Christmas Now Is Drawing Near: English Folk Carols, Sneak’s Noyse, Roddy Skeaping, director (Musical Heritage Society).
In 1871, the Reverend Henry Ramsden Bramley and Sir John Stainer published Christmas Carols, New and Old, a collection that established Christmas carols as part of the church repertoire (and provided the first four-part harmony for many current favorites). In the preface to their second edition, Bramley and Stainer noted: “Instead of the itinerant ballad-singer or the little bands of wandering children, the practice of singing Carols in Divine Service, or by a full choir at some fixed meeting, is becoming prevalent.” Jeremy Barlow, who researched these tunes, and Roddy Skeaping, consort director, want to recreate the sound of those “itinerant ballad singers” and wandering groups of wassailers.
Many of the tunes are familiar, yet because of the careful research they appear here in older forms with many differences from what we learned in Sunday school. The sound is (intentionally) unpolished. The singers sing well—but as one might sing in the street, not the concert hall—and they double as instrumentalists.
One Victorian carol is included to illustrate the sort of music composed at the time. Stainer’s saccharine “Cold Was the Day When in a Garden Bare” is more than enough to make one long to hear more wandering wassailers.
Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.
Our digital archives are a work in progress. Let us know if corrections need to be made.
Annual & Monthly subscriptions available.
- Print & Digital Issues of CT magazine
- Complete access to every article on ChristianityToday.com
- Unlimited access to 65+ years of CT’s online archives
- Member-only special issues
- Learn more
More from this Issue
Read These Next
- TrendingAmerican Christians Should Stand with Israel under AttackWhile we pray for peace, we need moral clarity about this war.
- From the MagazineShould the Bible Sound Like the Language in the Streets?Controversy over Bibles in Jamaica, the Philippines, and Germany reveal the divide between the sacred and the relatable.
- Editor's PickA Theologian’s Vision of ‘Peasant’ Politics Is Surprisingly Lordly in ScopeEphraim Radner’s “narrow” concern for protecting the mundane goods of earthly life isn’t so narrow after all.