Christmas Carols Part I: The Sussex Carol

We will look at some of our favorite Christmas Carols this week as we gear up in anticipation of Christmas.  (Hurray!)  I would like to open with a little-known and less-appreciated carol, The Sussex Carol.  If you are unfamiliar with it, click hear to listen to a wonderful rendition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZm2NsZnJHE.

Your Correspondent had somehow never heard this, despite a lifelong devotion to the holiday, until 1984, when the tune serves as the centerpiece for the George C. Scott television adaption of A Christmas Carol.

The, however, is very popular in Great Britain, and is sometimes called On Christmas Night All Christians Sing.  The words to the carol were first published by Luke Wadding, a 17^th Century bishop, in his book, Small Garland of Pious and Godly Songs (1684).  It is uncertain whether or not Wadding is the actual author of the tune.

The text and tune were later rediscovered by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), who heard it sung by Harriet Verrall of Monk’s Gate, near Horsham, Sussex.  (It is Williams who dubbed the tune The Sussex Carol).  The tune generally heard today is the one heard by Williams as sung by Verrall, and published in 1919.

Vaughan Williams included that carol in his Fantasia on Christmas Carols, first performed during the Three Choirs Festival at Hereford Cathedral in 1912. 

On Christmas night all Christians sing
To hear the news the angels bring.
News of great joy, news of great mirth,
News of our merciful King's birth.

Then why should men on earth be so sad,
Since our Redeemer made us glad,
When from our sin he set us free,
All for to gain our liberty?

When sin departs before His grace,
Then life and health come in its place.
Angels and men with joy may sing
All for to see the new-born King.

When sin departs before His grace,
Then life and health come in its place.
Angels and men with joy may sing
All for to see the new-born King.

I love this carol first of all for the melody.  It seems so joyous and spritely … one could almost imagine it as something played at a Renaissance Faire as much as a Christmas tune.

Another theme that I continually return to in listening to Xmas music is that of listening.  So many Christmas carols exhort us to listen … to the angels, to the settling of snow, to the mysteries of the Invisible World.  Not only that … but that the Invisible World is a place of both joy and mirth.

I would hope that readers would consider incorporating The Sussex Carol into their Christmas listening this season.