Music encourages us, saddens us, accompanies us, transports us, excites us, and on these Christmas dates it is inevitable. Quite apart from all the chaos that the Christmas season brings with it, with excessive commercial growth, insecurity and consumerism, listening to a Christmas carol or a song related to Christmas reminds us of the essence of this significant date full of love and peace. If we start counting, there are carols in Spanish, in English, in French and in German, in Quechua and in Czech. There are them in the rhythm of children's rounds, in cumbia, in rock, in jazz, in bachata and even in chill out; sung by children, by choirs, by religious and even by famous artists who lend their renowned voices to set the mood for these dates.
But many of us do not know where the carols come from . The history dates back to the 13th century where the term “villancico originates. ”, which arises to denominate the communal songs sung by the villains (villagers of the towns of medieval Europe) and whose themes were costumbristas and happy but not necessarily religious.
Although the word carol is true It is currently used to name all those melodies alluding to Christmas, either from a strictly religious point of view (such as the birth of Jesus, the Three Wise Men, etc.), to refer to certain symbols related to Christmas (the tree, Santa's sleigh, gifts) or from reflection (the happiness of the time, union, love, etc.) its origin is not necessarily linked to this Christian celebration.
In Spain, before being called villancicos they were known as villancetes or villancejos. It is in countries like Austria, France and Germany that the songs of the villages begin to be associated with religious themes and that is how, little by little, the carol became the Christmas music.
In English, the equivalent term is carol, a Gallicism from caroler, which in Spanish translates as the act of dancing in groups organized in circles, like the rounds of children . Carols are certainly more contemporary than villancicos classics, they have the peculiarity of focusing their themes towards more playful and fanciful aspects, a clear example is the famous song Rudolph the red nose reindeer , popular composition based on a short story by Robert L. May written in 1939 and composed by Johnny Marks, May's brother-in-law. The story is based, in addition to the Christmas message, on Rudolph, the smallest reindeer in Santa's sleigh, who has a red nose with an intense shine. The other reindeer make fun of him but Santa Claus vindicates him by putting him in front of the sleigh, so that he can guide it with his strange talent on the dark Christmas night.
One of the carols most popular and oldest is Silent Night , whose original title is Stille nacht, heilige nacht and dates from the early nineteenth century. The lyrics were composed in 1818 by Joseph Mohr, the parish priest of a small town in Austria, and the melody by Franz Gruber, the town's music teacher.
Another classic Christmas songbook theme is Joy to the world , based on one of the parts of the famous oratorio The Messiah by George Friedrich Haendel.
Some of them have become true classics of music worldwide and are already internalized in the hearts of people for every Christmas gathering.