Few of the oldest song tunes had much melody, and there are probably none extant beyond the fifteenth century; but here I must again refer to Mr. Chappell’s valuable collection of English airs.
Church music was cultivated in the sixteenth century, by clergy and laity, and secular music was also in request. The pious puritans, both in England and Scotland, used to unite their rhapsodies to popular song tunes (as has been done in modern times), frequently preserving a few lines at the commencement. Luther himself composed some appropriate hymns of thanksgiving for Christmas.
There are some collections of old carols and songs, with the music, of the early part of the sixteenth century, or somewhat earlier, in the British Museum, but not of a popular description, or of interest, except to the musical antiquary; and some of the old psalm tunes, as the Bristol, Salisbury, and Kenchester, have a similarity to the graver style of old carol tunes. Tusser, who prescribes jolly carols for Christmas, mentions one to be sung to the tune of King Solomon. Several of the existing carol tunes are very pleasing, and are of considerable antiquity; one or two of them, according to repute, having been known in Cornwall for three hundred years and upwards; and some of the northern tunes are, probably, equally old, though the age may be a little overstated. The natives of Cornwall have been famous for their carols from an early date. Scawen says, they had them at several times, especially at Christmas, which they solemnly sang, and sometimes used in their churches after prayers, the burthen of them being “Nowell, nowell, good news, good news, of the gospel.”
Henry the Eighth, and his children, being skilled in music, and keeping also the Christmas feast with great magnificence, carol singing flourished; and Latin hymns being abolished at the time of the Reformation, the carols became still more in vogue, and were sung throughout the kingdom. At the grand Christmasses, at the Inns of Court, the master of the revels was, after dinner and supper, to sing a carol or song, and command other gentlemen to sing with him; but it is to be assumed that he selected such “other gentlemen” as could respond properly to his call. The Roman Catholics observed the custom equally with the Reformed church.
“And carols sing in prayse of Christ, and for to help them heare,
The organs answere every verse with sweete and solemne cheare.”
The carols at this time seem to have been of two descriptions: one of a serious sort, sung commonly in churches, and through the streets, and from house to house, as they were in Shakespeare’s time, ushering in the Christmas morning; and the other of a more convivial nature, and adapted to feasting. The festive carols were sung by the company, or by itinerant minstrels, that went round for the purpose, to the houses of the wealthy: some of them were called wassail songs. Those of the religious or grave style were getting out of use in private houses, until the time of the puritans, who, when they began to strive for the mastery, tried to bring them back, in substitution of the lighter ones, and subsequently endeavoured to abolish the latter altogether. As early as 1596, one of them says, that superstition and idolatry were entertained, which appeared in keeping of festival days, bonfires, pilgrimages, singing of carols at Yule.
The carol, beginning,
“All you that are to mirth inclined,”
was written by the well-known Thomas Deloney, at the end of the sixteenth century. In the former part of the seventeenth century, carols continued in great repute, and were introduced at all the feasts, even those of the higher ranks; and Bishop Andrews, in a sermon on the Nativity, in 1619, celebrates it as glorious in all places, as well at home with carols, as in the church with anthems.
At the celebrated feast of the ‘Christmas Prince,’ at St. John’s College, Oxford, in 1607, the boar’s head was ushered in with a peculiar carol, of which there were several connected with this important dish, and all the company joined in it by way of chorus. There is an amusing anecdote of carol singers of this date, in ‘Pasquil’s Jests,’ 1609, which may as well be given in the words of the original.