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~ Silent Night ~
The origin of the Christmas carol we know as “Silent Night” was a poem that was written in 1816 by an Austrian priest called Joseph Mohr not long after the Napoleonic wars had taken their toll.
On Christmas Eve in 1818 in the small alpine village called Oberndorf, it is reputed that the organ at St. Nicholas Church had broken. Mohr gave the poem of “Silent Night (Stille Nacht)” to his friend Franz Xavier Gruber and the melody was composed with this in mind. The music to “Silent Night” was therefore intended for a guitar and the simple score was finished in time for Midnight Mass.
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~The Christmas Song ~
(Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)
“The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)” was written by a native Chicagoan and made famous by a singer/songwriter who grew up in Chicago. The writer was Mel Torme. The singer was Nat King Cole.
Written in 1946 on one of the hottest July days on record in Los Angeles, Mel and his writing partner, Robert Wells, were assigned to write title songs for two movies. Wells was trying to fight off the unbearable heat writing down everything he could think of from childhood winters in New England.
Mel saw the notes Wells had written on a pad of paper – “Chestnuts roasting…Jack Frost nipping…Yuletide carols…Folks dressed up like Eskimos” and saw lyrics to a song. Wells dismissed the notion that it was a song and suggested that they focus on the task at hand – writing the music for the movies. Mel insisted they should continue with what Wells had started. Forty minutes later, “The Christmas Song” was complete.
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~The First Noel ~
“The First Noel,” is believed to date from the 13th century, a time in which all medieval civilization in Europe was springing to life. The inspiration for the story of the song comes from dramatizations of favorite Bible stories for holidays, which were called the Miracle Plays, very popular during this time. It tells the story of the night that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, based on the Gospel accounts in Luke 2 and Matthew 2. Noel is the French word for Christmas and is from the Latin natalis, meaning “birthday.” Most medieval poetry was written to be sung, so it is presumed that the words were written with an existing tune in mind. This makes the tune to the song even older, and is likely English or French.
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~ Have Yourself A
Merry Little Christmas ~
Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, Hall of Fame writers had written music for such movie classics like “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Girl Crazy.," among many others.
They were contracted by MGM to write the music for “Meet Me In St. Louis,” which starred Mary Astor, June Lockhart, Margaret O’Brien, and a 22 year old who had made her big screen debut five years earlier in "Wizard of Oz." Judy Garland.
The plot called for Judy’s character to sing a song to her little sister, who was worried that the family’s impending move from New York City to Missouri would cause Santa Claus from being able to find her.
The scene was set on Christmas Eve night with them looking out from an upstairs window onto a snow covered front lawn.
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~It Came Upon A Midnight Clear~
“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” was written by Edmund Hamilton Sears in 1849, reportedly at the request of his friend and fellow minister, W.P. Lunt. It was first presented at his 1849 Sunday School Christmas celebration and was originally published on December 29, 1849 in a church magazine, The Christian Register in Massachusetts. Sears was also was the editor for the Boston-based Monthly Religious Magazine from 1859 to 1871.
The carol started as a poem written by its author, a part-time preacher living in Wayland, MA at the time. Maybe one of the first social gospel hymns written. Sears’ context was the social strife that plagued the country as the Civil War approached.
In 1850, a friend of Sears, Richard Storrs Willis, a composer who trained under Felix Mendelssohn, wrote the melody called “Carol,” which he had written for the organ.
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~ The 12 Days of Christmas ~
To most, “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is a delightful nonsense rhyme set to music. But it had a quite serious purpose when it was written. It is a good deal more than just a repetitious melody with pretty phrases and a list of strange gifts.
Catholics in England from 1558 to 1829, when Parliament emancipated Catholics in England, were prohibited from ANY practice of their faith by law – private OR public. It was a crime to BE a Catholic.
“The Twelve Days of Christmas” was written in England as one of the “catechism songs” to help young Catholics learn the tenets of their faith – a memory aid, when to be caught with anything in writing indicating adherence to the faith could not only get you imprisoned, it could get you hanged.
The songs gifts are hidden meanings to the teachings of the faith. The “true love” mentioned in the song doesn’t refer to an earthly suitor, it refers to God Himself. The “me” who receives the presents refers to every baptized person. The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge which feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings.
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