On Doing Carols Properly.

I’ve been hearing a lot of Christmas carols sung by ballad singers this year and I don’t like it. I’m not the biggest fan of carols anyway since the lyrics mostly don’t do a lot for me, but at least I can tolerate them as long as they’re sung properly by a proper choir in a proper cathedral or the choir stalls of King’s College, Cambridge. (And please note that I dislike the word ‘proper’ because it’s indelibly associated with those of reactionary persuasion. You can be pretty sure that if I use the word ‘proper’ I do so facetiously, sarcastically, ironically, or as some sort of literary device that I don’t know the name of. Just saying.)

Carols also sound perfectly fine when sung by villagers congregated around the village green or coal miners buried deep in the bowels of the earth, and therein lies the core of my difficulty.

It’s a fundamental part of the essence of Christmas carols that they lend themselves naturally to the group dynamic, be it in a sacred or secular environment. When a ballad singer sings a carol, he or she does so in a personal style, and style comes accompanied by its cousin, ego. Hence the group dynamic is missing and artifice has taken its place. And on such a shift in energy and intention is the essence of the traditional carol lost. Bing Crosby is welcome to sing White Christmas, but not O Little Town of Bethlehem.

And since I mention Bethlehem, I thought it worth remarking that I once heard the claim that, according to the archaeological record, the Bethlehem of the Gospels was uninhabited when Jesus was born. That’s interesting, isn’t it? Then again, it was in a TV documentary so it might be completely wrong.