Our Christmas carols come from many countries, including Germany, Poland, Ukraine, and America. Most of the songs we use today during this season in our churches are from Victorian England. But our hymnals correctly reflect the birth of a Savior for all the nations. Every year at Christmas, we sing many carols that have come to us from France. These include “Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella,” “He Is Born, the Divine Christ Child,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “O Holy Night” (dating from 1843), and our current study, “Sing We Now of Christmas.”
There have also been many French carols that have not made it into our English language Christmas celebrations. Organists are familiar with these as they are part of the French organ literature of noels coming from the 18th century. It was common on Christmas Eve for organists to play variations of familiar carols as people were arriving for midnight Mass. These noels are often played today in organ concerts, and include works by Louis Claude-Daquin, Jean-Francois Dandrieu, and Claude Balbastre.
“Sing We Now of Christmas” was written in the 15th century as a New Year’s carol. The French title is “Noel Nouvelet.” Both words are from the same root, meaning “new” or newness,” coming from the Latin word “natalis” which means birthday, and so has come to be associated especially with the birth of Jesus at Christmas. It was sometime in the 17th or 18th century that the text of this carol was translated into English to become the traditional carol that we enjoy singing today.
The word “carol” is commonly associated only with Christmas songs. But technically, a carol is simply a festive song of any sort, usually of folk origin with no information about a named composer, often with a dance-like character. Carol singing based on many popular themes had been one of the common pagan customs that the medieval church adopted, initially at both Christmas and Easter. The earliest English Christmas carol was written around 1350. The period from 1400-1550 was the heyday of the English Christmas carol. However, after the Reformation, some in the church suppressed the custom. Puritans saw it as a pagan activity, and John Calvin promoted singing only metrical psalms in the sanctuary. By contrast, Luther adored congregational singing and wrote several Christmas hymns in the style of folk songs and other popular tunes. Among his contributions to Christian Christmas hymnody are “From Heav’n Above to Earth I Come” and “Savior of the Nations, Come.” Some hymnals in the past incorrectly named Luther as the composer of “Away in a Manger.” That children’s song probably originated in German congregations in America around 1885.
Throughout most of the 1700s the only officially permitted Christmas hymn in the Church of England was “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night.” The second carol to be approved, toward the end of the century, was Charles Wesley’s “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing.” Carols seemed to have had more success in remote country churches. Over time, carol-singing left the church and became focused in the home, the streets, and the meetings of religious dissenters.
Carols were finally brought into the mainstream of Anglican worship in the mid- to late nineteenth century. John Mason Neale published “Carols for Christmas-tide” in 1853. The cathedral choir in Truro, England switched in 1878 from singing around town on Christmas to having an evening service inside the church consisting of two Scripture lessons, prayers, and a sermon, interspersed with carols. Two years later, the service was expanded to nine lessons and carols, providing the model used in 1918 at King’s College, Cambridge, which has become so popular each year at Christmas time in American churches.
“Sing We Now of Christmas” is a perfect song to accompany the French tradition of the crèche. Handmade nativity scenes were not only common in homes, but also in town squares. Little clay figures, traditionally made in the south of France, are called “santons” (“little saints”). Fine craftsmanship characterizes the production of these figures, and they are a source of local pride for the communities that produce them. It is interesting that “crèche” is also the French term for a nursery for young children during the day.
Christmas trees, though not absent from France, are more of a German tradition, as the traditional folksong “O Tannenbaum” (“O Christmas Tree”) attests. The crèche, on the other hand, is the more common focal point for the season in France. This tradition is particularly strong in Provence, the south of France, with a crèche that includes the Holy Family, the Magi, the shepherds, and the animals, along with additional local figures, such as the mayor, the little drummer boy, or a peasant, dressed in traditional attire. In some villages, people dress as the shepherds and join in a procession to the church. Children often contribute to domestic crèches by bringing small stones, moss, and evergreens to complete the scene. Then, everyone sings carols!
Perhaps this tradition explains the focus of many “chants de noël.” They are often sung around the crèche in homes or in procession to the church, dressed as shepherds. Rather than viewing the scene, it seems that the singer actually joins the biblical characters as a part of the scene. Rather than the focus on the Christmas tree with a manger scene placed in some adjacent location, the focus is on the crèche itself and those persons that make up the nativity ensemble. This idea is an outgrowth of the French Renaissance when humanity assumed an important role in cosmic events.
Congregational songs were not sung in Catholic liturgy at this time. These were songs of the people. Even so, they did not lack theology or symbolic sophistication. NOEL NOUVELET, sometimes rendered “Christmas comes anew,” is a tune that dates to the late fifteenth century. The original French text, perhaps patterned on the twelve days of Christmas, includes stanzas not translated into English. Without these stanzas, the result is a basic nativity narrative.
“Sing We Now of Christmas” presents the Christmas story just as it is recorded in the Bible. In the Gospel of Luke, we learn about the promise of the newborn king. This is followed by the angel’s announcement to the shepherds telling them not to be afraid. The shepherds then traveled to Bethlehem to see for themselves this “new birth” (or “noel”). In Matthew, we find the story of the wise men (men who studied the stars) that followed a bright star to Bethlehem to offer gifts to the newborn King.
One of the wonderful traditions of Christmas that should be maintained is that of going Christmas caroling, perhaps to neighbors of the church and to home-bound members or to nursing homes. Just what is it about Christmas that makes us sing? First, it’s important to remember that Christianity has always been a singing faith. Throughout the Bible, the people of God have sung joyfully about their Maker and Redeemer. Indeed, many of the most beautiful expressions of faith in the Scriptures are demonstrated in song. Think no further than the shepherd boy David, who would become Israel’s great psalmist and king. And add to that the four nativity carols that Dr. Luke included in his Gospel: Mary’s “Magnificat,” Zachariah’s “Benedictus,” the angels’ “Gloria,” and Simeon’s “Nunc Dimittis.” And don’t forget heaven’s songs in Revelation!
Music and song, secondly, express truth and emotion that mere thoughts or spoken words cannot. The life of Christ is the greatest story ever told, and Christmas is the story of the greatest gift ever given. It should come as no surprise that the Christ Child has given inspiration to countless pieces of music through the years and inspires new ones each year, both for congregational singing and for choral anthems and instrumental literature. Some of the greatest music and art in history, in fact, is entirely about Christmas. Music also provides a great way to communicate a story or idea in a memorable way. Millions of children in America, maybe ones who will not hear the name of Jesus at other times of the year, will sing of His wonderful Name.
Finally, Christmas music is an excellent way to share the Gospel with adults. The best Christmas songs are not those that merely convey a sentimental picture of a baby in a manger, but those that are rich in Christology. The best are those, like “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” which are full of rich doctrinal expression of the person and work of Christ. In other words, the best Christmas songs are those that are most full of Christ! Kasey Leander wrote this on the “Breakpoint” site.
Not the content of a doctrinally neutered “Christianity,” Wesley preached messages on the personal transformation of the Gospel for eternal life because of who Christ is. Jesus Christ was more than a good man, more than a cultural object of piety. Rather, Jesus Christ is the living Son of the living God. God incarnate, He demands the worship of every human being. That kind of theological clarity about Christ is on full display in Charles Wesley’s hymn, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” Originally called a “Hymn for Christmas Day,” the lyrics comprise a sound and powerful Christology:
There are thirteen stanzas in the French text. Here are the five most often sung today in English.
Stanza 1 launches the carol with exuberant joy that continues throughout. One can almost see the singers dancing as they celebrate this event.
Sing we now of Christmas,
Noel, sing we here!
Hear our grateful praises
to the babe so dear.
Refrain:
Sing we Noel, the King is born, Noel!
Sing we now of Christmas, sing we now Noel!
Stanza 2 takes us out to the fields of Bethlehem. Tourists today travel to the likely spot and try to imagine the sudden shock those shepherds experienced that night.
Angels called to shepherds,
“Leave your flocks at rest,
journey forth to Bethlehem,
find the lambkin blest.” [Refrain]
Stanza 3 describes the touching sight of the Babe with Mary and Joseph. It all sounds to us so quiet and peaceful. But with the smells and sounds of animals that night, it was anything but that!
In Bethlehem they found him;
Joseph and Mary mild,
seated by the manger,
watching the holy child. [Refrain]
Stanza 4 moves past the birth to the time probably two years later when the Magi from the east arrived. Too many speculate about the star and forget that it was the Lord who guided them.
From the eastern country
came the kings afar,
bearing gifts to Bethlehem
guided by a star. [Refrain]
Stanza 5 concludes with the gifts they brought. The text suggests that this was like paradise in that the King of creation was receiving the adoration of His creatures.
Gold and myrrh they took there,
gifts of greatest price;
there was ne’er a place on earth
so like paradise. [Refrain]
Though the ancient tune NOEL NOUVELET is in a minor key, the Dorian mode, it is an exuberant melody full of joy and vitality. Despite the fact that the text was originally a New Year’s song that is now associated with Christmas, it is also the music used for the 1928 Easter hymn by John Macleod Campbell Crum, “Now the Green Blade Rises.”
Here is an anthem performance of the noel carol in a massive church Christmas pageant.