Page:010 Once a week Volume X Dec 1863 to Jun 64.pdf/19

. 26, 1863.] of carol music suited for actual performance by choirs and families; and in the year 1850 Mr. Novello produced a collection of carols at a low rate, arranged for four voices by the Rev. T. Helmore, Priest of the Chapel Royal, with words, principally in imitation of the original, by the Rev. Dr. Neale. Messrs. Masters issued a collection of twelve carols, with original music by Mr. Hine and Dr. Gauntlett; and Dr. Gauntlett himself brought out a book containing some very good specimens of Christmas melodies. And now collections of carols are every year multiplying, the advertisement sheets of musical and other papers testifying to the universal demand for suitable music for Christmas time.

The majority of modern carols evince in a marked manner a desire to imitate the honest sincerity and piety exhibited in the productions of our ancestors. The men of the nineteenth century are fain to admit that better means for attracting the ear and ravishing the hearts of the poor and simple, can scarcely be employed than those used by the men of old. The quaint expressions, the homely recital of Scripture narrative, and withal the soothing and plaintive strains of pure English melody, strike home at once to the hearts of the humble and devout observers of the blessed coming of our Redeemer in the Flesh. I propose to give a few specimens of ancient and modern carols.

The first example is a translation from the pen of Dr. Neale, and is taken from the collection published by Messrs. Novello, being with the refrain, "In Bethlehem," in strict accordance with the original:—

The above is said to be of the eleventh century. In many cases, Latin is intermixed with the English, as in the subjoined example from a manuscript of the sixteenth century, preserved in the British Museum. The spelling is modernized:—

And again from the Harleian MSS.:—

Amongst the earliest specimens of carols are those for bringing in the boar's head.

The boar's head was the first dish served up at ancient feasts, and was carried in with great solemnity, dressed with garlands. Flourishes of trumpets and singing of carols accompanied the pageant. The custom of bringing in the boar's head is still observed in great houses, and (as has been stated over and over again) at Queen's College, Oxford, where upon Christmas night the precentor and choir sing a modernized version of Wynkin de Worde's carol.

The accompanying is from a sixteenth century MS.:—