Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 1, No. 4 (1927-01)

The Phonograph Monthly Review 149 V®IF Some of the popular customs do not go back so very far in any case. There is no recorded use of a tree at Christmas in Germany before the seventeenth century. The tree Nvas intro- duced into France in 1840 and although alluded to in England in 1789, its use there did not be- come at all general until about 1840. If we do not ordinarily use much of the poetry of the fourth to the thirteenth century, we may recall that the literary people of that time—the British, Scottish, and Irish Monks—were planting the Cross in foreign lands, Erfurt, Cologne, Niirnburg, Paris, Pavia, and St. Gall, as well as in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. We in America in 1926 are not apt to think much of any links with Finland, but the story of one of the most popular carols will show that a simple tune may be a bond of union between nations across the seas and that such a tune con- quers the flight of centuries. I. The carol, “Good King Wenceslas” is the ex- ample. We are accustomed in program notes and in carol collections to see the statement that the author is unknown and the author is invariably listed as “Traditional.” As a matter of fact, the words are original and are known to be writ- ten by John Mason Neale for a collection in 1853. The tune appeared for the first time in England then and although it had been known on the continent for three centuries before, a conceited annotator recently has said that the square-cut melody with its even notes is characteristically English! As a matter of fact, the melody was taken by Neale from Piae Cantiones, a collection of seventy-four church and school songs, chiefly ancient Swedish, which had been collected by Theodoric Petri of Nyland and published in 1582 by Augustin Ferber at Greifswald in Western Pomerania, then a part of Sweden (in 1815 an- nexed to Prussia). Petri belonged to an aristo- cratic Finnish family, his grandfather having emigrated from Denmark to Finland. Early in 1580 he left Abo in Finland and went to Rostock to study at the University. It was while he was yet a student that he made the collection. These songs spread over the whole of Finland and Sweden. An edition in the vernacular (the orig- inal one was in Latin) was printed in 1616. They survived in Swedish schools until 1700. A selec- tion from them appeared in Finland in 1761 and Norlind in his History of Swedish Music (1901) says that some continued to be sung and danced until late in the nineteenth century at Bjorneborg in Finland. The tune for which Neale composed the words “Good King Wenceslas” in 1853 was no. 52 in the collection and set to the words of a Spring Carol, “Tempus ad est floridum” (The Time of flowers is come). II. Silent Night “Silent Night” is apparently headed for im- mortality. It was written a little over a cen- tury ago in Oberndorf, Saxony. The Poem was written in 1818 by Joseph Mohr, an assistant priest in the village, and the melody was com- posed by Franz Gruber (1787-1863), the school master whose bass voice with the poet’s tenor sang Stille Nacht at a Christmas Eve service in 1818. It is said that the organ was out of order and that the accompaniment was furnished by a guitar. Twenty years later a family of strolling Tyrolean singers added it to their repertoire and it was printed in Leipsic in 1840 as a genuine Tyrolean song. It is also often wrongly ascribed to Haydn by careless editors. III. The First Nowell The text of “The First Nowell” was printed for the first time in 1822 in a collection of Some Ancient Christmas Carols collected by Danes Gilbert. The music was first noted in 1833 in William Sandy’s “Christmas Carols,” the tune having been obtained from some singer and har- mony provided by Mr. William Chappell. IV. Bring a Torch Another carol which is gaining increasing popularity is that known as, “Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella.” In some books the text is as- cribed to E. Cuthbert Nunn who, as we shall see, merely translated it from the French. <( The tune goes back to a play of Moliere, Le Medecin malgre lui,” which was given in Pans, August 9, 1666. For a drinking song Moliere had Lully compose a tune to the text, “Qu’ils sont doux, bouteille jolie.” A little later Lully and Moliere fell out and Moliere had another musician write a new tune. The composer was Marc-An- toine Charpentier. So fortunate was this com- poser in his invention that it has persisted through all the centuries and is still sung as the proper tune when Moliere’s play is given in Paris. Well, the tune became popular and Nicholas Saboly (1614-1675) who personified the genius of provencal poetry of the seventeenth century wrote a carol in the provencal dialect, “Vennes lie Veire la pieucelo.” The text was printed in 1668 with many others. In 1856 Seguin brought out an edition with the tune. In 1901 it was published by Tiersot with the French words, “Un flambeau, Jeanette, Isabelle,” text by Emile Ble- mont. Not long since it appeared in Boston with a translation by Nunn. Thus we see how a quarrel prevented Lully from being the immortal author of “Bring a torch.” Below is a list of the more popular Christmas numbers: Selected Christmas Records (Works marked by an asterik (*) are by American composers.) ♦It Came Upon the Midnight Clear (Willis), Brunswick, Col- umbia, Edison, Victor. Comfort Ye My People (Handel) Edison, Victor. Halleluiah Chorus (Handel) Edison, Victor, Columbia. There Were Shepherds (Handel) Edison. Glory to God (Handel) Edison. First Nowell, Columbia, Edison, Victor.. God Rest You Merry Gentlemen, Edison. *We Three Kings (Hopkins) Edison. *Joy to the World (Mason) Columbia, Edison, Victor, Bruns- wick. O Holy Night (Adam) Columbia, Edison. Silent Night (Gruber) Brunswick, Columbia, Edison, Odeon, Victor. *0 Little Town of Bethlehem (Redner) Columbia, Edison, Brunswick.