Christmas Carols Part I: The Sussex Carol

We will look at some of our favorite Christmas Carols this week as we gear up in anticipation of Christmas.  (Hurray!)  I would like to open with a little-known and less-appreciated carol, The Sussex Carol.  If you are unfamiliar with it, click hear to listen to a wonderful rendition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZm2NsZnJHE.

Your Correspondent had somehow never heard this, despite a lifelong devotion to the holiday, until 1984, when the tune serves as the centerpiece for the George C. Scott television adaption of A Christmas Carol.

The, however, is very popular in Great Britain, and is sometimes called On Christmas Night All Christians Sing.  The words to the carol were first published by Luke Wadding, a 17^th Century bishop, in his book, Small Garland of Pious and Godly Songs (1684).  It is uncertain whether or not Wadding is the actual author of the tune.

The text and tune were later rediscovered by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), who heard it sung by Harriet Verrall of Monk’s Gate, near Horsham, Sussex.  (It is Williams who dubbed the tune The Sussex Carol).  The tune generally heard today is the one heard by Williams as sung by Verrall, and published in 1919.

Vaughan Williams included that carol in his Fantasia on Christmas Carols, first performed during the Three Choirs Festival at Hereford Cathedral in 1912. 

On Christmas night all Christians sing
To hear the news the angels bring.
News of great joy, news of great mirth,
News of our merciful King's birth.

Then why should men on earth be so sad,
Since our Redeemer made us glad,
When from our sin he set us free,
All for to gain our liberty?

When sin departs before His grace,
Then life and health come in its place.
Angels and men with joy may sing
All for to see the new-born King.

When sin departs before His grace,
Then life and health come in its place.
Angels and men with joy may sing
All for to see the new-born King.

I love this carol first of all for the melody.  It seems so joyous and spritely … one could almost imagine it as something played at a Renaissance Faire as much as a Christmas tune.

Another theme that I continually return to in listening to Xmas music is that of listening.  So many Christmas carols exhort us to listen … to the angels, to the settling of snow, to the mysteries of the Invisible World.  Not only that … but that the Invisible World is a place of both joy and mirth.

I would hope that readers would consider incorporating The Sussex Carol into their Christmas listening this season.

Christmas Carols, Part III: O Little Town of Bethlehem

In this last Friday before Christmas, we here at The Jade Sphinx continue to look at some of our favorite Christmas carols.  Near the top of the list is O Little Town of Bethlehem, which has, we think, a particular sweetness and charm.  There are many, many excellent recordings, but by far our favorite is that of Burl Ives, which can be heard here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl0uReXPb6U.

Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) was an American Episcopal bishop, famous for his preaching and liberal views.  On Christmas Eve, 1865, he rode from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and is said to have viewed the town from the field where shepherds received the news of Christ’s birth from the angels.  Three years later, he wrote the words of O Little Town of Bethlehem; his organist, Lewis Redner (with whom he had collaborated when writing the carol Everywhere, Everywhere, Christmas Tonight, wrote the music, which he said came to him in a dream with an angel strain.  It was first performed by the children of their Sunday school.

In England, Redner’s tune has been overtaken in popularity by a 1906 Ralph Vaughan Williams version of the folk tune The Ploughboy’s Dream, or Forest Green.  Other tunes by Henry Walford Davies and Joseph Barnby have attracted less interest.

O little town of Bethlehem

How still we see thee lie

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep

The silent stars go by

Yet in thy dark streets shineth

The everlasting Light

The hopes and fears of all the years

Are met in thee tonight

For Christ is born of Mary

And gathered all above

While mortals sleep, the angels keep

Their watch of wondering love

O morning stars together

Proclaim the holy birth

And praises sing to God the King

And Peace to men on earth

How silently, how silently

The wondrous gift is given!

So God imparts to human hearts

The blessings of His heaven.

No ear may hear His coming,

But in this world of sin,

Where meek souls will receive him still,

The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem

Descend to us, we pray

Cast out our sin and enter in

Be born to us today

We hear the Christmas angels

The great glad tidings tell

O come to us, abide with us

Our Lord Emmanuel