Christmas music
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 or songs may employ lyrics whose subject matter ranges from the nativity of Jesus Christ to gift-giving and merrymaking. Many songs simply have a winter or seasonal theme, or have been adopted into the canon for other reasons.
About Christmas music in brief
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 or songs may employ lyrics whose subject matter ranges from the nativity of Jesus Christ, to gift-giving and merrymaking. Many songs simply have a winter or seasonal theme, or have been adopted into the canon for other reasons. Most Christmas songs prior to 1930 were of a traditional religious character. The Great Depression era of the 1930s brought a stream of songs of American origin, most of which did not explicitly reference the Christian nature of the holiday. Performances of Christmas music at public concerts, in churches, at shopping malls, on city streets, and in private gatherings is an integral staple of the Christmas holiday in many cultures across the world. Radio stations often convert to a 24-7 Christmas music format leading up to the holiday, starting sometimes as early as the day after Halloween – as part of a phenomenon known as ‘Christmas creep’ Christmas music is thought to have its origins in 4th-century Rome, in Latin-language hymns such as Veni redemptor gentium. 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. The first Christmas songs associated with Saint Nicholas or other gift-bringers came also during the 19th century, including \”O Little Town of Bethlehem\”, including ‘Silent Night’ and ‘O Holy Night.’ In 1644, the Westminster Assembly of Divines established Sunday as the only holy day in the calendar in 1644. Its celebration was declared an offense by Parliament and so legally abolished Christmas. There is some debate as to the effectiveness of this ban, and whether or not it was enforced in the country in 1647. When Charles II restored the throne to the throne in May 1660, the people of England once again practiced public singing of ChristmasCarols. The Victorian Era saw a surge of Christmas carol celebrations associated with a renewed admiration of the king’s admiration of Saint Nicholas. The 12 Days of Christmas is still sung to this day, including “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen’, “O Christmas Tree” and “The 12 Days Of Christmas’. The 16th century was the first time that the word ‘carol’ was used in the English language.
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This page is based on the article Christmas music published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
