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Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols, may employ lyrics about the nativity of Jesus Christ, traditions such as gift-giving and merrymaking, cultural figures such as Santa Claus, or other topics. Many songs simply have a winter or seasonal theme, or have been adopted into the canon for other reasons.
While most Christmas songs before the 20th century were of a traditional religious character, the Great Depression brought a stream of U.S. songs that did not explicitly mention the Christian nature of the holiday, but rather the more secular traditional Western themes and customs associated with it. These included songs aimed at children such as "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", as well as sentimental ballad-type songs performed by famous crooners of the era, such as "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "White Christmas", the latter of which remained the best-selling single of all time as of 2018.[1][2] Elvis' Christmas Album (1957) by Elvis Presley is the best-selling Christmas album of all time, having sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.[3]
Performances of Christmas music at public concerts, in churches, at shopping malls, on city streets, and in private gatherings are a staple of the Christmas season in many cultures across the world. Many radio stations convert to a 24-7 Christmas music format leading up to the holiday; though the standard for most stations in the US is on or near Veterans Day,[4] some stations adopt the format as early as the day after Halloween (or, exceptionally rarely, even sooner)[5][6] as part of a phenomenon known as "Christmas creep". Liturgically, Christmas music traditionally ceases to be performed at the arrival of Candlemas, the traditional end of the Christmas-Epiphanytide season.[7]
History
Early music
Music associated with Christmas is thought to have its origins in 4th-century Rome, in Latin-language hymns such as Veni redemptor gentium.[8] By the 13th century, under the influence of Francis of Assisi, the tradition of popular Christmas songs in regional native languages developed.[9] Christmas carols in the English language first appear in a 1426 work of John Awdlay, an English chaplain, who lists twenty five "caroles of Cristemas", probably sung by groups of wassailers who would travel from house to house.[10] In the 16th century, various Christmas carols still sung to this day, including "The 12 Days of Christmas", "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen", and "O Christmas Tree", first emerged.[11]
Music was an early feature of the Christmas season and its celebrations. The earliest examples are hymnographic works (chants and litanies) intended for liturgical use in observance of both the Feast of the Nativity and Theophany, many of which are still in use by the Eastern Orthodox Church. The 13th century saw the rise of the carol written in the vernacular, under the influence of Francis of Assisi.
In the Middle Ages, the English combined circle dances with singing and called them carols. Later, the word carol came to mean a song in which a religious topic is treated in a style that is familiar or festive. From Italy, it passed to France and Germany, and later to England. Christmas carols in English first appear in a 1426 work of John Audelay, a Shropshire priest and poet, who lists 25 "caroles of Cristemas", probably sung by groups of wassailers, who went from house to house.[12] Music in itself soon became one of the greatest tributes to Christmas, and Christmas music includes some of the noblest compositions of the great musicians. Martin Luther, the father of Lutheran Christianity, encouraged congregational singing during the Mass, in addition to spreading the practice of caroling outside the liturgy.[13]
Puritan prohibition
During the Commonwealth of England government under Cromwell, the Rump Parliament prohibited the practice of singing Christmas carols as Pagan and sinful. Like other customs associated with Christianity of the Catholic and Magisterial Protestant traditions, it earned the disapproval of Puritans.[14] Famously, Cromwell's interregnum prohibited all celebrations of the Christmas holiday. This attempt to ban the public celebration of Christmas can also be seen in the early history of Father Christmas.
The Puritan Westminster Assembly of Divines established Sunday as the only holy day in the liturgical calendar in 1644. The new liturgy produced for the English church recognized this in 1645, and so legally abolished Christmas. Its celebration was declared an offense by Parliament in 1647.[15] There is some debate as to the effectiveness of this ban, and whether or not it was enforced in the country.[15] During the years that the Puritan ban on Christmas was in place in England, semi-clandestine religious services marking Christ's birth continued to be held, and people sang carols in secret.[14]
Puritans generally disapproved of the celebration of Christmas—a trend that continually resurfaced in Europe and the US through the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries.[16]
Royal restoration
When in May 1660 Charles II restored the Stuarts to the throne, the people of England once again practiced the public singing of Christmas carols as part of the revival of Christmas customs, sanctioned by the king's own celebrations.[14][15]
The Victorian Era saw a surge of Christmas carols associated with a renewed admiration of the holiday, including "Silent Night", "O Little Town of Bethlehem", and "O Holy Night". The first Christmas songs associated with Saint Nicholas or other gift-bringers also came during 19th century, including "Up on the Housetop" and "Jolly Old St. Nicholas".[17] Many older Christmas hymns were also translated or had lyrics added to them during this period, particularly in 1871 when John Stainer published a widely influential collection entitled "Christmas Carols New & Old".[17] William Sandys's Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (1833), contained the first appearance in print of many now-classic English carols, and contributed to the mid-Victorian revival of the holiday.[18] Singing carols in church was instituted on Christmas Eve 1880 (Nine Lessons and Carols) in Truro Cathedral, Cornwall, England, which is now seen in churches all over the world.[19]
According to one of the only observational research studies of Christmas caroling, Christmas observance and caroling traditions vary considerably between nations in the 21st century, while the actual sources and meanings of even high-profile songs are commonly misattributed, and the motivations for carol singing can in some settings be as much associated with family tradition and national cultural heritage as with religious beliefs.[20] Christmas festivities, including music, are also celebrated in a more secular fashion by such institutions as the Santa Claus Village, in Rovaniemi, Finland.[21]
Alms
The tradition of singing Christmas carols in return for alms or charity began in England in the seventeenth century after the Restoration. Town musicians or 'waits' were licensed to collect money in the streets in the weeks preceding Christmas, the custom spread throughout the population by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries up to the present day. Also from the seventeenth century, there was the English custom, predominantly involving women, of taking a wassail bowl to their neighbors to solicit gifts, accompanied by carols. Despite this long history, many Christmas carols date only from the nineteenth century onwards, with the exception of songs such as the "Wexford Carol", "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen", "As I Sat on a Sunny Bank", "The Holly and the Ivy",[22] the "Coventry Carol" and "I Saw Three Ships". The practice of ordinary Christian church members of various denominations going door to door and singing carols continues in many parts of the world, such as in India; residents give money to the carolers, which churches distribute to the poor.[23][24]
Church feasts
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The importance of Advent and the feast of Christmastide within the church year means there is a large repertoire of music specially composed for performance in church services celebrating the Christmas story. Various composers from the Baroque era to the 21st century have written Christmas cantatas and motets. Some notable compositions include:
- Thomas Tallis: Mass "Puer natus est nobis" (1554)
- Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: O magnum mysterium (1569)
- Orlande de Lassus: Resonet in laudibus (1569)
- Heinrich Schütz: Weihnachtshistorie (1664)
- Johann Sebastian Bach: several cantatas for Christmas to Epiphany and Christmas Oratorio (1734)
- Jakub Jan Ryba: Czech Christmas Mass "Hey, Master!" (1796)
- Anton Bruckner: Virga Jesse floruit (1885)
Classical music
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Many large-scale religious compositions are performed in a concert setting at Christmas. Performances of George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah are a fixture of Christmas celebrations in some countries,[25] and although it was originally written for performance at Easter, it covers aspects of the Biblical Christmas narrative.[26][27] Informal Scratch Messiah performances involving public participation are very popular in the Christmas season.[28] Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio (Weihnachts-Oratorium, BWV 248), written for Christmas 1734, describes the birth of Jesus, the annunciation to the shepherds, the adoration of the shepherds, the circumcision and naming of Jesus, the journey of the Magi, and the adoration of the Magi.[29] Antonio Vivaldi composed the Violin Concerto RV270 "Il Riposo per il Santissimo Natale" ("For the Most Holy Christmas"). Arcangelo Corelli composed the Christmas Concerto in 1690. Peter Cornelius composed a cycle of six songs related to Christmas themes he called Weihnachtslieder. Setting his own poems for solo voice and piano, he alluded to older Christmas carols in the accompaniment of two of the songs.
Other classical works associated with Christmas include:
- Marc-Antoine Charpentier, 9 vocal settings and 2 instrumental settings :
- Messe de Minuit H.9 for soloists, choir, flûtes, strings and bc (1690)
- In nativitatem Domini canticum H.314 for 4 voices, 2 flutes, 2 violins and bc (1670)
- Canticum in nativitatem Domini H.393 for 3 voies, 2 treeble instruments and bc (1675)
- Pastorale de Noël H.414 for soloists, choir, 2 treeble instruments and bc (1683–85)
- Oratorio de Noël H.416 for soloists, choir, flutes, strings and bc (1690)
- Dialogus inter angelos et pastores Judae in nativitatem Domini H.420 for soloists, choir, flutes, strings and bc (1695?)
- In nativitate Domini Nostri Jesu Christi canticum H.421 for 3 voices and bc (1698–99)
- Pastorale de Noël H.482 for soloists, choir, 2 treeble viols and bc (1683–85)
- Pastorale de Noël H.483 H.483 a H.483 b for soloists, choir, 2 flutes, 2 treeble viols and bc (1683–85)
- Noël pour les instruments H.531 for flutes, strings and bc (1688?)
- Noël sur les instruments H.534 for flutes, strings and bc (1698)
- Christus (1847) an unfinished oratorio by Felix Mendelssohn
- L'enfance du Christ (1853–54) by Hector Berlioz
- Oratorio de Noël (1858) by Camille Saint-Saëns
- The Nutcracker (1892) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky[30]
- Fantasia on Christmas Carols (1912) and Hodie (1954), both by Ralph Vaughan Williams
- A Ceremony of Carols (1942) by Benjamin Britten.
Christmas carols
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2021) |
Songs which are traditional, even some without a specific religious context, are often called Christmas carols. Each of these has a rich history, some dating back many centuries.
Standards
A popular set of traditional carols that might be heard at any Christmas-related event include:[31] [32][33]
- "Angels We Have Heard on High" (in the UK the text of "Angels from the Realms of Glory" is sung to this tune)
- "Away in a Manger"
- "Deck the Halls"
- "Ding Dong Merrily on High"
- "The First Noel"
- "Go Tell It on the Mountain"
- "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen"
- "Good King Wenceslas"
- "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"
- "I Saw Three Ships"
- "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear"
- "Joy to the World"
- "O Christmas Tree" (O Tannenbaum)
- "O Come, All Ye Faithful" (Adeste Fideles)
- "O come, O come, Emmanuel"
- "O Holy Night" (Cantique de Noël)
- "O Little Town of Bethlehem"
- "Once in Royal David's City"
- "Silent Night" (Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht)
- "The Twelve Days of Christmas"
- "We Three Kings of Orient Are"
- "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"
- "What Child Is This?"
- "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks"
These songs hearken from centuries ago, the oldest ("Wexford Carol") originating in the 12th century. The newest came together in the mid- to late-19th century. Many began in non-English speaking countries, often with non-Christmas themes, and were later converted into English carols with English lyrics added—not always translated from the original, but newly created—sometimes as late as the early 20th century.[citation needed]
Early secular Christmas songs
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Among the earliest secular Christmas songs was "The Twelve Days of Christmas", which first appeared in 1780 in England (its melody would not come until 1909); the English West Country carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" has antecedents dating to the 1830s but was not published in its modern form until Arthur Warrell introduced it to a wider audience in 1935. As the secular mythos of the holiday (such as Santa Claus in his modern form) emerged in the 19th century, so too did secular Christmas songs. Benjamin Hanby's "Up on the House Top" and Emily Huntington Miller's "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" were among the first explicitly secular Christmas songs in the United States, both dating to the 1860s; they were preceded by "Jingle Bells", written in 1857 but not explicitly about Christmas, and "O Christmas Tree," written in 1824 but only made about a Christmas tree after being translated from its original German.
Published Christmas music
Christmas music has been published as sheet music for centuries. One of the earliest collections of printed Christmas music was Piae Cantiones, a Finnish songbook first published in 1582 which contained a number of songs that have survived today as well-known Christmas carols. The publication of Christmas music books in the 19th century, such as Christmas Carols, New and Old (Bramley and Stainer, 1871), played an important role in widening the popular appeal of carols.[35] In the 20th century, Oxford University Press (OUP) published some highly successful Christmas music collections such as The Oxford Book of Carols (Martin Shaw, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Percy Dearmer, 1928), which revived a number of early folk songs and established them as modern standard carols.[34][36] This was followed by the bestselling Carols for Choirs series (David Willcocks, Reginald Jacques and John Rutter), first published in 1961 and now available in a five volumes. The popular books have proved to be a popular resource for choirs and church congregations in the English-speaking world, and remain in print today.[37]
- Christmas Carols, New and Old (1871)
- Oxford Book of Carols (1928)
- Carols for Choirs (1961)
- New Oxford Book of Carols (1992)
- A Shorter New Oxford Book of Carols (1992)
Choirmasters poll
In 2008, BBC Music Magazine published a poll of the "50 Greatest Carols", compiled from the views of choral experts and choirmasters in the UK and the US. The resulting list of the top ten favored Christmas carols and motets was:[38][39][40]
- "In the Bleak Midwinter" – Harold Darke
- "In Dulci Jubilo" – traditional
- "A Spotless Rose" – Herbert Howells
- "Bethlehem Down" – Peter Warlock
- "Lully, Lulla" – traditional
- "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day"
- "There Is No Rose" - traditional (15th c.)
- "O Come, All Ye Faithful"
- "Of the Father's Heart Begotten"
- "What Sweeter Music" – John Rutter
Popular Christmas songs
United States
| This section needs additional citations for verification. (December 2020) |
According to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2016, "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town", written by Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie in 1934, is the most played holiday song of the last 50 years. It was first performed by Eddie Cantor, live, on his radio show in November 1934. Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra recorded their version in 1935, followed later by a range of artists including Frank Sinatra in 1948, The Supremes, The Jackson 5, The Beach Boys, and Glenn Campbell. Bruce Springsteen recorded a rock rendition in December 1975.
Long-time Christmas classics from prior to the "rock era"[41] still dominate the holiday charts – such as "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", "Winter Wonderland", "Sleigh Ride" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Songs from the rock era to enter the top tier of the season's canon[citation needed] include "Wonderful Christmastime" by Paul McCartney, "All I Want for Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff and "Last Christmas" by Wham! Radio industry writer Sean Ross noted after the 2004 holiday season that it usually takes about ten years for a song to become a Christmas standard.[42]
The most popular set of these titles—heard over airwaves, on the Internet, in shopping malls, in elevators and lobbies, even on the street during the Christmas season—have been composed and performed from the 1930s onward. (Songs published before 1929 are all out of copyright, are no longer subject to ASCAP royalties and thus do not appear on their list.) In addition to Bing Crosby, major acts that have popularized and successfully covered a number of the titles in the top 30 most performed Christmas songs in 2015 include Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Andy Williams, and the Jackson 5.
Since the mid-1950s, much of the Christmas music produced for popular audiences has explicitly romantic overtones, only using Christmas as a setting. The 1950s also featured the introduction of novelty songs that used the holiday as a target for satire and source for comedy. Exceptions such as "The Christmas Shoes" (2000) have re-introduced Christian themes as complementary to the secular Western themes, and myriad traditional carol cover versions by various artists have explored virtually all music genres. The 1980s and 1990s saw a revival of interest in instrumental Christmas music, including the New Age synthpop of Mannheim Steamroller and the symphonic metal of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, particularly among older listeners.[42]
Most-performed Christmas songs
"The world may have changed profoundly over the last 50 years, but these songs have been part of the holiday spirit for generations. Part of the wonder of music is how it helps us continue to create real memories and traditions. These treasured songs are very special to so many people and are a beloved part of ASCAP's repertoire."
Paul Williams, President and chairman, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
The top thirty most-played holiday songs for the 2015 holiday season are ranked here, all titles written or co-written by ASCAP songwriters and composers.[43]
Most of these songs in some way describe or are reminiscent of Christmas traditions, how Western Christian countries tend to celebrate the holiday, i.e., with caroling, mistletoe, exchanging of presents, a Christmas tree, feasting, jingle bells, etc. Celebratory or sentimental, and nostalgic in tone, they hearken back to simpler times with memorable holiday practices—expressing the desire either to be with someone or at home for Christmas. The winter-related songs celebrate the climatic season, with all its snow, dressing up for the cold, sleighing, etc.
Many titles help define the mythical aspects of modern Christmas celebration: Santa Claus bringing presents, coming down the chimney, being pulled by reindeer, etc. New mythical characters are created, defined, and popularized by these songs; "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", adapted from a major retailer's promotional poem, was introduced to radio audiences by Gene Autry in 1949. His follow-up a year later introduced "Frosty the Snowman", the central character of his song. Though overtly religious, and authored (at least partly) by a writer of many church hymns, no drumming child appears in any biblical account of the Christian nativity scene. This character was introduced to the tradition by Katherine K. Davis in her "The Little Drummer Boy" (written in 1941, with a popular version being released in 1958). Loretta Lynn introduced "Shadrack, the Black Reindeer" in 1974.[44]
The above-ranking results from an aggregation of performances of all different artist versions of each cited holiday song, across all forms of media, from January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2015.[43]
- Of the top 30 most performed Christmas songs in 2015, 13 (43%) were written in the 1930s or 1940s and 12 (40%) were written in the 1950s and 1960s; only five (17%) were written from the 1970s on, two (7%) were from after 1990, and none after 1995. This phenomenon was noted in the webcomic xkcd and referred to as "a massive project to carefully recreate...baby boomers' childhoods".[45]
- The newest song in the top 30 most performed Christmas songs – "All I Want for Christmas is You", co-written and performed by Mariah Carey in 1994 – entered the list for the first time in 2015; the song hit the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 for the first time in 2017,[46] and was named "the UK's favourite Christmas song" the same year by The Independent.[47] Troy Powers and Andy Stone wrote a song with the same title and theme,[48] which Vince Vance & the Valiants recorded in 1989 and independently became popular at the same time as Carey's song. The melody is similar to Bobby Vinton's "My Heart Belongs to Only You".[49]
- Johnny Marks wrote three songs that appear in these most-performed Christmas songs in 2015: "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Holly Jolly Christmas", and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree". Irving Berlin wrote two: "White Christmas" and "Happy Holiday". These are the only songwriters to appear on the list more than once – and both are non-Christian.[50]
- Gene Autry was the first to sing three songs on the list of top 30 most performed Christmas songs in 2015 – "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Frosty the Snowman", and "Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)" – co-writing the latter song.
- Two of the songs, "Carol of the Bells" and "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24", rely on the same melody, Mykola Leontovych's "Shchedryk", which was published in 1918 and is thus out of copyright, no longer subject to ASCAP royalties. The lyrics to "Carol of the Bells" are still under copyright. The copyright on "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" extends only to the arrangement.
Christmas song surveys
In 2007 surveys of United States radio listeners by two different research groups,[51] the most liked songs were standards such as Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" (1942), Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song" (1946), and Burl Ives' "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (1965). Other favorites like "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (Brenda Lee, 1958), "Jingle Bell Rock" (Bobby Helms, 1957) and John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas" (1971), scored well in one study. Also "loved" were Johnny Mathis's "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and Harry Simeone Chorale's "Little Drummer Boy" (1958).
Among the most-hated Christmas songs, according to Edison Media Research's 2007 survey, are Barbra Streisand's "Jingle Bells?", the Jackson 5's "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town", Elmo & Patsy's "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer", and "O Holy Night" as performed by cartoon characters from Comedy Central's South Park. The "most-hated Christmastime recording" is a rendition of "Jingle Bells" by Carl Weissmann's Singing Dogs, a revolutionary novelty song originally released in 1955, and re-released as an edited version in 1970.[51] A 2004 focus group from Edison, conducted solely among the key demographic of women age 30 to 49, listed "Jingle Bells?," the Singing Dogs "Jingle Bells," the South Park "O Holy Night" rendition, a Guido parody of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," and "Blue Christmas" as performed by Porky Pig impersonator Seymour Swine.[42]
Rolling Stone magazine ranked Darlene Love's version of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" (1963) first on its list of The Greatest Rock and Roll Christmas Songs in December 2010.[52] Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You", co-written by Carey and Walter Afanasieff, was No. 1 on Billboard's Holiday Digital Songs chart in December 2013.[53] "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues is cited as the best Christmas song of all time in various television, radio and magazine related polls in the United Kingdom and Ireland.[54]
A 2021 YouGov survey of 1,000 adults ranked the most hated Christmas songs, counting only those songs that a majority of those polls recognized and listing the songs independent of any artist who may have recorded them. "Santa Baby" ranked atop the list; a side note from a news article covering the list noted that much of that hatred came from the Madonna cover version from A Very Special Christmas, which gets more airplay than Eartha Kitt's original. Other songs that ranked high in terms of listener revulsion included "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" and "Wonderful Christmastime".[55]
Pinnacle Media Worldwide survey
The Pinnacle Media Worldwide survey divided its listeners into music-type categories:
- "Adult contemporary" listeners rated Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" best.
- "Adult Top 40" fans liked Bobby Helms' "Jingle Bell Rock".
- "Hip-hop/R&B" fans liked the Jackson 5's "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town".
- "Country" listeners ranked Burl Ives' "A Holly Jolly Christmas" No. 1.
- "Smooth jazz" fans liked "The Christmas Song" as sung by Nat King Cole.
United Kingdom and Ireland
Most played songs
A collection of chart hits recorded in a bid to be crowned the UK Christmas No. 1 single during the 1970s and 1980s have become some of the most popular holiday tunes in the United Kingdom. Band Aid's 1984 song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" is the second-best-selling single in UK Chart history. "Fairytale of New York", released by The Pogues in 1987, is regularly voted the British public's favourite-ever Christmas song. It is also the most-played Christmas song of the 21st century in the UK.[56][57][58] British glam rock bands had major hit singles with Christmas songs in the 1970s. "Merry Xmas Everybody" by Slade, "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" by Wizzard, and "Lonely This Christmas" by Mud all remain hugely popular.[59]
In 2012, PRS for Music (who collect and pay royalties to its 75,000 song-writing and composing members) conducted a survey of the top ten most played Christmas songs in the UK over the past year. The list was as follows:[60]