Editing Christmas carol (section)

==History==
[[File:Personent hodie.jpg|thumb|A 1582 published version of the Latin carol ''[[Personent hodie]]'']]
The first known Christmas hymns may be traced to 4th-century Rome. Latin hymns such as [[Veni redemptor gentium]], written by [[Ambrose]], [[Archbishop of Milan]], were austere statements of the theological doctrine of the Incarnation in opposition to [[Arianism]]. Corde natus ex Parentis (''[[Of the Father's Heart Begotten|Of the Father's heart begotten]]'') by the Spanish poet [[Prudentius]] (d. 413) is still sung in some churches today.<ref>Miles, Clement, ''Christmas customs and traditions'', Courier Dover Publications, 1976, {{ISBN|0-486-23354-5}}, p. 32</ref>

In the 9th and 10th centuries, the Christmas sequence (or prose) was introduced in [[Northern Europe]]an monasteries, developing under [[Bernard of Clairvaux]] into a [[Sequence (liturgy)|sequence]] of rhymed [[stanza]]s. In the 12th century the Parisian monk [[Adam of Saint Victor]] began to derive music from popular songs, introducing something closer to the traditional Christmas carol.

In the 13th century, in France, Germany, and particularly, Italy, under the influence of [[Francis of Assisi]], a strong tradition of popular Christmas songs in regional native languages developed.<ref>Miles, pp. 31–37</ref> Christmas carols in English first appear in a 1426 work of [[John Audelay|John Awdlay]], a [[Shropshire]] chaplain, who lists twenty five "caroles of Cristemas", probably sung by groups of '[[wassailing|wassailers]]', who went from house to house.<ref>Miles, pp. 47–48</ref> The songs now known specifically as carols were originally communal songs sung during celebrations like harvest tide as well as Christmas. It was only later that carols began to be sung in church, and to be specifically associated with Christmas.

Many carols which have gained popularity were printed in ''[[Piae Cantiones]]'', a collection of late medieval Latin songs which was first published in 1582. Early, Latin forms of carols such as "[[Christ was born on Christmas Day]]", "[[Good Christian Men, Rejoice]]" and "[[Good King Wenceslas]]" can be found in this book.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Coghlan|first1=Alexandra|title=Carols from King's|date=2016|publisher=Random House|isbn=9781785940941|page=84|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Sf3DAAAQBAJ&q=modern%20carols%20from%20piae%20cantiones&pg=PA84|access-date=7 October 2016}}</ref> "{{lang|la|[[Adeste Fideles]]|italic=no}}" ("O Come all ye faithful") appears in its current form in the mid-18th century, although the words may have originated in the 13th century. The origin of the tune is disputed.

Carols gained in popularity after the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] in the countries where [[Protestant]] churches gained prominence (as well-known Reformers like Martin Luther authored carols and encouraged their use in worship). This was a consequence of the fact that the Lutheran reformation warmly welcomed music.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.museeprotestant.org/Pages/Notices.php?scatid=123&noticeid=199&lev=0&Lget=EN |title=Article – Protestant music<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=22 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511090117/http://www.museeprotestant.org/Pages/Notices.php?scatid=123&noticeid=199&lev=0&Lget=EN |archive-date=11 May 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> During the years that the [[Puritan]] ban on Christmas was in place in England, semi-clandestine religious services marking Christ's birth continued to be held, and people sang carols in secret.<ref>{{cite news |title=When Christmas carols were banned |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20141219-when-christmas-carols-were-banned |access-date=12 March 2022 |agency=BBC}}</ref>

[[File:ChristmasCarolsNewAndOld.jpg|thumb|19th-century carol books such as ''[https://archive.org/stream/christmascarolsn00staiiala#page/n0/mode/2up Christmas Carols, New and Old]'' (1871) helped to make carols popular]]
The publication of Christmas [[sheet music|music books]] in the 19th century helped to widen the popular appeal of carols. "[[God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen]]", "[[The First Noel]]", "[[I Saw Three Ships]]" and "[[Hark! The Herald Angels Sing]]" appear in English antiquarian [[William Sandys (antiquarian)|William Sandys]]' 1833 collection ''Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern''.<ref name="Sandys1833">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/christmascarolsa00sandrich/page/n6 |title=Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern |publisher=William Beckley |editor-last=Sandys |editor-first=William |location=[London] |date=1833}}</ref> Composers such as [[Arthur Sullivan]] helped to repopularise the carol, and it is this period that gave rise to such favourites as "[[Good King Wenceslas]]" and "[[It Came Upon the Midnight Clear]]", a New England carol written by Edmund H. Sears and Richard S. Willis. The publication in 1871 of ''Christmas Carols, New and Old'' by [[Henry Ramsden Bramley]] and Sir [[John Stainer]] was a significant contribution to a revival of carols in [[Victorian era|Victorian Britain]]. In 1916, Charles Lewis Hutchins published ''Carols Old and Carols New'', a scholarly collection which suffered from a short print run and is consequently rarely available today. The ''[[Oxford Book of Carols]]'', first published in 1928 by [[Oxford University Press]] (OUP), was a notably successful collection; edited by the British composers [[Martin Shaw (composer)|Martin Shaw]] and [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]], along with clergyman and author [[Percy Dearmer]], it became a widely used source of carols in among choirs and church congregations in Britain and remains in print today.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Studwell|first1=William E.|last2=Jones|first2=Dorothy E.|title=Publishing Glad Tidings : Essays on Christmas Music|date=1998|publisher=Haworth Press|location=New York [u.a.]|isbn=9780789003980|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ae7mH0jR_k4C&q=oxford%20book%20of%20carols%20vaughan%20williams&pg=PA51|access-date=11 October 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Shaw|editor1-first=Martin|editor2-last=Dearmer|editor2-first=Percy|editor3-last=Vaughan Williams|editor3-first=Ralph|title=The Oxford Book of Carols|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordbookofcaro00dear|url-access=registration|date=1964|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=9780193533158}}</ref>

The singing of carols was further popularised in the 20th century when OUP published one of the most popular carol books in the English-speaking world, ''[[Carols for Choirs]]''. First published in 1961 and edited by [[David Willcocks]] and [[Reginald Jacques]], this bestselling series has since expanded to a five-volume set. Along with editor [[John Rutter]], the compilers included many arrangements of carols derived from sources such as [[Piae Cantiones]], as well as pieces by modern composers such as [[William Walton]], [[Benjamin Britten]], [[Richard Rodney Bennett]], [[William Mathias]] and John Rutter.<ref name="morris-obit-telegraph">{{cite news|title=Christopher Morris, musician – obituary|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11444855/Christopher-Morris-musician-obituary.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11444855/Christopher-Morris-musician-obituary.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=4 October 2016|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Today carols are regularly sung at Christian religious services. Some compositions have words that are clearly not of a religious theme, but are often still referred to as "carols". For example, the 16th-century song "A Bone, God Wot!" appears to be a [[wassailing]] song (which is sung during drinking or while requesting ale), but is described in the [[British Library]]'s [[Cottonian Collection]] as a Christmas carol.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/a_bone_god_wot.htm|title=A Bone, God Wot!|website=www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com}}</ref> As recently as 1865, Christmas-related lyrics were adopted for the traditional English folk song "[[Greensleeves]]", becoming the internationally popular Christmas carol "[[What Child is This?]]". Little research has been conducted on carol singing, but one of the few [[sociomusicology|sociological]] studies of caroling in the early 21st century in Finland determined that the sources of songs are often misunderstood, and that it is simplistic to suggest caroling is mostly related to Christian beliefs, for it also reinforces preservation of diverse national customs and local family traditions.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi=10.1080/17411912.2012.721525|title = NotSo ''Silent'' Night: Tradition, Transformation and Cultural Understandings of Christmas Music Events in Helsinki, Finland| journal=Ethnomusicology Forum| volume=21| issue=3| pages=402–423|year = 2012|last1 = Hebert|first1 = David| last2=Kallio| first2=Alexis Anja| last3=Odendaal| first3=Albi|s2cid = 143629912}}</ref>

A modern form of the practice of caroling can be seen in "[[Dial-A-Carol]]," an annual tradition held by students at the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign|University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign]], wherein potential audiences call the singers to request a performance over phone call.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Dial-a-Carol: Student-run holiday jingle service open 24/7|url = http://college.usatoday.com/2015/12/15/dial-a-carol-student-run-holiday-jingle-service/|website = USA TODAY College|access-date = 24 February 2016}}</ref>

===Carols for dancing===
It is not clear whether the word carol derives from the French "carole" or the Latin "carula" meaning a circular dance.

===Music===
Traditionally, carols have often been based on [[medieval]] chord patterns, and it is this that gives them their uniquely characteristic musical sound. Some carols like "[[Personent hodie]]", "[[Good King Wenceslas]]", and "[[The Holly and the Ivy]]" can be traced directly back to the [[Middle Ages]], and are among the oldest musical compositions still regularly sung.

Compositions continue to be written that become popular carols. For example, many of the carols written by [[Alfred Burt]] are sung regularly in both sacred and secular settings, and are among the better known modern Christmas carols.