{"id":7716,"date":"2021-12-16T10:10:14","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T09:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/?p=116649"},"modified":"2021-12-20T18:39:08","modified_gmt":"2021-12-20T17:39:08","slug":"when-was-the-first-christmas-carol","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/when-was-the-first-christmas-carol\/","title":{"rendered":"When was the first Christmas carol?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Jeremy Pound\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 16 December 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Though Christmas carols<\/a> as we know and sing them today didn\u2019t really catch on until the mid-19th century, the first ever festive lyrics to be set to music would appear to date all the way back to the fourth century. This is believed to be the oldest known Christmas carol.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Five of the best ancient Christmas carols<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
What\u2019s the difference between a Christmas carol and a hymn?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
Christmas Day itself has been marked as a day of celebration in the calendar since 336 AD, and it is in the decades after this that the Christian poet Prudentius (348-405) wrote the hymn \u2018Corde natus ex parentis<\/strong>\u2019.<\/p>\n
Prudentius \u2013 or Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, to give him his full name \u2013 was an influential Roman statesman who lived in northern Spain, where he practised law and was regional governor. He turned his attention fully towards Christianity towards the end of his life, writing and collecting hymns.<\/p>\n
And if you have a bent for Latin, you will have already spotted that Prudentius\u2019s words still appear in carol services today \u2013 \u2018Corde natus ex parentis\u2019 translates (roughly) as \u2018Of the Father\u2019s heart begotten<\/a><\/strong>\u2019.<\/p>\n
Six of the best\u2026 unknown carols<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
Five of the best modern Christmas carols<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
The composers behind your favourite carols\u2026<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
You can find lyrics to your favourite Christmas carols<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
About Jeremy Pound<\/h3>\n
Jeremy Pound is currently BBC Music Magazine<\/em>\u2019s acting editor, having initially joined the magazine as deputy editor in August 2004. Before that he was the features editor of Classic CD<\/em> magazine, and has written for a colourful array of publications ranging from Music Teacher<\/em> to History Revealed<\/em>, Total Football<\/em> and Environment Action;<\/em> in 2018, he edited and co-wrote The King\u2019s Singers: Gold<\/em> 50th anniversary book A former chorister at New College, Oxford, he later returned to the same university to study classics. Choral music remains a particular passion, as do early 20th-century English composers.<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n
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By Jeremy Pound Published: Thursday, 16 December 2021 at 12:00 am Though Christmas carols as we know and sing them today didn\u2019t really catch on until the mid-19th century, the first ever festive lyrics to be set to music would appear to date all the way back to the fourth century. This is believed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":7717,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/12\/when-was-the-first-christmas-carol.jpg",1004,768,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/12\/when-was-the-first-christmas-carol-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/12\/when-was-the-first-christmas-carol-300x229.jpg",300,229,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/12\/when-was-the-first-christmas-carol-768x587.jpg",768,587,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/12\/when-was-the-first-christmas-carol.jpg",800,612,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/12\/when-was-the-first-christmas-carol.jpg",1004,768,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/12\/when-was-the-first-christmas-carol.jpg",1004,768,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Jeremy Pound Published: Thursday, 16 December 2021 at 12:00 am Though Christmas carols as we know and sing them today didn\u2019t really catch on until the mid-19th century, the first ever festive lyrics to be set to music would appear to date all the way back to the fourth century. This is believed to…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/7716"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}