My celebration of Advent this year has included reading the book Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas by Ace Collins. It is written in such an engaging way that I find it difficult to limit myself to one or two songs a day! Why limit my reading? It gives more opportunity to reflect and relish each story. It’s my hope that by writing about them here I’ll be better able to soak in what I've read, to hear the songs with fresh ears and more fully appreciate them.
One of my early observations is that a number of our most familiar carols date to the Middle Ages, when church music “…were usually written in Latin and had dark, somber melodies, offering singers and listeners little inspiration or joy.” Commoners created their own church folk music that was “light, lively, and penned in common language.” In several instances, it was Queen Victoria who really liked the carol, which then led to its being sung in the Anglican Church and then eventually spread around the world.
Another common thread is that many were originally written as poems and were later married to music. Occasionally this happened within the lifetime of the author, and in other instances it was more than a century later! I’m intrigued with the study of the language, contextual definitions, and semantics.
Stay tuned! My goal is to share some of what I’ve learned this Advent season and how this new understanding has blessed me and my celebration of Christ’s birth.
