Why was the Partridge in the Pear Tree? (6 page)

The Golden age of Christmas carols and songs began with the rediscovery of ‘The First Nowell’. It is uncertain when this carol was written. Some believe that it was written in the eighteenth century, but some music historians argue that it could have been written as early as the sixteenth century. A version of the carol was first published in 1823 in
Carols Ancient and Modern
. The book was one of many to be edited and arranged by William B. Sandys and Davies Gilbert. Sandys, a solicitor and antiquarian, and Gilbert, an engineer, author and politician, rediscovered many carols from different parts of Britain, adding them to collections, sometimes with extra verses and different settings.

Davies Gilbert was born in St Erith, Cornwall, the only child of Revd Edward Giddy and Catherine Davies. His father was the curate of St Erith Church in the village. His great love of the history and culture of Cornwall led him to assemble and write many books, including
A Parochial History of Cornwall
, he was also passionate about old Cornish carols that had all but fallen from use. He met William Sandys when he was elected to the Society of Antiquaries in 1820. In the introduction to
Carols Ancient and Modern
, Gilbert wrote:

The Editor is desirous of preserving them [the selected Christmas carols] in their actual forms, however distorted by false grammar or by obscurities, as specimens of times now passed away, and of religious feelings superseded by others of a different cast. He is anxious also to preserve them on account of the delight they afforded him in his childhood, when the festivities of Christmas Eve were anticipated by many days of preparation, and prolonged through several weeks by repetitions and remembrances.

Even though Gilbert believed he was preserving carols for nostalgic purposes, he was actually laying the foundations for one of the greatest periods of hymn, music and carol writing. By the end of the century nearly all of the carols we sing, know and love today will have been written in a renaissance for Christmas music.

The title page of William Sandys’ book,
Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern
.

In Sandy and Gilbert’s
Carols Ancient and Modern
alone we have ‘The First Nowell’, ‘God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen’ and ‘I Saw Three Ships’. It also included songs and carols from far back as medieval times, many of which Sandys ‘improved’ and combined with other sources he found. Many of the tunes consisted of phrases that are repeated twice followed by a different phrase. These old English folk melodies were popular amongst the West Gallery Choirs, so named because at the beginning of the eighteenth century, these Georgian choirs sang in purpose-built galleries on the west ends of Anglican churches, and in Nonconformist chapels. Their fuguing tunes, unique musical meter and four-part harmonies were sometimes accompanied by the violin, cello or clarinet, although it was common for the choirs to sing unaccompanied. The Victorians frowned on this Georgian practice and sadly they removed many good examples of west galleries from churches and chapels. Nevertheless, these tunes have become popular once again, not just amongst Wassailers, Sheffield Carolers and the Mari Lwyd (see Chapter 1), but also with the choirs who have revived the tradition of West Gallery Music.

Carols were gradually making a comeback and caroling became fashionable once again, usually for raising money for a Church-sponsored endeavour. The old feast day of St Thomas (21 December) was a traditional day for caroling and became a firm favourite throughout Britain.

‘I Saw Three Ships’ is also thought to have been first sung in the fifteenth century, and was known across England in slightly different versions. Similar to ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ it could have been not only sung, but used as a memory game around the festive season, as people added items and attempted to remember what people had sung or said before them.

These also appear in their rediscovered form in Gilbert and Sandys’ books as does the carol that is quoted in Charles Dickens’
A Christmas Carol
, ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’.

The golden age of carols also adopted hymns that were written relatively recently, and were still being sung in the churches and chapels. Charles Wesley wrote ‘Hark the Herald Angels’, publishing it in
Hymns and Sacred Songs
in 1739, it reappeared, re-adapted in a modified form, set to a tune by the famous composer Felix Mendelssohn and arranged by William Cummings.

‘Joy to the World’, written in 1719 by Isaac Watts, based on Psalm 98, received a make-over in 1839 when Lowell Mason set it to the tune we sing today, although his arrangement is very similar to music from Handel’s
Messiah
.

At the same time, many other songs were being rescued from obscurity and re-arranged, including ‘The Boar’s Head Carol’, ‘The Holly and the Ivy’, ‘Here We Go A-Wasailling’ and even ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’.

Carols and Christmas songs had started to appear before the Victorian era, but the ascension to the throne of Queen Victoria in 1837 saw their popularity boosted. She had a strong desire to introduce a sense of seasonal morality to Christmas with the emphasis on family values at home. Christmas had, for some time, since the Puritans, been an austere event, with carols only being sung in a few isolated communities. However, during Victoria’s reign clergy throughout the land taught parishioners carols and even arranged carol-singing events outside in cities, towns and villages.

In 1840, the Queen’s consort, Prince Albert, introduced the Christmas tree to Britain. The decoration of trees at Christmas had been an old custom in his native Germany. The custom instantly caught the imagination of the public and heavily decorated Christmas trees became a central part of a Victorian Christmas.

Carol singing in Yorkshire. Drawn by John Gilbert. (
Illustrated London News
, 1862)

This reimagining of Christmas took many forms, with many of the traditions and customs we practice today beginning in this period. The tradition of giving Children presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day was widely popular at this time, and despite the difficulty travelling on trains and in carriages, relatives visited with baskets of gifts and fine food. The newspapers printed pictures of the Royal Family gathered around their Christmas tree, and the close-knit Victorian family would do the same, singing carols and playing games. The most popular carols time included ‘The First Noel’, ‘Silent Night’, and ‘The Wassail Song’.

Many Victorian homes had a piano or organ in their parlors. The singing would have drifted on the air to join with the carolers and wasaillers, choirs, bells and organs in the churches. This time in history was surely the golden age of Christmas carols and songs.

Refrain:

Lully, lulla, Thou little tiny Child,

By, by, lully, lullay.

O sisters too, how may we do,

For to preserve this day

This poor youngling for whom we do sing

By, by, lully, lullay.

Refrain

Herod, the king, in his raging,

Charged he hath this day

His men of might, in his own sight,

All children young to slay.

Refrain

That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!

And ever mourn and sigh,

For thy parting neither say nor sing,

By, by, lully, lullay.

‘The Coventry Carol’ is one that is not always familiar to those who enjoy singing upbeat and lively carols and Christmas songs. It is the lament of a mother for her son. The carol is one of the oldest still in existence and is named after the city of Coventry, where the sixteenth-century
Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors
depicted Herod’s slaughter of the innocents.

In the Bible, the Gospel According to Matthew tells the story:

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying,

In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

Matthew 2:16-18 (King James Version)

This account of infanticide by the King of Judea, Herod the Great, reports that he ordered the killing of all young male children in Bethlehem because the Magi, or wise men, had reported that the King of the Jews had been born there. In his mission to avoid losing his throne to the Christ child, he gave the order.

The incident is described as fulfilling a prophesy made hundreds of years earlier by the Prophet Jeremiah, in the Old Testament, which is repeated in Matthew’s Gospel 700 years later, ‘In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping …’

In the
Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors
, the carol was a gentle lullaby sung by the women of Bethlehem to their children, before the soldiers of Herod arrived to kill them. It’s a deeply sad and upsetting episode in the Christmas story, which is recounted by this carol, sung as a lament in a three-part harmony with no accompaniment.