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| Christmas Visitors (1860) by William MacDuff |
Preparing for some festive seasonal events, I find myself again looking for era-appropriate carols, particularly for the 1850s and early 1860s. This time, I'm going to try making a list, and hopefully won't have to start all over again next year.
I Saw Three Ships
The First Nowell
Hark The Herald Angels Sing
[The first two also appear in Christmas with the Poets (1851), and are said to be seventeenth century]
Popular Music of the Olden Time (1859) adds:
A Virgin Most Pure
The Virgin and Child
The Golden Carol
The Boar's Head Carol
It also lists "current carols" popular in England:
Christians Awake,
Good King Wenceslaus
Christmas Comes
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Song of the Angels [While Shepherd Watch Their Flocks By Night]
More scored music in The Sunday-school Service and Tune Book (1863):
We Three Kings of Orient Are
Silent Night! Holy Night!
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Hark! What means those Holy Voices
Shout the Glad Tidings
Carol, Carol Christians
Hark! What Celestial Sounds
While Shepherds Watched
We come with loud Acclaim
The Son of God, so High, so Great
Bright and Joyful is the Morn
Carol, Brothers, Carol
To us a Child of Hope is Born
Luther's Christmas Hymn
How Precious is the Story
Obscure religious songs in Christmas carols : or, sacred songs, suited to the festival of our Lord's nativity ; with appropriate music, and an introductory account of the Christmas carol (1833):
Christmas comes, the Time of Gladness
Lo! He comes, an Infant Stranger
How blest with more than Woman's Bliss
How bright was the Glory
Once Again the Festal Morning
From the Hallow'd Belfry Tower
When Christ our Saviour came on Earth
When Bethlehem's Shepherds Home Returned
Praise We our God
Star of the East
How glorious is the Morning Sun
Christ the Lord was Born To-Day
What ear shall be closed
O Thou, who bad'st thy Star display
Man's Redeemer
And some sheet music:
The Holly and The Ivy (c.1812-1830)*
Twelve Articles (c.1812-1830)
Auld Lang Syne (1817) [and an 1858 version]
Star of the East (1831)
A Christmas Carol (1838)
While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks By Night (1831)
O Swift We Go: A Sleighing Song (1840)
In Christmas Time: It's History, Festivites, and Carols (1852), we have:
God Rest You Merry, GentlemenI Saw Three Ships
The First Nowell
Hark The Herald Angels Sing
[The first two also appear in Christmas with the Poets (1851), and are said to be seventeenth century]
Popular Music of the Olden Time (1859) adds:
A Virgin Most Pure
Christmas: Its Customs (1860) actually includes musical notations. Traditional carols include:
Adeste Fideles [note: this English translation varies from the modern O Come All Ye Faithful]The Virgin and Child
The Golden Carol
The Boar's Head Carol
It also lists "current carols" popular in England:
Christians Awake,
Good King Wenceslaus
Christmas Comes
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Song of the Angels [While Shepherd Watch Their Flocks By Night]
More scored music in The Sunday-school Service and Tune Book (1863):
We Three Kings of Orient Are
Silent Night! Holy Night!
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Hark! What means those Holy Voices
Shout the Glad Tidings
Carol, Carol Christians
Hark! What Celestial Sounds
While Shepherds Watched
We come with loud Acclaim
The Son of God, so High, so Great
Bright and Joyful is the Morn
Carol, Brothers, Carol
To us a Child of Hope is Born
Luther's Christmas Hymn
How Precious is the Story
Obscure religious songs in Christmas carols : or, sacred songs, suited to the festival of our Lord's nativity ; with appropriate music, and an introductory account of the Christmas carol (1833):
Christmas comes, the Time of Gladness
Lo! He comes, an Infant Stranger
How blest with more than Woman's Bliss
How bright was the Glory
Once Again the Festal Morning
From the Hallow'd Belfry Tower
When Christ our Saviour came on Earth
When Bethlehem's Shepherds Home Returned
Praise We our God
Star of the East
How glorious is the Morning Sun
Christ the Lord was Born To-Day
What ear shall be closed
O Thou, who bad'st thy Star display
Man's Redeemer
And some sheet music:
The Holly and The Ivy (c.1812-1830)*
Twelve Articles (c.1812-1830)
Auld Lang Syne (1817) [and an 1858 version]
Star of the East (1831)
A Christmas Carol (1838)
While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks By Night (1831)
O Swift We Go: A Sleighing Song (1840)
A Christmas Hymn (Hark! The Herald Angels Sing) (1843)
A Christmas Anthem [For Unto Us A Child Is Born] (1848)
'Tis Merry When the Stars are Bright (1846)
The Christmas Sleigh Ride (1849)
One Horse Open Sleigh [Jingle Bells] (1854)
The Sleighing Song (1855)
The Merry Sleigh (1855)
Christmas Carol (1856)
Deck the Halls**
The Bells [I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day] (1870s, poem 1862)
**Finally found a copy. I'm still not sure how popular this one was, as there's that 1849 book review. which makes it sound obscure. For extra fun, The Holly, The Holly! O Twine it with Bay in an 1857 retrospective of Christmas traditions (tune unknown to me).
**There are period references to the Welsh version (Nos Galan) but I haven't seen the original English translation, which Wikipedia dates to 1862. However, I did find this other 1862 translation and an alternative set of lyrics from 1874, complete with ghosts.
A Christmas Anthem [For Unto Us A Child Is Born] (1848)
'Tis Merry When the Stars are Bright (1846)
The Christmas Sleigh Ride (1849)
One Horse Open Sleigh [Jingle Bells] (1854)
The Sleighing Song (1855)
The Merry Sleigh (1855)
Christmas Carol (1856)
Deck the Halls**
The Bells [I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day] (1870s, poem 1862)
**Finally found a copy. I'm still not sure how popular this one was, as there's that 1849 book review. which makes it sound obscure. For extra fun, The Holly, The Holly! O Twine it with Bay in an 1857 retrospective of Christmas traditions (tune unknown to me).
**There are period references to the Welsh version (Nos Galan) but I haven't seen the original English translation, which Wikipedia dates to 1862. However, I did find this other 1862 translation and an alternative set of lyrics from 1874, complete with ghosts.
A lot of christmas carols are earlier than Victorian as well. Things like Ding Dong Merrily on High, or The Coventry Carol (or many other place name carols), or Masters in this Hall, or the straight up hymns like O Come O Come Emmanuel, or The Holly and the Ivy, or Go Tell It on the Mountain, Joy to the World.
ReplyDeleteLots to choose from!
Tegan
I know! We're spoiled for choice in some ways; it's documenting the lyrics/translation/popularity that's tricky. The only copy of the "The Holly and The Ivy" that I've found, for instance, was definitely being treated as a quaint, old verse rather than a common song. I'm going to keep adding links as I find them.
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