As the Christmas season begins, nearly every department store and radio speaker in the country thumps to the beat of a variety of Christmas carols. But, the story behind how these tunes transformed into world-renowned carols spans centuries.
The term carol is a medieval word of French and Anglo-Norman origin, translated as a dance song or circle dance accompanied by singing. Originally, carols were first sung in Europe as pagan songs celebrating the Winter Solstice, according to whychristmas.com.
Nearly 2000 millennia later, Christians gave religious meaning to the original carols. For instance, the origin of the Christmas classic “Silent Night, Holy Night” dates back to the snowy winter of 1818 at St. Nicholas’ Church in Obendorf, Austria.
Mr. Joseph Mohr was the assistant to a local priest needed to provide music for a Christmas ceremony. However, he faced a dilemma when he realized the church organ was broken. To solve his musical drought, he adapted his 1816 poem into lyrics.
Mr. Mohr asked his friend Mr. Franz Gruber to compose music to accompany the poem, and the song was performed Christmas Eve 1818. Centuries later, the harmonic tune remains a world-renowned Christmas carol, according to home.snu.edu.
In addition, another popular holiday song, “Jingle Bells,” was originally titled “The One Horse Open Sleigh.”
Mr. James Pierpont, a Medford, Massachusetts resident, wrote the songs in 1850 as a celebration of the one-horse-open-sleigh races on Salem and Pleasant Streets between Medford Square and Malden Square. He originally wrote the chipper tune in Simpson’s Tavern, a boardinghouse with the only piano in town. Producers Mr. Bruce Gellerman and Mr. Erik Sherman changed the song’s name to “Jingle Bells” two years later, according to americanmusicpreservation.com.
The popular tune “Frosty the Snowman”, written by Mr. Steve Nelson, dates back to Village Square in Armonk, New York in 1950 where Mr. Nelson imagined a snowman dared children to “catch me if you can.”