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KIM LAWTON: No matter the style or the place, the songs are familiar and enduring: the carols so tied to the Christmas season.
RONALD CLANCY (Millennia Collection): Think about Christmas without music. I often wonder, what would Christmas be like without music? Music is such an integral part of the holiday.
LAWTON: Ron Clancy has spent the last decade collecting Christmas music, and in particular, Christmas carols. He is producing the "Millennia Collection," a multivolume set of books and CDs. He says it's not easy to define exactly what a carol is.
Mr. CLANCY: One of the popular co-authors of the OXFORD BOOK OF CAROLS simply described it as a song without pretense. You know, it's common, simple, and reflects the sentiments of the people. And I think that's a very wonderful definition of a carol.
LAWTON (to Mr. Clancy): Do Christmas carols have to be religious?
Mr. CLANCY: No, there are Christmas carols that were not religious. There's really no, say, committee or commission that says "This is a carol," or "This is a holiday song." For aficionados, which I might consider myself one, I believe there is this distinction between religious carols and what I consider holiday songs.
LAWTON: The repertoire of Christmas carols is vast and diverse and has developed over hundreds of years. According to tradition, the first carol was sung by angels, 2,000 years ago, on the night Jesus was born.
Mr. CLANCY: They sang "Gloria in Excelsis Deo," or they may have sung it in Jewish dialect for all I know, but the line, of course, was "Peace on earth, goodwill to men." And that particular message has resonated for 2,000 years.
LAWTON: The modern carol tradition began in Europe about 800 years ago. Before that time, music was predominantly liturgical, sung in Latin, the language of the Church. In the 12th and 13th centuries, people began writing their own Christmas songs, in the vernacular. The songs were popularized by traveling mystery plays, which enacted biblical stories, including the Nativity.
Mr. CLANCY: In fact, there were almost near riots if they did not sing carols during these plays.
LAWTON: Carols remained popular on through the 16th century. But in England and America, that popularity diminished at the hands of Protestant reformers, who opposed elaborate celebrations of Christmas.
In 1647, the Puritan-dominated Parliament in England actually abolished Christmas. The Puritan influence lingered in America for decades. But in the countrysides and in other nations, the carol tradition was kept alive. A new golden age of carols then began during the Victorian era, when the celebration of Christmas was once again in favor in both England and America.
Today, carols are still the people's music. And they come from all over the world.
Rickey Payton is Minister of Music at the New Bethel Church of God in Christ in Washington, D.C. He directs the Urban Nation Hip-Hop Choir for at-risk youth and produces special Christmas concerts.
RICKEY PAYTON Sr. (New Bethel Church of God in Christ): There are so many great melodies and Christmas carols. You can't help but feel the love. We need to celebrate. That's what we need to do. And so we try to give all the songs that kind of energy, to celebrate.
LAWTON: J. Reilly Lewis, director of Washington's Cathedral Choral Society, leads an annual carols service for young people. Lewis hopes they'll pick up his own love of the music.
RONALD CLANCY (Millennia Collection): Think about Christmas without music. I often wonder, what would Christmas be like without music? Music is such an integral part of the holiday.
LAWTON: Ron Clancy has spent the last decade collecting Christmas music, and in particular, Christmas carols. He is producing the "Millennia Collection," a multivolume set of books and CDs. He says it's not easy to define exactly what a carol is.
Mr. CLANCY: One of the popular co-authors of the OXFORD BOOK OF CAROLS simply described it as a song without pretense. You know, it's common, simple, and reflects the sentiments of the people. And I think that's a very wonderful definition of a carol.
LAWTON (to Mr. Clancy): Do Christmas carols have to be religious?
Mr. CLANCY: No, there are Christmas carols that were not religious. There's really no, say, committee or commission that says "This is a carol," or "This is a holiday song." For aficionados, which I might consider myself one, I believe there is this distinction between religious carols and what I consider holiday songs.LAWTON: The repertoire of Christmas carols is vast and diverse and has developed over hundreds of years. According to tradition, the first carol was sung by angels, 2,000 years ago, on the night Jesus was born.
Mr. CLANCY: They sang "Gloria in Excelsis Deo," or they may have sung it in Jewish dialect for all I know, but the line, of course, was "Peace on earth, goodwill to men." And that particular message has resonated for 2,000 years.LAWTON: The modern carol tradition began in Europe about 800 years ago. Before that time, music was predominantly liturgical, sung in Latin, the language of the Church. In the 12th and 13th centuries, people began writing their own Christmas songs, in the vernacular. The songs were popularized by traveling mystery plays, which enacted biblical stories, including the Nativity.
Mr. CLANCY: In fact, there were almost near riots if they did not sing carols during these plays.
LAWTON: Carols remained popular on through the 16th century. But in England and America, that popularity diminished at the hands of Protestant reformers, who opposed elaborate celebrations of Christmas.In 1647, the Puritan-dominated Parliament in England actually abolished Christmas. The Puritan influence lingered in America for decades. But in the countrysides and in other nations, the carol tradition was kept alive. A new golden age of carols then began during the Victorian era, when the celebration of Christmas was once again in favor in both England and America.
Today, carols are still the people's music. And they come from all over the world.
Rickey Payton is Minister of Music at the New Bethel Church of God in Christ in Washington, D.C. He directs the Urban Nation Hip-Hop Choir for at-risk youth and produces special Christmas concerts. RICKEY PAYTON Sr. (New Bethel Church of God in Christ): There are so many great melodies and Christmas carols. You can't help but feel the love. We need to celebrate. That's what we need to do. And so we try to give all the songs that kind of energy, to celebrate.
LAWTON: J. Reilly Lewis, director of Washington's Cathedral Choral Society, leads an annual carols service for young people. Lewis hopes they'll pick up his own love of the music.
Mr. CLANCY: "Go Tell It on the Mountain" is rather interesting because that was written by black slaves. That particular song to me represents the wonderful sentiments of people who have hope. "O Holy Night" was actually written by a French poet, who in 1847 wrote this carol; and a Jewish friend of his, Adolphe Adam, who wrote a popular ballad, "Giselle," at the time, wrote the music. The people just loved this carol. I think it's truly one of our great carols. But French Church authorities detested it. They just did not like it one iota.
LAWTON (to Mr. Clancy): And what did Felix Mendelssohn think about that? 
Mr. PAYTON SR.: There's so many things going on in the world. But one thing about a song -- it can always bring us all together and cause us all to listen and to just sort of realize, if you can keep the melodies alive in your heart, ultimately to me, that's the most important thing, because that's what's going to bring joy, and that's what the Christmas season is all about -- joy.
