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Show MAS CAROL Music and Song Always Associated Associ-ated With the Yuletide. Original Sacred Character cf Carole Was Almost Lest Sight of in Thirteenth Century. rVYUSIC and song have always been jVl associated with Christmas. In Roman Catholic countries, as early as the Third century, it became be-came the custom to usher in the Christmas festivities with musical masses. The practice of singing carols or canticles was supposed to recall the "In Excelsis Gloria" of the angels nnd the song of the shepherds on the first Christmas night. A very old carol, published in 1521, gives an amusing description of church revelries : A wooden child In clouts on the altar sat, About the which both boys and girls do dance and timely Jet, And carols sing In praise of Christ. The priests do roar aloud! And round about the parents stand To see the sport, and with their voice Do help them, and with hand. At first, carols were generally religious re-ligious In character, and were written with Latin and English words In alternate al-ternate lines, or with n Latin refrain. The well-known carol When Christ was born of Mary free In Bethlehem, that fair cltle. Angels sang with mirth and glee In Excelsis Gloria, and another with a chorus, Christus natus hodie The babe, the -sou, The holy one Of Mary, are good examples of this class. When the tendency to ribaldry became be-came marked, some of the carols got to be very peculiar in subject and language. Joseph Is treated with a great want of respect, for one carol runs: Joseph was an old man. An old man was he. When he wedded Mary, The Maid of Galilee. Another relates the story of the shepherds watching their flocks by night : A Bhepard upon a hill he salt He had on him hys tabard and hatt, Hys tarbox, hys pipe and hys flagatt; Hys name was called Joly-Joly Watt Having been informed of the birth of Christ, the shepherd sets off foi Bethlehem, and on arriving, says: Jhesu! I off Thee my pype. j My skyrte, my tarbox and my scrype. I Home to my fellows now will I skype, And loke unto my shepe. In the Thirteenth century the sacred sa-cred character of these Christmas i songs was almost entirely lost sight of. The Puritan parliament abolished Christmas and carols altogether, but feasting and revelry returned with the Restoration. Carol singing, which had fallen Into disuse, was revived by a collection of carols published by D. Gilbert, in 1822, but caroling, which was formerly ushered In by the chiming of church bells, and the sallying forth of choirs which chanted their way round villages vil-lages until their throats were hoarse and their noses red from cold and friendly Christmas potations. Is now almost a thing of the past. Tit Bits. |