Origins: Classic Christmas carols

Subject: Origins: Classic Christmas carols
From: Genie
Date: 22 Dec 07 - 05:13 PM

I find when I try to find out the authorship and history of many "classic" Christmas carols, I get discrepant information as I look at more and more reference sites or sheet music.

One of the carols with the most disputed authorship and history is "Joy To The World."   No one seems to dispute that Isaac Watts 'wrote' the lyrics (or adapted them from Psalm 98) in 1719 or thereabouts.   But some sources say he "wrote" the SONG (original title: "The Messiah's Coming And Kingdom") and that either G. F. Handel wrote the music or that James Lowell Mason set Watts's poem to music or "arranged" Watts's words AND music in 1922 (or a bit later).    Some sources say Mason borrowed music from Handel's "Messiah" for his tune, but others say Handel had nothing to do with the music other than being someone Mason greatly admired and mentioned in a footnote.


Similarly, there are various versions of the story of how "Stille Nacht" came to be written (and why).   I still see Silent Night attributed fairly often as "Traditional," even though I thought it was established historical fact that Franz Grüber wrote the music (for the guitar) and Joseph Mohr wrote the original German lyrics.

"Away In A Manger" is often called "Luther's hymn" or "Luther's carol," and some say Martin Luther wrote the lyrics, but other sources say he had nothing to do with composing that song.

These are just a few examples of popular Christmas hymns (carols) thats seem to have authorship or other aspects of their history cited discrepantly from one source to another.

I'll focus on "Joy To The World" to start, but I welcome input and discussions about other carols too.

G

Subject: RE: Origins: Classic Christmas carols
From: Genie
Date: 22 Dec 07 - 05:26 PM

Bella Online - The Voice Of Women
Folk Music Site
Chris Curtis
BellaOnline's Folk Music Editor
Joy to the World History and Lyrics

Quote: [[Joy to the World was taken straight from the Bible by Isaac Watts in 1719. The music was added by American Lowell Mason in 1822. Handel was not involved!

Joy to the world! The Lord has come:
Let earth receive her King.
Let ev'ry heart prepare Him room,
And heav'n and nature sing, and heav'n and nature sing,
And heav'n and heav'n and nature sing.

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns:
Let men their songs employ,
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains,
Repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love, and wonders of His love
And wonders, wonders of His love.]]

Curtis then provides a link to an "MP3 for Joy to the World (that incorrectly claims Handel as the author)"

==============================

From:    Novareinna

Quote: [["Joy To The World" was composed by the great English hymn writer, Isaac Watts.
It is based on the Ninety-Eighth Psalm and its words reflect the missionary spirit of
the early 1700s.   Lowell Mason arranged the lyrics to music taken from several
choruses of the "Messiah" by Handel.]]

==============================


A Classical Christmas: The Classical Origins of Our Most Cherished Carols

excerpt

Excerpt: [[...
Music historians have recently discovered an embarrassing credit error.   Cleric Isaac Watts published "Psalms of David," based on Psalm 98 of the "Old Testament," in 1719.   In 1839 American composer Lowell Mason decided to set Watts' translations to music and "Joy to the World" was born.

The confusion came from Mason's modest footnote, "From George Frederick Handel," which was said to be a tribute to the late composer.   A misunderstanding was soon accepted as truth and for 100 years Handel was given credit for writing the music to "Joy to the World!"
...]]

In an article in today's San Diego Union-Tribune (a Christmas trivia quiz titled: "Use Your [Egg] Noggin"), we have the question:
"Isaac Watts originally titled this piece of music 'The Messiah's Coming And Kingdom.' What do we know it by?"   (Ans: "Joy to The World")

Note the implication that Watts originally composed the music, not just wrote (adapted) the lyrics.

Is there any definitive account of how "Joy To the World" came to be written, by whom, and when?

Subject: RE: Origins: Classic Christmas carols
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 22 Dec 07 - 06:27 PM

"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" has a story as heart-tugging, tear-choaking as "Amazing Grace"'s. Both stories are readily available throughout the web.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Origins: Classic Christmas carols
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Dec 07 - 06:54 PM

The reference to Handel seems to have been a form of dedication.
The following is largely repetition of what Genie has posted, but it is put in a logical order by the editors of "Hymns and Carols of Christmas."

Original lyrics by Watts. Words Isaac Watts, based on Psalm 98, Part 2, "The Messiah's coming and kingdom."
Tume: Music" "Antioch," Lowell Mason, 1848.
Four stanzas as written by Watts. Another musical setting is by Nicolaus Hermann, 1485-1561, seldom heard.

Version most commonly sung, also four stanzas but differs from the version written by Watts.
Music by Lowell Mason, as noted above.
There are alternate tunes by P. C. Lutkin, Thomas Haweis and Henry Lahee (and possibly others).

Words by Watts, Music by Mason, but in arrangement by Joshua Sylvestre, "Christmas Carols- Ancient and Modern," c. 1861.

Watts and Mason, but arr. by William Henry Husk, "Songs of the Nativity," 1868. Three stanzas only, words quite different.

These two popular carol books, and others, have added to the confusion by not being clear or accurate in citations.

Scholars have not found the tune, or part of it, in any of the music composed by Handel.

All of these versions are reproduced in their entirety in "Hymns and Carols of Christmas." Start with the original Watts lyrics:
Joy 2

(Am I helping, or just adding to the confusion? I have an old Oxford Book of Carols, 1928 (1947); this carol is not included, although two others by Watts are given. Perhaps the editors threw up their hands.)

Subject: RE: Origins: Classic Christmas carols
From: mrdux
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 02:29 AM

the Shorter New Oxford Book of Carols (1993) notes the following:

"The origins of this tune have yet to be completely uncovered (the attribution to Handel probably results solely from the resemblance of the opening to 'Lift up your heads' in Messiah). It first appears as an English psalm tune in the 1830s, and was set to Watt's text, a paraphrase of Psalm 98, by the American Presbyterian Lowell Mason in 1836."

I think three of the first four notes are the same, but that's pretty much it.

michael

Subject: RE: Origins: Classic Christmas carols
From: Genie
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 04:05 AM

Gargoyle, I agree about Longfellow's song (poem) and its origins being "heart-tugging" and not really in dispute.   That's one for which the various attributions and histories seem quite consistent.

Q, Yes, you are helping, not adding to the confusion.   But what did add to the confusion was a Christmas music program on NPR tonight wherein the music for Joy to the World was, yet again, attributed to Handel!

mrdux, thanks for that citation too.    I'd disagree about the attribution to Handel resulting "solely" from the opening of Messiah resembling parts of JTTW.   Mason himself, when he published his tune, sort of credited or cited Handel, though it's thought that he may have just been acknowledging a GENERAL musical 'debt' to the earlier great composer.

BTW. as to the first notes of Joy to the World, as it happens, the first 8 notes are precisely a descending musical scale (octave) (with syncopation of sorts).

Subject: RE: Origins: Classic Christmas carols
From: Mooh
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 05:47 AM

Directly from "...If Such Holy Song..." by Stanley L. Osborne:

The tune "Antioch has been known by four other names: Comfort, Holy Triumph, Media, and Messiah."

"There is nothing in common with anything he [G.F.Handel] wrote except the first four notes, a motif that Handel used in the Messiah. The tune first appeared in Occassional Psalms and Hymn Tunes, Boston 1838, published by Lowell Mason, with the heading 'arranged from Handel'. It is most likely that Mason himself is responsible for the tune in its entirety."

"Isaac Watts based this paraphrase upon psalm 98:8-9 and published it in his Psalms Of David 1719, under the heading "The Messiah's Coming and Kingdom'."

"Nothing in the text or tune particularly commends either to the Christmas season, and yet that is the time the words are most frequently sung in Canada. The Hymnal 1940 had the courage to place the hymn in the section on general hymns."

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Origins: Classic Christmas carols
From: Genie
Date: 31 Dec 07 - 08:46 PM

I see we now have at least one thread (maybe two threads) dealing with varying theories and records about the origins of "Stille Nacht"/"Silent Night."

Subject: RE: Origins: Classic Christmas carols
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 12 Jan 08 - 11:37 PM

When testing the tuning of a piano:

"Joy to the World" and "Star Spangled Banner" are my choices....because of the octave resonation.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Disney screwed up the Grimm stories and a hundred years from now mice will be doing a Morris dance on the strings of the night custodian's guitar to compose "Silent Night."

Subject: RE: Origins: Classic Christmas carols
From: Genie
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 07:58 PM

As an aside, Joy To The World is the only song I can think of that has a full descending octave as it opening musical phrase.

Subject: RE: Origins: Classic Christmas carols
From: Mooh
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 09:29 PM

Genie...The Carl Mueller melody ("Mueller") sometimes used for Away In A Manger starts with a descending mixolydian mode, though it repeats a couple of notes. A close second to your example I think.

Peace, Mooh.