The Origins of Christmas Music

When Christmas is approaching, there are lots of feelings of warmth and well-being that surround us. This is also a major effect of Christmas music, something everybody knows as carols. But does anyone know the origins of Christmas carols?

First of all, carols as we now know them had nothing to do with Christmas, which signifies the birth of Christ. They started as secular dances and they took place all year round, not just around the end of December. The first time they were used as carols, per se, was in the 16th century, and from that point on there represented religious hymns instead of secular dances.

You could ask yourself why does anyone sing Christmas music. The source of these songs can be related to the story that we all know as the birth of Jesus. In that story, when the angels met the shepherds to let them know about the birth of Jesus, they were singing songs.

Until the 13th century, carols were mostly communal songs, and after that they became associated with the church and Christmas. Their performance required a choir, but their popularity faded with the passing of time. Arthur Sullivan’s “It came upon a midnight clear” revived the whole meaning of Christmas music.

In England, as well as in Poland and Bulgaria, there is an activity that goes on around Christmas called “wassailing”. This consists of door-to-door visits and caroling, which is rewarded either through money, drinks or food. Afterwards, all the rewards are donated to charity. In other parts of the world like Australia, opera singers are well known for their performances of Christmas music.

Present day Christmas carols deviate from the definition we find in a dictionary. They are no longer joyful religious songs that celebrate Christ’s birth, but they can be sung using musical instruments as well. Even so, they represent great entertainment for people around the world.

The main reason why carols are so popular is because they represent lyrics arranged in such a manner to create excellent tunes. This is why Christmas carols are universally enjoyed. When we listen to carols we feel blessed, no matter what religion we follow.

Given the fact that Christmas carols are performed by lots of renowned singers, and every year all new songs are composed and performed, many people want to enjoy them. Free Christmas music is available on lots of websites over the internet.

The problem with downloading free Christmas music, or anything that is free over the internet, is that there can be a lot of unwanted harmful software riddled with it. Because of this, you should be very careful when you choose your source for free Christmas music.

I know a website where all the problems related to free Christmas music are solved. First of all there are no viruses so you can download the music with no worries. Second, all the songs are submitted by the artists, so everything is legal. And third, the songs are of the highest quality. The website is feelslikeChristmas.com.

No matter what the origins of Christmas music are, our holidays wouldn’t be the same without them. If you want the songs in mp3 format so you can enjoy them in your phone or mp3 player, the website mentioned afore is the best source for free Christmas music.

Izzy’s Christmas Song

Izzy Baline published his first song, “Marie from Sunny Italy,” when he was 19 years old and working as a singing waiter in a Chinatown restaurant. During a career spanning more than eighty years he wrote thousands of songs; he published 812 of them, and 451 of those became hits.

During his most productive years Izzy wrote a song a day. One critic even called him a writing machine. It must be remembered, however, that he usually didn’t write his songs in a day; he just finished them. His songs had gestation periods of months or even years.

Izzy wrote many of his songs for the Broadway stage and for motion pictures. Some of his best-known songs are “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “A Pretty Girl is like a Melody,” “Blue Skies,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Easter Parade,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” and “God Bless America.”

His songs were performed in the movies of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, among others, and Al Jolson sang “Blue Skies” in The Jazz Singer (1927), the first “talking picture.”

Izzy completed his most famous song, “White Christmas,” on January 8, 1940, and Bing Crosby introduced it to the world in Holiday Inn (1942), for which it won the academy award for Best Song.

Reportedly, Izzy began composing the song during a five-year stay in sunny southern California, where he was working on films, and finished it after returning to New York. Some of the many artists—besides Crosby—who recorded “White Christmas” include Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, Willie Nelson, Fats Domino, and Michael Bolton.

More than 30 million copies of “White Christmas,” composed by a Russian-born Jew named Izzy Baline, have been sold worldwide. But Izzy Baline isn’t the name under which he published his music. Professionally, he used a different name, one he adopted when very young. We know him as Irving Berlin.

The author, David Kubicek, is a freelance writer and with his wife, Cheryl, runs a Web site devoted to holidays. For more holiday-related information visit www.holidaystocelebrate.com