,  though it is better for background music to introduce your friends to a different style.
It has a period flavor.

Every year there tends to be one CD that is found playing on my stereo more often than the others.  A Scottish Christmas Celebration from Michigan's own Bonnie Rideout is one of those.  Just as the title states,  this is a Scottish Christmas collection.  If you like bouncy instrumentals done in a more traditional style,  this is for you  (and me,  too!).

On a Cold Winter's Day - Early Christmas Music and Carols from the British Isles by Quadriga Consort is a wonderful collection to help give that 18th century atmosphere. 
Is it totally historically accurate?
Well...no...but the period flavor is there,  though they tended
to choose slow music.  Very slow...
As I've said before,  it can be very difficult to find true period music done in a true period way.  And even those are of limited availability. 

The Waterson’s Frost and Fire.

This is not necessarily a Christmas album per se. It’s more of a seasonal album,  covering all the seasons of the year in song,  beginning in the early cold December winter with the Christmas season and the ever-popular  “Here We Come A-Wassailing,”   heading into 12th Night  (January 6)  with  “The Jolly Old Hawk.”    They include  “The Holly Bears A Berry”  as a song for spring,  and though they sing the lyrics I’m familiar with,  in my mind it’s still a Christmas song to me.  They also have summer songs  (“John Barleycorn”),  Autumn harvest song  (“We Gets Up In The Morn”),  and even Catholic songs for the Hallowe’en season of All Hallow’s Day and All Soul’s Day  (“Souling Song”),  which brings the group back toward the Christmas Season with  “Christmas Is Now Drawing Near At Hand,”  “Herod and the Cock,”  and the   “The Wassail Song,”   (also known as  “Gower Wassail”).

Yes,  I did leave out a few tunes,  so it is a full album’s worth of music.  In my opinion,  it’s a fine collection of traditional tunes that lean heavily toward Christmas,  all sung in acapella by two sisters,  a brother,  and a cousin,  all recorded back in 1965.

I enjoy it’s very traditional feel and sound and will play this more leading up to Thanksgiving.  

Though the hammered dulcimer has been around for centuries,  the mountain dulcimer,  from the Appalachian region of what is now the U. S.,  has only been around since roughly the early 19th century.  There are also a few numbers that are of later origin,  including Away In A Manger and Carol of the Bells.  However,  that does not mean this collection cannot work for a period-sounding Christmas celebration.  The other titles give it an 18th century feel,  such as Bring A Torch Jeannette Isabella,  The First Noel,  Cherry Tree Carol,  and What Child Is This.

Say what you will about Renaissance Festivals and the (in)accuracies surrounding them...and I will probably agree.  However,  many of the musicians who perform at such places can be wonderfully period,  such as Musica Royale,  who can take one back to the Renaissance or even to the time of the Middle Ages.
This is a fine set indeed.  

From the man who gave us Mannheim Steamroller we get something a bit more traditional than usual from him.  Rather than fusing contemporary styles with the more classical sounds of the past,  we,  instead,  hear Christmas music in a more ancient manner,  like Musica Royale,  dating back to the Medieval and Renaissance period. 

The music on this CD by Britain's Magpie Lane makes me feel as if  I'm in an old-time pub/tavern or country parlor hearing this decidedly strong-British vocal group performing the old world carols.  This collection features traditional tunes,  along with secular songs and dance music appropriate for Christmas and the Winter season;  they
do a superb job on each,  but,  especially  (for me)  The Gloucestershire Wassail is my
personal favorite,  though my wife loves  "Stuff Your Guts."  But there is truly not a bad cut on the entire disc.   I had to order this CD directly from the group  (in England),  for I could not find it anywhere else.  lol  I'm probably the only person in the U.S.  who owns a copy!
However---it can be streamed,  from what I understand - - - - 
This has been a constant play since I purchased it just after the 2021 Christmas season.
Awesome!

Neil Woodward's  "Cup O' Kindness"   is an instrumental collection of traditional carols,  most of which you probably know,  played on guitar,  fiddle,  penny whistle,  mouth organ,  mandolin,  lap dulcimer  (mountain dulcimer),  and other period instruments.

Titles include Joy To The World,  Lo How A Rose Ere Blooming,  I Saw Three Ships,  Good King Wenceslas,  O Holy Night,  O Come Emanuel,  and numerous others.

Christmas music done in a 19th - and sometimes 18th - century style,  with a touch of old Appalachia - decidedly American in feel and style.

I know Neil and have seen him perform often at historic Greenfield Village for Christmas and historic Crossroads Village in summertime.

This is wonderful listening...played a lot in my house.

And I would like to add something strongly American---Appalachian-American: 

Patty Loveless has made some wonderful country music of the traditional variety,  even her more contemporary tunes.  But she also has recorded roots music,  and since her roots are truly Appalachia  (Kentucky),  she shines bright.  Bluegrass and White Snow - A Mountain Christmas is true to its name and Patty's style.  It's mostly hit laden,  with many of the more popular Christmas tunes of our time,  including  Away In A Manger,  Little Drummer Boy,  O Little Town of Bethlehem,  and a wonderfully done instrumental of Carol Of the Bells with a strong mountain flavor.  But it also has Santa Train,  Bluegrass-White Snow,  Christmas Times a-Comin,'  and O Beautiful Star of Bethlehem.
I personally feel this has a contemporary traditional feel,  and Patty makes great use of fiddles,  mandolins,  guitars,  and even banjos.   It all works very well.
Very southern-American sounding. 

And,  for good measure:

A well-researched book on early
Christmas celebrations.

I recently purchased a book called  "The Medieval Christmas,"  in which the author,  Sophie Jackson,  adds even more information to my historical Christmas knowledge.  In it she writes exactly what I've been saying for years:  that Christmas was not  "invented"  by Charles Dickens or the Victorians in general.  In fact,  it was in the Medieval period where Christmas as a holiday truly expanded,  including carols,  foods,  games,  drinks,  wassailing,  12th Night,  and even,  to a lesser extent,  Christmas Trees and other decorations.  Yes,  she also speaks of the early Pagan influences and of its affects that we now continue to utilize to this day. 

It's nice to have such information in one concise,  well researched,  and very entertaining book.

Ah...something to read AND to listen to as the Christmastide continues on...

As you have just read,  over the years I have amassed a pretty good collection of these carols from the past;  just as I collect the everyday items our ancestors would have used in their daily lives,  I enjoy seeking out the musical sounds of  long ago,  and each always proves to become favorites.

But that's all part of my wanting to recreate the times of my colonial ancestors.

Though I do enjoy much of the current Christmas music - by current I mean written in the past hundred years or so - my very favorite holiday sounds are what I call the Old World carols.  Usually these tunes are performed by relatively unknown-to-mainstream artists such as Linda Russell,  Robin Petrie,  The Christmas Revels,  Maggie Sansone,  Katie McMahon,  The Chieftains,  Madeline MacNeal,  Neil Woodward,  Bonnie Rideout,  Barry Phillips,  and even the the early Christmas releases of Mannheim Steamroller.  

I hope you will give a few a try.

You just might find yourself enjoying Christmas music again.

Oh! By the way---did you know I fronted a period vocal group?

Well,  I did - after 2023,  the band is retired - but we had a wonderful 22 year run!
They're called Simply Dickens. 

Though our clothing is strongly Victorian,  many of our songs date back
to Medieval,  Renaissance,  Colonial,  Victorian,  and a couple from Appalachia.
No,  I don't sing - I announce and give history lessons for each carol.
Old world indeed!

To see and hear what Simply Dickens was all about,  here are a few videos:

I have been collecting Christmas music since the early 1980s  (and,  probably like most of you,  listening to it my entire life).  It was my mother who spawned my love of the music of the Holiday Season---I just took it down pathways beyond anything I ever heard as a kid.

I'd now like to share a few of my favorite well-made BBC historic Christmas videos.

Let's begin with Tudor Monastery Farm At Christmas

Historian Ruth Goodman and Archaeologists Tom Pinfold And Peter Ginn turn the clock back 500 years to rediscover how the farmers and folks of Tudor England celebrated the Twelve Days of Christmas.   The culmination of Christmas was marked by a frenzy of music,  food,  and drink.  Tudor life was hierarchical and strictly organized,  but at Christmas,  the rules were relaxed and the roles reversed.

The Tudor Era,  which lasted from 1485 until 1603,  technically came at the end of the Medieval Period,  which lasted from the later 400s until the mid-1400s,  meaning it continued into the early Renaissance  (from about mid-1400s to the early 1600s).

From BBC's Tudor Monastery Christmas

The same Ruth Goodman group,  from BBC's excellent historic farm series Tales From The Green Valley,  also celebrated a 1620s Christmas in their December episode:

They built a hovel  (a woodshed),  harvested peas,  prepared food  (roast beef,  chicken,  a  "Grand Salad,"  a marzipan pig's head,  etc.)  and drank  (Wassail,  "Lambs Wool"  made from heated beer and stewed-apples,  as well as  "whisky beth"  made from any distilled spirit and choices of spices,  such as licorice,  anise,  sugar,  etc.)  for a Christmas feast.

They didn't stop there:
How about a Victorian Christmas:

The Victorian Farm series was so popular that it received a four hour Christmas Special spinoff of its own due to high demand!  And yet we still see the crew doing farming chores as we lead up to the Christmas holiday.  Besides showcasing Victorian era preparation of decorations,  presents and Christmas recipes,  the cast also work on several more mundane tasks as well such as haying,  brick-making,  and hauling in the yule log,  for a farmer's work is never done.  Another task - the careful restoration of a historical blacksmith workshop - is cleverly tied in with the plotline about the preparation of presents  (with the help of Alex and the blacksmithing instructor guest,  Peter uses the restored worskshop to create a hand-made doorknocker as a present for the owner of the estate where the series was shot).

And even into the 20th century:

As winter set in,  the three farm dwellers looked to earn money.  Peter and Alex fished for crabs while Ruth hired herself out for domestic work.  Ruth rode a bicycle and tried period cleaning techniques,  including early vacuum cleaners.  They separated growing calves from their mothers.  Peter found out how leather was made.  They celebrated Christmas modestly,  as poor farmers might have,  and listened to a Methodist Christmas message.

If you are interested in this collection of historic farming series,  please click HERE for further information.

Until next time,  see you in time.

To learn a bit on the backgrounds of a few beloved carols such as Deck the Hall,  The Boar's Head Carol,  Gloucestershire Wassail,  and Silent Night,  click HERE

For more information on how many of the colonists celebrated Christmas,  click HERE

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