{"id":81034,"date":"2020-12-01T12:42:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T20:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/?p=81034"},"modified":"2026-01-23T12:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T20:59:13","slug":"the-stories-of-twelve-carols-2020-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/the-stories-of-twelve-carols-2020-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Stories of Twelve Carols: 2020 Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">As we look forward to this year\u2019s Festival of Carols on All Classical Portland, it\u2019s time to again share the stories of twelve famous carols! Our Program Director, John Pitman, has chosen a lovely selection of twelve carols for us to explore this year, and as All Classical\u2019s Music Researcher, it\u2019s been my mission to track down their origins, following the trails of Renaissance dance tunes, Valencian shepherds, plays by Moli\u00e8re, and sixteenth-century English tailors. Enjoy the journey!<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/the-stories-of-twelve-famous-carols\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Check out last year\u2019s edition of The Story of Twelve Carols!<\/span><\/a><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/0r6FLzoMDQ86azgW4t7LNO?si=8c57a829c2f74d63\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">our Spotify playlist inspired by this list<\/a>, with a similar lineup of music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Riu riu chiu: villancico, 16th c. Spain\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EJl6nSVVrlg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Riu, riu, chiu<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This villancico, or Spanish carol, comes to us from the&nbsp;Aragonese&nbsp;royal court in Valencia in the early sixteenth century. The carol appeared in&nbsp;Villancicos de diversos autores,&nbsp;a 1556 collection of Valencian villancicos published in Venice.&nbsp;Riu,&nbsp;riu,&nbsp;chiu&nbsp;has been attributed to Catalan composer Mateo Flecha the Elder (1481-1553), who worked in Valencia as director of the chapel choir of the Duke of Calabria. The carol\u2019s text, which is possibly by Juan del Encina (1468-1529\/30), uses a real Spanish shepherds\u2019 call, \u201cRiu,&nbsp;riu,&nbsp;chiu.\u201d It tells of God, portrayed as a shepherd, protecting the Virgin Mary from Satan, portrayed as a wolf.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:39px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Partamos todos a Belen\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rO9bYIw9PxI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Partamos a Bel\u00e9n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and many other parts of Latin America, groups of carolers, or <em>parranderos<\/em>, travel from house to house to sing songs of Christmas called&nbsp;<em>aguinaldos<\/em>.&nbsp;The word&nbsp;<em>aguinaldo<\/em>can also refer to a Christmas gift: a musical&nbsp;<em>aguinaldo<\/em>is really a gift of music. Sometimes these seasonal greetings are sung unaccompanied, but often instruments are involved, especially the&nbsp;<em>cuatro<\/em>, a four-stringed Latin American guitar. <em>Partamos&nbsp;a Bel\u00e9n<\/em>(Let Us Go to Bethlehem) is an&nbsp;<em>aguinaldo<\/em>by Venezuelan composer C\u00e9sar Alejandro Carrillo (b. 1957). Carrillo is a choral conductor and composer who is particularly interested in preserving Venezuelan folk music traditions like the&nbsp;<em>aguinaldo<\/em>. In his preface to his score, Carrillo explains that his composition teacher \u201calways instilled in us the cultivation of this genre in the repertoire of our choirs and as creative work, in order to preserve it from disappearance before the overwhelming invasion of other musical genres strange to our traditional Christmas holidays.\u201d (Carrillo,<em> Dos alguinaldos venezolanos<\/em>, Musicarrillo Ediciones, 2018)&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Iesous Ahatonnia\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Nf9ooaMH95w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The Huron Carol, or&nbsp;Jesous&nbsp;Ahathonhia, is Canada\u2019s oldest Christmas carol. Its tune is even older than its text: the music first appeared in Italy in the 16th century as a song to a dance rhythm, called&nbsp;La monica. The tune became popular throughout Europe, eventually making it to France as a song called&nbsp;Une jeune fillette, which was transformed into a&nbsp;no\u00ebl, or French carol, around 1557, with the text&nbsp;Une jeune pucelle.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The text of&nbsp;The Huron Carol is by St. Jean de Br\u00e9beuf (1593-1649), a Jesuit missionary to the Huron-Wendat Native peoples in what is now the province of Ontario. Using the tune of Une jeune pucelle, Br\u00e9beuf wrote Jesous Ahathonhia, a new hymn in the Wendat language.&nbsp;Br\u00e9beuf\u2019s&nbsp;hymn places the Christmas story into the context of Huron-Wendat religious concepts. The 1927 English version by Jesse Edgar Middleton,&nbsp;\u2019Twas&nbsp;in the Moon of Wintertime, is not a translation of Brebeuf\u2019s text, though it does honor the spirit of the original by using indigenous imagery.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Moses Hogan Singers - Go, Tell It On the Mountain\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/425hki9uGXU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Go, Tell It on the Mountain<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This Christmas spiritual was first cataloged in 1907 by John Wesley Work II (1873-1925). A professor of history at Fisk University, and director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Work was one of the first musicologists to make a scholarly study of African-American spirituals. His book Folk Song of the American Negro, co-written with his brother, composer Frederick J. Work, was one of the first authoritative volumes on spirituals. The Fisk Jubilee Singers had included arrangements of&nbsp;Go Tell It on the Mountain&nbsp;in their repertoire for years before the spiritual was first published in a 1909 anthology. The Work family musical dynasty continued with scholar and composer John Wesley Work III, who wrote a new anthem arrangement of&nbsp;Go, Tell It on the Mountain&nbsp;in 1940.&nbsp;The tradition of anthem arrangements continued with settings by composers like R. Nathaniel Dett and Moses Hogan.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mary Had A Baby\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4WyueQhul3U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Mary Had a Baby<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This haunting carol was first published in N.G.J.&nbsp;Ballanta-Taylor\u2019s 1925 collection,&nbsp;Negro Spirituals of Saint Helena\u2019s Island.&nbsp;Ballanta-Taylor (1893-1961) was a Sierra-Leonean composer and&nbsp;ethnomusicologist, and one of the first scholars to study spirituals in the context of African musical traditions. The Penn Normal Industrial School of St. Helena, South Carolina, enlisted&nbsp;Ballanta-Taylor in the 1920s to make a special study of&nbsp;African-American&nbsp;spirituals, especially in the Sea Islands. These isolated islands had historically been a center of the&nbsp;Gullah, a community of&nbsp;African-Americans&nbsp;who created a unique culture blending Native American, European, and African languages and traditions.&nbsp;Ballanta-Taylor&nbsp;likely collected&nbsp;this spiritual from Saint Helena Island, off the coast of South Carolina.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sussex Carol \ud83c\udfb6 King\u2019s College Choir Cambridge (Christmas 2008) arr. Philip Ledger\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yZm2NsZnJHE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>The Sussex Carol<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can thank Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) for the popularity of this English folk carol. The text had been known since 1684, when it was published by Luke Wadding, a Franciscan bishop from Ireland. Many tunes subsequently became attached to Wadding\u2019s text, but the one heard most today comes from the early 20th-century efforts of British composers to collect and transcribe authentic folk music. Vaughan Williams collected the tune known now as&nbsp;The&nbsp;Sussex Carol&nbsp;from the singing of Harriet Verrall, a resident of the village of Monk\u2019s Gate, near Horsham, in Sussex. Vaughan Williams published his arrangement of the tune in his&nbsp;Eight Traditional Carols&nbsp;(1919), and soon it became a classic of the English carol repertory.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"VOCES8: Es ist ein Ros entsprungen\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7RjAXOcTebI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Es ist ein Ros\u2019 entsprungen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This lovely carol is sung in English as \u201cLo,&nbsp;How a Rose E\u2019er-Blooming.\u201d It is thought to come from the diocese of Trier in the fifteenth or sixteenth century. This ancient city is located on the western border of modern Germany, near Luxembourg. Both text and tune probably developed gradually as a regional folk carol. It draws on a passage from the biblical book of Isaiah which tells of a \u201cbranch coming from the stem of Jesse,\u201d traditionally interpreted as prophecy of the birth of Christ. Since the Middle Ages, the \u201cstem\u201d had frequently been depicted in art as a rose. (You may have heard similar iconography in medieval English carols, like <em>There Is No Rose of Such Virtue<\/em>.) <em>Es&nbsp;ist&nbsp;ein&nbsp;Ros\u2019<\/em>&nbsp;is most frequently sung to a 1609 arrangement for four voices by German composer Michael Praetorius (1571-1621).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Coventry Carol - Collegium Vocale Gent\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y-x-zS9ex58?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>The Coventry Carol<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mystery plays, which tell biblical stories through drama and song, originated in the Middle Ages as church-sponsored religious education. By the time&nbsp;The Coventry Carol&nbsp;made its appearance as part of the Coventry Mystery Plays in the 16th century, the tradition had wandered out of the church and become more entertainment than edification. The Coventry plays were presented during Midsummer festivals, performed not by clergy, but by the guilds of the Shearmen and Tailors.&nbsp;The Coventry Carol&nbsp;comes from a mystery play depicting the birth of Christ, where it is sung by the mothers of Bethlehem on the occasion of the Massacre of the Innocents: a story from the gospel of Matthew in which King Herod tries to kill the Christ Child by destroying all the infants in Bethlehem.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1940,&nbsp;The Coventry Carol took on an added poignancy. After the city of Coventry was bombed by Axis forces on November 14, the provost of Coventry Cathedral broadcast a Christmas Day radio message of forgiveness, and then the cathedral choir sang the Coventry Carol from within the cathedral\u2019s ruins.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Holly And The Ivy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Z7QKwQlGwkU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>The Holly and the Ivy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Evergreen plants like holly have been a fixture of British solstice celebrations since the time of the Druids\u2013in fact, the plant\u2019s name derives from an Old English word for &#8220;holy or &#8220;sacred.&#8221; When Christianity came to the Europe, the church borrowed several pagan traditions for the midwinter Christmas festival: holly, with its blood-red berries and thorny leaves, was used to represent Christ, and evergreen ivy became a symbol of the Virgin Mary.&nbsp;The Holly and the Ivy&nbsp;is a traditional English carol on this topic: its text has appeared in English broadsides since at least 1710, though the carol may be older than that. In the early 20th century, English folk-song scholar Cecil Sharp (1859-1924) collected the carol\u2019s music and text as sung by Mary Clayton of&nbsp;Gloustershire. Published in 1911, this became our standard version of the carol.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"No\u00ebl nouvelet\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Jhp0rv8bzxk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>No\u00ebl nouvelet<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This traditional carol is at least as old as the fifteenth century, when its text was preserved in a French manuscript. The original French poem tells the charming story of a dream which begins with a garden and a rosebud and goes on to reveal the story of the Christ Child. The carol\u2019s final stanza explains that the poem is structured to tell its story in twelve verses, one verse for each of the twelve days of Christmas. The lovely minor-mode tune of No\u00ebl\u00a0nouvelet\u00a0may be as old as its text. In English-speaking countries, the carol is sometimes sung to the text \u201cSing We Now of Christmas,\u201d which is such a loose translation of the French that is can be considered a new carol altogether.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Un flambeau,Jeannette, Isabelle\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/R90CerwyiRw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a traditional carol from Proven\u00e7e: its original title in Proven\u00e7al is V\u00e9n\u00e8s leou vieira la Pieoucelle. French poet \u00c9mile Bl\u00e9mont (1839-1927) adapted a French version of this carol in 1901, as Un flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle! The best-known English versions are based on Bl\u00e9mont\u2019s translation. The text is inspired by traditional Proven\u00e7al Christmas celebrations, including processions with torches, and the building of cribs (small Nativity scenes) placed inside model villages with tiny figurines called santons (which means \u201clittle saints\u201d). The santons generally included the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, the Christ Child, and other members of the nativity story, as well as visiting Proven\u00e7al villagers (presumably, in this carol\u2019s crib, two of the visitors were named Jeannette and Isabelle).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The tune of Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella, comes from an air \u00e0 boire (drinking-song) which the French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) composed for a production of Moli\u00e8re\u2019s farcical play Le M\u00e9decin malgr\u00e9 lui (The Doctor in Spite of Himself) in 1666. Charpentier also composed a delightful Messe de minuit pour No\u00ebl (Christmas Midnight Mass), which he built from the melodies of old French carols, including our old friend &#8220;Une jeune pucelle&#8221; from the Huron Carol. Charpentier might be amused to learn that one of his own secular compositions eventually transformed in the other direction, and turned into a carol.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ding dong! Merrily on high - John Rutter, The Cambridge Singers, Charles Wood (arr.)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RWBVKL70U20?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Ding Dong Merrily on High<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If this carol tends to get your toes tapping, there\u2019s good reason for that: the tune is actually a raucous Renaissance couples\u2019 dance entitled \u201cBranle de l\u2019official.\u201d The dance first appeared in&nbsp;Orch\u00e9sographie&nbsp;(1588),&nbsp;a book on social dance by French cleric Jehan&nbsp;Tabourot&nbsp;(1520-1595). (He published the book under the&nbsp;anagrammatical&nbsp;nom de plume&nbsp;Thoinot&nbsp;Arbeau, perhaps because dance treatises were not the typical publications of priests.) Another ordained gentleman, the Rev. George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934), wrote the carol text we now associate with Arbeau\u2019s&nbsp;branle. Woodward was a scholar of Anglican church music who published several collections of carols, including the&nbsp;Cambridge Carol Book&nbsp;(1924), in which \u201cDing Dong Merrily on High\u201d first appeared with a harmonization by Irish composer Charles Wood (1866-1926). As you may have guessed, the Rev. Woodward was also a devotee of bell-ringing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">For further reading:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Crawford, Eric Sean.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/cuislandora.wrlc.org\/islandora\/object\/etd:203\">The Negro Spiritual of Saint Helena Island: An Analysis of Its Repertoire During the Periods 1860-1920, 1921-1939, and 1972-Present.<\/a>&nbsp;PhD Diss. Catholic University of America, 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jones, Dorothy E., and William E. Studwell. \u201cGeorge Ratcliffe Woodward, Editor of The Cowley Carol Books.\u201d&nbsp;Music Reference Services Quarterly, 6:4 (1998), 73-75.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1300\/J116v06n04_16\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1300\/J116v06n04_16<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keyte, Hugh, and Andrew Parrott.&nbsp;The New Oxford Book of Carols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lamport, Mark A., Benjamin K. Forrest and Vernon M. Whaley.&nbsp;Hymns and Hymnody: Historical and Theological Introductions, Volume 2: From Catholic Europe to Protestant Europe. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we look forward to this year\u2019s Festival of Carols on All Classical Portland, it\u2019s time to again share the stories of twelve famous carols! Our Program Director, John Pitman, has chosen a lovely selection of twelve carols for us to explore this year, and as All Classical\u2019s Music Researcher, it\u2019s been my mission to &#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":81035,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4909],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 04:17:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81034"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109071,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81034\/revisions\/109071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}