It's Christmas, a time that involves gathering with loved ones and celebrating these days in the best possible way, following typical customs which include eating a lot and well, giving gifts to each other, perhaps buying lottery tickets, and of course, singing carols.
The Christmas carol is a key element of Christmas, as it has always managed to unite several generations, continuing this cultural legacy of the winter period. But where do these recurring little songs come from? We will see below, for the truth is that the Christmas carol has a long history, so much so that we have to go back to the Medieval era.
The first hints of this type of song emerge in the 13th century, rooted in the cantigas of troubadours and, as regards the peninsula, also in the zéjel characteristic of Al-Ándalus. Its form is finally defined in the 17th century, since previously carols had begun to take on a life of their own to establish themselves as a separate musical genre and coexist with those already mentioned.
The Latin etymology of ‘carol’ already attests that they were secular songs sung by the people of the village (Sadurní, 2022) or pastoral (Rodríguez-Mateo, 1950). Carols aimed to be simple creations without instrumental accompaniment and based on the virelay metric: the predominant medieval metric in Europe. The average carol is based on short verses, mostly octosyllabic with assonant rhyme, and its initial refrain is a paired distich followed by one or more stanzas with a single line that returns to the refrain (Valencia Zuluaga, 1998, pp. 628-630).
Far from what we currently understand as a festive song of veneration, carols were usually more about love themes and everyday matters with which rural people could easily identify and hum for sheer entertainment.
It is not until the 16th century, with the Counter-Reformation, that the Church focuses on these inventions of popular folklore to recreate songs in line with Christian liturgy and thus make the people a more devout community through verses easy to remember, set to light music without too much complication. Songbooks were created from this need for them to be learned, such as those of Upsala or Medinaceli, both mid-century.
It is of particular interest that Latin was relegated to second place and the use of vernacular languages was allowed for their subsequent intonation in sacramental contexts, a fact about which dissenting views emerged within ecclesiastical bodies (Moll, 1970, pp. 81-83). As an example, in 1596, Philip II decreed that no more carols should be sung in his Royal Chapel. This prohibition was praised by the most ardent detractors of carols, but it did not last long as there are testimonies affirming that these songs dedicated to the Nativity were still being performed in subsequent years (Moll, 1970, pp. 86-94). As previously noted, one can then figure that Spanish carols gained ground at the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the 17th century.
And it is precisely during this period when the most prominent music masters emerge, who were tasked with composing pieces to inaugurate Advent each year, usually premiering a new carol on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and continuing through the marked days of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Epiphany.
Among those most worthy of this Golden Age are Miguel de Cervantes and Lope de Vega, who were pioneers in establishing the traditional binary carol in the mid-sixteenth century, and in the seventeenth century it would undergo a series of transformations that would be perpetuated with Manuel de León Merchante, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Vicente Sánchez, or José Pérez de Montoro, among others (Bègue, 2019, p. 27).
During the Baroque period, between mid-seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the carol achieves a greater degree of sophistication including scenes represented in a theatrical manner (Sadurní, 2022), and there is an alternation between choirs and soloists in the refrain-stanza format (Valencia Zuluaga, 1998, pp. 629-630). Moreover, it could be said that this was the essential moment when the carol already distinguished itself as a Christmas song intrinsically.
The metric of the carol is influenced according to the territories involved and remains over time under new forms and countless versions. Specifically, Spanish carols often have traces of the zéjel mentioned at the beginning. Thus we see predominant ones like ¡Ay, del chiquirritín!, Los peces en el río, Campana sobre campana, with a likely Andalusian origin, as well as Ya viene la vieja and Dime niño. Of all these named ones, creators and exact dates are unknown.
In general terms, tracing back to their earliest vestiges in Europe, one of the first carols is attested in England: We wish you a Merry Christmas, composed around the 16th century and reaching our days.
Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Spain, anonymous ones like Fum Fum Fum and La Marimorena were created in 1702.
As recorded in books about carols such as those by Rafael et al. (1879) and Husk (2014), many more carols were created during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, whose authors are normally known, like the British Joy To The World, by Isaac Watts in 1719. Later, in Obendorf, Austria, Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht or Noche de paz was composed by Joseph Mohr and Franz Xaver Gruber in 1818.
Similarly, in Eastern Europe, more specifically in Ukraine, a composition from 1919 emerged: Shchedryk by Mykola Leontovych, or known in English as Carol of the Bells. In parallel, in Spain around these years, the famous Arre Borriquito was launched by Ricardo Boronat and Diego San José de la Torre (1925-1930).
In the United States, there is a genuine repertoire from which songs with influences of Central Europe or infused with jazz rhythms emerged, such as Jingle Bells by James Pierpont (1857), White Christmas by Irving Berlin (1942) or the Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms (1957). Alongside these are insistent contemporary songs that announce themselves everywhere, such as Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee, released 65 years ago (1958) (Zoladz, 2023), which has dethroned this year's most listened-to song from Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You, distributed for the first time in 1994.
In various countries of Central and South America, a unique blend of carols that require separate study due to the different influences experienced, especially from the Iberian Peninsula. The most present examples could be Feliz Navidad by José Feliciano (1970) from Puerto Rico, and El burrito sabanero by Hugo Blanco (1972), from Caracas, Venezuela.
The carol as a Christmas song represents a tradition that materializes time and again: it seems to strengthen itself through the centuries with new versions of the classics, as well as contemporary compositions that may present an unprecedented character while still following the same musical structure evoking a nostalgic hum and melodic warmth.
As we have seen, they originated in the cantigas collected from popular invention, repeated centuries ago and assimilated into medieval idiosyncrasy. In these songs of the common people, the Church saw an opportunity to bring religion closer to the masses in a more practical way. From then on, Western societies have followed a trail of musical creations that unify a vast repertoire for these dates.
Carols make this festival the joy of children and the happiness of adults. Many are translated into numerous languages while others remain within their local context, inviting us to gather with family and our closest ones.
It is for this reason that, on this day, from ArqueoTimes we wish you a Merry Christmas!
Bibliography
Bègue, A. (2019). The peninsular carol between Baroque and Neoclassicism (1665-1746). In E. Borrego & J. Marín López (Eds.), The Carol at the Crossroads: New Perspectives on a Literary-Musical Genre (XV-XIX Centuries) (pp. 25-57). Reichenberg.
Husk, W. H. (2014). Songs of the Nativity: being Christmas carols, ancient and modern. Cambridge University Press.
Moll, J. (1970). The carols sung in the Royal Chapel at the end of the 16th century and beginning of the 17th century. Anuario Musical: Revista de musicología del CSIC, 25, 81-96.
Rafael et al. (1879). Christmas in art and song: a collection of songs, carols and descriptive poems, relating to the festival of Christmas. Arundel Printing & Publishing Company.
Rodríguez-Mateo, J. (1950). The Spanish Carol: Brief Notes from its Origin to Our Days with Nine Musical Illustrations. Archivo Hispalense.
Sadurní, J. M. (20 December 2022). The origin of carols, the typical songs of Christmas. Historia National Geographic. https://historia.nationalgeographic.com.es/a/origen-villancicos-alegres-canciones-navidad_15987
Valencia Zuluaga, J. N. (1998). Panoramic view of the carol. Thesaurus: Boletín del instituto Caro y Cuervo, 53, 3, 628-642.Zoladz, L. (29 November 2023). Brenda Lee, a Queen of Christmas and So Much More. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/29/arts/music/brenda-lee-christmas.html
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