The Stories Behind the Songs: Three Carols Revisited - PHH 239

What if playing the harp felt easier the way you thought it would be? Not because you practiced more, but because you finally understood what was getting in your way? I'm Anne Sullivan and welcome to Practicing Harp Happiness. Here we tackled the real challenges harpists struggle with. The sticky passages, the tricky fingerings, prepping for performance, and and all the ingredients that go into making music sound the way you want it to. I've studied with world class harpists, taught at a top conservatory for 20 years, and I love playing the harp. But what I love just as much is breaking down the real challenges harpists face and turning them into clear, step by step solutions. The same ones I teach my students and use myself. So if you're ready to play the music you love with more confidence, clarity and joy, you're in the right place. So let's get started. Welcome to the show. I have to tell you, I'm kind of a Christmas carol geek, if there is such a thing. I've always enjoyed playing Christmas carols, and even as a young person, I was fascinated by where they came from, you know, their origins, translations, composers, text, sources, etc. For me, the stories behind the carols were kind of a history and a geography lesson rolled up into the Magic and the Meaning of Christmas. I still think that the origin stories are what really held my interest then and hold it now. I mean, the writing of Silent Night because a church organ in Austria was damaged, or the composition of O Holy Night as a dedication piece to a renovated organ in France are stories that. That aren't just interesting, though. They shape how I think about those songs and how I play them, and certainly how I arrange them as well. So today I want to share the backstories to three carols. Now, I know you're familiar with these carols, but you may not be familiar with their origin stories. And if you're like me, you love hearing insider scoops. And these are backstories you probably won't hear anywhere else. What's more, these three carols all share similar ethnic roots. They are all, to some degree at least, Czech, like the Czech Republic. So I think all of these stories are interesting, and I think I can guarantee that at least one of these connections will surprise you. What I hope is that you learn something that will give you a new connection to the music itself, so that when you play these carols or even when you hear them, they resonate in a little more personal way because you know just a little bit more about them. It's kind of like discovering something new about a friend you've known for years, something that adds a new layer of interest and delight. So if you're ready, sit back with your cup of coffee and I'll tell you a story or two. I don't want to leave you hanging, though. So if you want a little bit more information about that Silent Night story or the oh, Holy Night story, I have done blog posts about each of those. And so I have put links to those blog posts in the show notes. So you can go back and you can read what I wrote about the origin stories for Silent Night and oh Holy Night, both kind of interesting stories and a little bit more familiar, perhaps, than the ones I'm going to talk to you about today. Okay, now we can get started. Since we're talking about Czech carrels, it might be interesting for you to know that the Czech word for carol, which is koleda, I have no clue, if I'm saying that correctly. It's the same in Polish and Slovak, actually, and it comes apparently from the Latin word for the first day of the month. And probably that's because for the ancient Slavic people and people in other parts of the world as well, the day following that winter solstice at the end of December was the first day for them, not only of a new month, but of the new year. And it was an occasion for celebration and therefore singing. Singing. So this is kind of the thought behind where the idea of carols in this particular area of the world came from. And of course, as Christianity came along and absorbed these traditions, the carols or the songs to be sung on the first day were sung not only on those first days, but they were sung at Christmas, and they were sung on St. Stephen's Day. St. Stephen was a martyr, and his day is celebrated the day after Christmas on New Year's Eve day, which would have been different depending on when you were living. Remember, the Gregorian calendar and the Julian calendar are different. Right. And it probably would have been sung at Epiphany on January 6, which is the Three Kings Day, in lots of places. And so this is the kind of thing we're talking about. So the roots of the carol, at least in Czech tradition, come back from those firsts, the songs that were on the first day. And so the first song that we're going to consider, our first backstory, actually has its roots that far back musically. Okay, well, maybe not that far back. This particular carol actually dates from the 17th or early 18th century, and it relates to a Bohemian. Which of course is Czech. Right, Bohemia. So Bohemian shepherd tradition and this was a song that was sung outdoors. So this is a very outdoorsy kind of a carol. And it's usually referred to in English by the title, Come All Ye Shepherds. I grew up knowing it as the Bohemian Bell Carol. You've heard it, even if you don't know the name. And this is the least familiar of the three carols we're talking about today. So I recorded this carol for my breakforth cd. So let me play a little bit of that for you now so that you understand the carol we're talking about. Sa. Sam. I love this carol. It's so happy, it's so joyful. And apparently this carol began its life as a dawn processional during Advent, during the period before Christmas, and reflects talks about things from the Nativity story, talks about the angels coming and telling the shepherds and their walk to the manger, and then, of course, their adoration of the baby. So this is all very happy. It's all very cheerful and light, and it has that wonderful outdoor celebration kind of character to it. And of course, like a lot of Christmas carols, it's undergone lots of changes. There are check words, which, once again, I'm not going to pronounce for you. And those. Those lyrics were translated into German, and so it was published first with a German title meaning the Angels and the Shepherds, and published around 1870. And then, of course, it was translated into English in the. Oh, just a couple. Couple decades later. And it still shows up in various translations all over the world, of course. So it's a fabulous, fun carol. And to think that it does have its origins in an actual Czech folk melody that was used for this carol. That's something that's so typical. Carols, Christmas carols of all sorts don't always come from religious sources. Think about what child is this, which is that English folk song, green sleeves. Right. So this is another one of those examples. But while this carol has a folk music tradition, it was definitely started as a song to celebrate Christmas with that outdoor processional. And once again, I think this is just so celebratory. You get to play it with such lightness and joy, and you can really let that come through. So that's the easiest of the stories that I'm going to tell you today. The next story, the next carol, is one you probably know, and you may know some of the backstory. What I find interesting about this is that the stories have so many different layers for this particular carol. So what's the carol? Well, it's Good King Wenceslas Now, I know this is a carol that you're familiar with, and I am not going to play it for you, but because I happen to think that this carol tune is an earworm. I mean, once I get this in my head, it sticks. And I'm a person who knows the words to all the verses of Good King Wenceslas. And I've always been amused by it, but once it starts going through my head, it stays there. So I'm not going to give you any added fuel for that if you're the person that this happens to as well. So Good King Wenceslasliss is a great Christmas carol. And what's interesting about about it is that it's one of the few that is based around a real historical figure. I mean, Wenceslas was a real person. He wasn't exactly a king. He was a duke. And he lived in the early nine hundreds. And being royalty at that era in history meant that he was part of continual political upheaval and strife. Now, this part of the story is hardly Christmasy or Christmas caroly, but it's typical of political happenings at that point. Wenceslas was just 13 when his father died. His grandmother became regent, so she was ruling in Bohemia in Wenceslas place. And Wenceslas mother didn't like that, so she arranged to have the grandmother killed. This was. This is the kind of thing that was going on. Of course. Wenceslas finally became ruler on his own when he became 18, and his mother was actually sent into exile at this point, he took control of the government and he reigned the way anybody else would at that point. He was known for his Christian piety. He was known to walk through the streets and distribute alms to the poor. He was known for building monuments to saints, building cathedrals. In fact, he founded a rotunda that was consecrated to St. Vitus at the Prague castle in Prague, and that became the foundation for the present day St. Vitus Cathedral. Now, Wenceslaus was assassinated by one of his younger brothers. That turned out to be an important turning point in Bohemian history, because when the brother took over, he really centralized power in Bohemia, got rid of the French, the Franks that were invading the country at that point. Wenceslas, right after his death, was already considered a martyr and a saint. And a little cult grew up around him. And within a few decades, there were plenty of stories out that romanticized his life and saw him as a just ruler, a righteous ruler. This is the kind of legend that grew up around Wenceslas. But of course, The Christmas Carol doesn't talk about any of this. The Christmas Carol is all about how Good Wenceslas was and what kind of a Christian role model he was for everyone around him. And the Carol itself celebrates St. Stephen's Day. The very first lines of the carol, Good King Wenceslas, looked out on the feast of Stephen that's celebrated now on December 26th. Of course, with a different calendar, it would have been a different day. And I think, if I did my research correctly, and I remember it correctly, our St. Stephen's Day would have been New Year's Eve in the Julian calendar. So this would have been, you know, a carol to celebrate that. But the carol itself is not really traditional. The words are accredited to John Mason Neill, who was an English hymn writer, and he published this. These words, the words we know and love to Good King Wenceslas. He published those in 1853. Now, it may be a translation of a Czech poem. It's a little bit hard to tell, but the words themselves come from John Mason Neill. The words that Neill wrote have been roundly criticized. All kinds of scholars have condemned them as poor and commonplace, or doggerel or just unnatural, and calling on tradition when there's nothing traditional about them. So the words have not been particularly well thought of, except perhaps by those of us who just enjoy singing them. The tune is another story. Again, the tune itself is actually quite old and comes from not a Christmas carol, but a spring carol, a carol called Tempus Adust Floridum. The Blooming Time is here. It's a 13th century spring carol that was first published in a Finnish songbook, like Finland Finnish. So this is something that Neil borrowed. You know, they'll take it from this book. We'll put it to this. And so he was the one who combined this particular Happy Springtime Bloom song with these words about Good King Wenceslas, who was a duke, but was a saint, is a saint. And of course, this particular tune has been used for all kinds of other words, words to secular songs, words to other hymns. Mary Gently Laid Her Child is another Christmas hymn that uses the same tune. That's not unusual. We borrow tunes all the time. But. But it's sort of interesting that our traditional Christmas carol is a spring carol tune with words about a bohemian duke who wasn't really a king, but was a very good person and is a saint. And those words were written by an Englishman in the 19th century. And here we have them. And so we treat it as a traditional Christmas carol. And you know what? It's part of my tradition, so I think that makes it traditional, and maybe it's part of your tradition, too. One note before we talk about our last carol, I had mentioned that there were so many writers who were critical of the text that John Mason Neill wrote for this carol, his version of the story of Good King Wenceslas. There were some more contemporary writers writing within the last 10 years who feel very differently about those words. One of these is Brian Scott, who wrote a book called But do youo 25 Days of Christmas Carols and the stories behind them. And in response to the idea that the Oxford Book of Carols was so critical of John Mason Neil's words, he says, thankfully, they were wrong, for the carol still reminds us that the giving spirit of Christmas should not happen just on that day. And there are some writers from the British Museum who also are very much in favor of John Mason Neal's words, saying, well, you know, the text could have been awful, but it isn't. It's magical. You remember it because the verse just works. Yeah, I think there is some magic there. And that brings us to our last carol story for today. This particular Christmas song is perhaps one of the most loved Christmas songs ever. And it has an interesting backstory in that it's such a complicated one in a totally different way from the complication of the historical Wenceslas. This is just an interesting combination of things that came to be transformed into this Christmas song that we love so much. And I think that transformation is what I really want to focus on here, because I think there's a transformation in the song itself, but the song itself is the product of so much transformation. So here's how it started. I know I'm not telling you what the song is yet, you might have to guess, but I'll tell you in a minute. So there is a Czech folk melody that apparently served as an inspiration for this particular carol. Now, I say apparently because there is some sort of loose association with a particular Czech carol, but yet there are people in the know who claim that it's not related to it at all. However, when the tune was first written in manuscript and set as a chorale, it is given the heading. This manuscript, the original manuscript shows the heading Czech Carol Freely transcribed by KKD So those are the initials of the composer Katherine Kennecott Davis. Catherine Kennecott Davis was born in Missouri in 1892, died in 1980, Massachusetts. She was a well educated musician, having studied at Wellesley College and then at New England Conservatory. She studied with the composer Nadia Boulanger in Paris. She wrote over 600 compositions, many of them choral compositions. She was well respected, and, in fact, you might know one of her other compositions. She wrote the words for Let All Things Now Living, a Thanksgiving hymn, Let All Things Now Living. It uses the Welsh folk song the Ashgrove for its tune, but she wrote those words. So this was the heading that was at the top of the original manuscript for this particular Christmas song we're talking about. But then the initials KKD were crossed out and they were replaced with CRW Robinson, which was a pseudonym that Davis used occasionally for her publishing. The song itself seemed charming enough, but didn't have a lot of popularity. She went to get it published, but publishers were initially rejecting it. It was just too simple, it was too repetitive, and it wasn't until. I know. You're going to get it from this, aren't you? You're really thinking about this. Maybe you already know what this song is. But her song did not gain popularity until after it was recorded by the von Trapp Family Singers. Yes, that's the sound of Music. Von Trapp's. The Trapp Family Singers recorded it in 1951, and this got it into the public ear. And by 1958, it was extremely popular and has absolutely remained at the top of people's Christmas playlists ever after. But I want you to think just for a moment about the transformation. Was it a Czech folk song? Was it written by kkd? Was it written by Robinson? Yeah, maybe all of those things. Was it popular? No, we couldn't even get it published. And yet now it's extremely popular. The song transformed, and it's transformed Christmas celebrations and everywhere. It's that popular. And the song itself, as I mentioned a moment ago, speaks to transformation. It's about the transformation of the simplest of gifts into something that is fitting for a king, even if the king is just a little baby. So it's transformation again. Okay, so have you guessed it? What's the song she wrote? Well, its official title is the Carol of the Drum, but most of us just call it the Little Drummer Boy. That's the Christmas carol that was written by Katherine K. Davis in 1941. And does it have a Czech connection? Maybe. But really, does it matter? Because it has a connection to all of us. We all can feel that that simple quality that the publishers didn't like is something I think we can all connect to. And whether or not this is on your list of overdone Christmas carols, think back to the first time you heard it. And how it affected you, because there's something that affects all of us with that particular song. So let's take just a moment and reflect. Three very different Christmas songs, three very different origin stories, and yet they all speak to one thing. And I think that what they speak to for us as harpists is they speak to our connection with the music. A little bit of inside information, a little bit of that background colors our experience of the piece. It changes the way we think about it when we practice it and when we play brings us into its world just a little bit more. This is what I talk about when I talk about connection with our music being so important that just knowing a little bit can create a huge change in how we think about the music. And it can affect how we practice it. Because now we have a reason to make it sound a particular way. It has a message that it speaks to us and that we want to convey to a listener. But it also colors our attitude when we play it. Not just that we play it differently for a listener. Maybe we play it with more expression or a different kind of feeling or a different understanding, but it allows us to absorb ourselves in the music, to become less self conscious as we play for others. And that's where we want to be playing our music. Sharing our music is about the connection that we're making with our listeners. Not just from our playing to their ears, but from the music itself and the way it lives in us to the way we hope it connects with them. Perhaps that's a little bit deep, but it's Christmas time and I'm thinking about deep things. So that's what I wanted to share with you today. A little bit about the stories, just some little interesting tidbits about three pieces that we've played and maybe not, not known very much about other than the fact that we like them, but also about what playing means and how it can mean more when the music means more to us. Well, that's all for today. Don't forget that I've put a couple of links in the show, notes to blog posts about stories about other Christmas carols, in case you're interested in that next week on the podcast. Being as close to Christmas as we are, I'm in that holiday mood and it's all about music. I'll just have some special music for you on our podcast next week. Until I talk to you then. Remember, every day is a day you can add more harp happiness to the universe, to your world and to your spirit. And all you have to do is play thanks so much for listening and I'll see you next time. Enjoyed today's episode, Then share it with a harpist friend. Subscribe for your weekly Harp Happiness Boost and check out harpmastery.com or the harp Mastery app in your app store for more resources and ways to connect. I'll see you next time.