Please help spread the good news at Facebook about the over
4,300 Christmas hymns and carols at The Hymns and Carols of
Christmas:
Thanks!
December 27, 2017
We just discovered that a collection added in October had not been added
to the main list of collections on the
Hymns & Carols
page. That has now been repaired, and this collection can be seen from
that location: A
Selection of Carols, Pieces, and Anthems, Suitable for Christmas. We
also discovered some missing links, which have also been added.
By chance we discovered some additional Christmas hymns and carols
written by Rev. John Mason Neale who co-edited the
Hymnal Noted. Those are being added at this time.
December 19, 2017.
The very good news that work is complete for Neale and Helmore,
Hymnal NotedPart I. (London: Novello & Co., 1852) and Part II
(London: Novello & Co., 1856), plus the hymns and carols in the
Appendix from the 1889 edition, including the Latin hymns (and there are
a couple of interesting stories there), plus a few additional
translations. Of course, this work is limited to Christmas-tide content,
that is from Advent through February 2, the celebration of both the
Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, and the Purification of Mary. We've
also included hymns relating to the
Annunciation of St. Mary.
In doing this work we've discovered that some additional work can be
done on a couple of collections that we've already incorporated, notably
Isaac Williams'
Hymns
Translated from the Parisian Breviary and John Chandler's
The
Hymns of the Primitive Church. We're also planning on
taking a longer look at the translations created by John David Chambers,
plus the work of Edward Caswall and R. C. Singleton.
And, with these hymns and carols from the Appendix to the Hymnal
Noted, we've gone over the 4,300 mark! Just in time to celebrate a
very, very Merry Christmas, and a wonderful beginning for a great New
Year!
In closing, a couple of stanzas from one of our favorites,
O Sing
To God.
O Word of God for us incarnate,
By faith we hear Thine angels sing
Their hymns of praise to Thee their King.
We join with them in adoration,
We pour to Thee our supplication
That Thou wouldst grant us, Lord, salvation.
Blessings and best wishes to you all!
December 7, 2017.
Work is
complete for the main body of hymns and carols in Rev.
John Mason Neale and Rev. Thomas Helmore's
Hymnal NotedPart I. (London: Novello & Co., 1852) and Part II (London:
Novello & Co., 1856). In addition to the lyrics and sheet music in Parts
I and II, the hymns are annotated with notes and music from several
sources, including:
Thomas Helmore,
Accompanying Harmonies
to the Hymnal Noted. Part I(London: Novello, Ewer and Co., and
Masters and Son, 1852), Part II (London: Novello and Co., Joseph Masters and
J. T. Hayes, 1858). Contains notes as well as additional Latin resources for
researchers of many of these hymns and carols.
A Short Commentary on the Hymnal Noted
(London: Joseph Masters, 1852); Limited to Part I, Hymns 1-46. It's
Introduction is a very
good summary of the purposes behind the creation of Hymnal Noted.
The Words of the Hymnal Noted Complete With
Scriptural References (London: J. A. Novello and J. Masters, no date,
circa 1856). The handwritten date of 1855 in one scanned volume is likely
erroneous as Part II was not published until 1856.
John Julian,
Dictionary of Hymnology. Second Revised Edition with New
Supplement. (1892, 1907)
Work is
continuing for a few hymns in the Appendix. They should be complete
within the week. We are up to 4,287 hymns and carols.
October
15, 2017.
A
new collection has been added called A
Selection of Carols, Pieces, and Anthems, Suitable for Christmas(London: W. Kent and Co.; Penzance: F. Rodda, ca. 1872).
It was the third of four editions which were undated and did not give
the name of the editor. A total 56 of the 86 songs in this collection
were new to us, bringing us to the 4,264 songs mark.
Five
other new collections include:
George Wither's Hymns of the Christmas-tide
From his Hymns and Songs of the
Church (London: Printed by the Assigns of George Wither, 1623
Hymns translated and music composed by G.W.
The
Weston work led to two other works related to the Balliol manuscript:
Ewald Flügel, ed., “Liedersammlungen
des XVI Jahrhunderts, Besonders Aus Der Zeit Heinrichs VIII. III. 6. Die lieder
des Balliol Ms. 354,” in Eugen Einenkel, ed., Anglia - Zeitschrift für
englische Philologie enthaltend Beitrage zur Geschlicht der englischen Sprache
und Literatur. Band XXVI. (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1903), pp. 94-285.
Roman Dyboski, ed. Songs, Carols and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol MS. 354, Richard
Hill’s Commonplace Book. Early English Text Society Extra Series No. CI
(London: Published for the Early English Text Society by Kegan Paul, Trench,
Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1907, issued in 1908)
Additional work has also been done on the Christmas carols included in
the Hymnal Noted by Rev. John Mason Neale and Rev. Thomas
Helmore, with additional notes being formatted for inclusion at this
time.
October
21, 2015.
We
have reached a remarkable milestone! This website now contains over
4,000 public domain hymns and carols of Christmas. Thank-you for your
help in reaching this goal, and for your interest in celebrating both
the holiday and holy day of Christmas.
April 28,
2014.
It is with great pleasure, and a bit of
sadness, to announce my retirement from the Hymns and Carols of
Christmas, a website that I created in the year 2002. I am sad to be
retiring as this website has been my primary activity for the last 12
years – and the 6 years before that when I first started collecting
Christmas carols and hymns. But I'm pleased to announce that Mr. Richard
Jordan has offered to take over the ownership of the site, thus
guaranteeing its long-term existence.
It's
possible that Spring is finally here ... at least in northern Alabama
(although I saw snow on the homes of cousins in Michigan and Minnesota
in the last few days).
We
went over 3,800 carols on this website this morning, with the addition
of ten carols in Part 8, Italian Carols, of Richard R. Terry's
Two Hundred Folk Carols.
These were carols 129 through 138. Next to be incorporated is
Part IX, German, Alsatian and Polish Carols (139-159).
Thank-you all for your support of this endeavor.
January
14, 2014.
Best
wishes to you all for a happy new year.
For
reasons that I do not understand, the Mozilla Firefox™ browser no longer
accurately displays pages that had a sidebar. My initial "plan" was to
ignore the problem until it goes away. That hasn't worked.
The
new plan is to eliminate all sidebars. However, I've tucked those pages
away in little cupboards and crevices on the web site, so it will
probably be a while before I get them all.
I've
also had in mind, for some time, to re-format the "History of Carols"
segment and the "St Nicholas and Santa Claus" segment from HTML to
Adobe™ PDF. As they stand now, they're a long string of relatively small
HTML pages. As time has gone by, I'm less and less enchanted with that
format. You should expect to see those be reformatted within the next
few months.
Because of ill health, I will begin talks with organizations that might
be willing to take over this site. At some point, I will pass from this
good earth, and into the Father's House, with its many rooms, that has
been promised. Being 90% disabled and confined to bed up to 22 hours per
day has put something of a constraint on my ability to maintain and grow
the site (not to mention what it's doing to my golf game!). As my
condition continues to deteriorate, it will become necessary to transfer
ownership to some organization that will maintain, and hopefully, grow
the website, taking it to the next level, what ever that might be. When
that happens, I'll post a notice.
December
11, 2013.
Four
new-to-me hymns and carols were added this morning, bringing the total
to 3,700.
O sing to God your hymns of gladness,
Ye loving hearts your tribute pay;
Your Lord is born this happy day.
Then pierce the sky with songs of gladness,
Disperse the shades of gloom and sadness;
O sing to God your hymns of gladness.
Give praise with the rest of this joyful Anthem:
O Sing
To God
July 1,
2013.
An
additional five carols were added this morning, and as I hadn't done so
for a while, I checked the number of hymns and carols on the web site.
Good News! We've gone over 3,600. Whew!
February
11, 2013.
The
current research revolves around a body of carols that center on hunting
the wild boar, and the feasts that follow. Several new pages have been
added, and several others will be rewritten to reflect new discoveries
and sources. The best starting point is probably
Notes On The Boar's Head Carols. Expect
to see new additions and changes to the web site over the next few
weeks.
January
6, 2013, The Feast of the Epiphany.
Within the last few days, I've begun to incorporate new-to-me carols
from one of the primary sources of English carols, A Good Christmas Box, originally published byC. Walters in 1847; this extremely rare volume was reprinted in 2007
by Michael Raven. With these incorporations, this web site now has over
3,500 hymns, carols, ballads, and other songs of Christmas. This is an
especially fitting way to conclude the 12 days of Christmas this year!
Some
of the earliest carols in Greene's collection occur in Old English and
Middle English, which are nearly foreign languages to the modern ear;
they have not been added, as there is already a substantial collection
of such carols (including versions with modern spelling).
October
9, 2012. The incorporation of additional translations of some of our oldest
Christmas hymns and carols, those written in Latin, continues on the site. The
most recent addition was the translations included in the volume by
Orby Shipley, Annus Sanctus:
Hymns of the Church for the Ecclesiastical Year (1884). About 60
new translations were added, and a number of other translations were updated.
With all these new hymns and carols, the site now has over 3,300 Christmas hymns
and carols. Here is the
Table of Contents
for Mr. Shipley's invaluable volume. See all the Latin hymns and carols at
Latin Hymns from
the Early Church.
July 25,
2012. Changing tastes mean that some Christmas carols and hymns that are
written today will be forgotten "tomorrow." Indeed, of the over 3,100 Christmas
songs on this web site, most have slipped into obscurity. There is a body of
hymns, however, that have survived for up to 17 centuries: the Latin hymns that
we still sing today in our churches and choirs (including the Daily Office
recited by Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans and some other Christians). Over the
last couple of weeks, I've been incorporating additional Latin hymns and some
English translations, and there are many more that are "in the works." To see
three collections of translations that have been recently added, please see
Latin Hymns from
the Early Church.
July 17, 2012. When I completed added the
Christmas-tide
Hymns of Charles Wesley this morning, I decided to check on the
number of hymns and carols on the site. To my surprise, the Hymns and
Carols of Christmas now has over 3,100 English-language Christmas
hymns and carols, plus over 200 carols in other languages (French,
German, Latin, Greek, etc) and over 600 Christmas poems and short
stories.
July 9, 2012. Today marks the beginning of incorporation of a large
body of Christmas-tide hymns written by the Rev. Charles Wesley (18
December 1707 – 29 March 1788), one of the co-founders of the Methodist
movement in the Church of England. His output was prodigious —
estimated by various authorities at between 5,000 and 8,000 hymns, the
last of which was dictated to his wife from his death bed. The hymns
that I've found come primarily from four publications, including hymns
celebrating Christmas, New Year's Day, selections from the Gospel of
Matthew, and selections from the Gospel of Luke. See:
Christmas-tide
Hymns of Charles Wesley. The incorporation was concluded on July
17th. A total of 62 hymns were added.
June, 2012. A new collection has been added that was released the
same year as the influential book by William Sandys, Christmas Carols
Ancient and Modern, that was said to have help launched the resurgence
of carol singing in England. Published anonymously by the SPCK,
Christmas Carols, or Sacred Songs, Suited to the Festival of our Lord's Nativity,
(London: John William Parker,
1833), this collection featured carols that were written to celebrate the
birth of the Savior exclusively, that is Christmas as Holy Day, and
specifically to exclude any celebrations of Christmas as holiday. Only a
few of these carols came into popular usage, but all would be good
choices for Advent preparation and Christmas celebrations by the
Christian seeking a source of religious thought.
May 16,
2012. I saw a title a month or so ago that intrigued me:
The Book of Christmas Hymns (1868). Previously, all the collections that have been incorporated included, at
least, "carol" in the title — and frequently exclusively so. So a book of
Christmas hymns looked interesting ... and it was. It was published in 1868, and
so gives us an excellent glimpse into how the middle Victorians viewed
Christmas. The
Table_of_Contents displays the path and progress of understanding of the
Nativity of Christ as it effects the human condition, from the Nativity through
the Second Advent and the Day of Judgment. You will probably
recognize many of these hymns, but there are also a number of new titles here.
Enjoy!
By
the way, it's probably a good time to mention how research on this site
has evolved in the last 12 years, and my research generally in the last
17 or so years that I've been collecting Christmas hymns and carols.
Back in the mid '90s, the Internet was a new phenomena for most of us.
When I put up my first web page, there were only about 2,000 in the
whole world wide web. My how things have changed.
In
particular, we have the generous and far-sighted initiatives that have
digitalized books, in one form or another. Project Gutenberg certainly
has provided us all with thousands of titles, clearly and neatly typed
(perfect? no ... but neither am I). We also have the sponsorship of
Microsoft and Google in scanning books and putting them on line.
When
I first started doing this, I bought books, including old collections as
old as the epic 1833 book by William Sandys and the magnum opus of
William Hutchins in 1916. I eagerly searched out old book stores and was
a regular visitor to my local library (especially the interlibrary loan
desk).
While these researches still produce great finds, the web sites of
Google Books and the Internet Archive now provide us with books that
were available at only a few libraries in world. Now, they are at my
fingertips. I've downloaded over 1,000 PDF scans of these collections.
By the way, both the William Sandys book and the Charles Hutchins book
have been scanned and posted online.
Increasingly, I'm using old hymnals and carol collections as a starting
point for research, and whenever possible, I go to the first publication
of the original hymn or carol — assiduously avoiding the hack jobs
imposed by some editors in the name of improvement (usually
unsuccessfully). Because of
Project Gutenberg, the
Internet Archive, and
Google Books, we're now able to see many of the original compositions.
This
does add a lot of time to the process of incorporations, and I'm looking
again at a large number of carols that have already been added — and
correcting the texts as I go along. In addition, I'm able to look at
additional Christmas hymns and carols in those old collections, and with
additional lists of songs to incorporate.
Great stuff! Thanks to those who have funded these projects, managed the
projects, and scanned or typed the texts for us. A job well done, and
one that continues to add new titles daily.
January 13, 2012. For some time, I've been unhappy with how some
browsers render the pages on this website, especially pages such as this
one with a top and side border. Also, some folks did not understand that
most of the links on these pages are unpaid links, as for example, to
Project Gutenberg, and most have been removed. After a bit of
experimenting, I've come up with this format, which will show you
what I really had in mind. Enjoy.
December
25, 2011. Thismorning's addition is a true story from one of our
visitors. He placed the story in the public domain for all to enjoy (and I
did). I'd like to invite you to read
A Christmas Story by Jay
Frankston.
November
1, 2011. This additional body of work is among the oldest that I've had the
pleasure of discovering, and it is unique in that it is still performed annually
in the small village of Kilmore, County Wexford, in southwest Ireland, over 300
years after the first of these carols were composed.
Christmas Carols of Waddinge and Devereux Bishop Luke Waddinge and Rev. William Devereux Bishop Luke
Wadding, A Small Garland of Pious & Godly Songs, 1684
Rev.
William Devereux, A New Garland, containing
songs for Christmas, ca. 1730
June 13, 2009. Work is
largely complete on a web page concerning the significant collection,
Carols
for Christmas-tide, the work of Rev. John Mason Neale and Rev. Thomas
Helmore that was published in London by Novello in 1853. This work
contained two new carols from Neale, plus translations of 10 others from
the Swedish collection, Piae Cantiones,
first published in 1582. Music was provided by Rev. Helmore, based on
tunes found in Piae Cantiones, which was virtually unknown in
England at that time.
June 9, 2009.I
recently came across a terrific trove of Christmas-tide translations by
Rev. John Brownlie that he termed “Hymns
from the Office Books of The Holy Eastern Church.” These
translations from the Eastern churches were contained in a series of
five books issued from 1900 through 1913. A total of 34 (new-to-me)
Christmas-tide translations are linked from the
Christmas Hymns from John Brownlie. I hope that you enjoy them as
much as I have.
March 12, 2009. A few months
ago, after stumbling across another translation that I had been unaware of, I
decided to clean up my collection of ”Stille Nacht” / “Silent Night”
translations. In the course of that work, I consulted John Julian's “Dictionary
of Hymnology” concerning Joseph Mohr and “Stille Nacht” and discovered a list of
translations (up to 1907; he listed eight in Common Use and an additional three
not in CU). Since then, I've been looking for those translations, and yesterday
concluded that research with the discovery of the full texts of the Emily E. S.
Elliott translation
Stilly
Night, Holy Night of 1858 and the W. T. Matson translation
Silent Night! Holy Night!
of 1887. The Elliott translation was the earliest translation made in England
that I have discovered so far.
Also now on the site is a translation by J. F. Warner in 1849,
Silent
Night! Hallowed Night!, which is believed to be the oldest translation of "Stille
Nacht" in the English language. It was published
by
Charles Dingley, ed., The Devotional Harmonist (New York:
George Lane and Levi Scott, 1851), p. 373.
April 3, 2008. Together
with many others, I'm mourning the passing of Wally Bronner, founder of
the Bronner's Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, MN, and a generous
benefactor to many charities and causes. He passed away on Tuesday,
April 1, 2008. Bronner on March 24 announced in a letter that "the
Christ of Christmas is ready to receive me into His heavenly kingdom."
He and his wife, Irene, who survives
him, constructed the Silent Night Memorial Chapel on Bronner's premises in 1992.
The chapel is a replica of the chapel in Oberndorf, Austria, built on the site
where church-goers first sang Silent Night on Christmas Eve in 1818.
We wish to extend our condolences to
the family of this generous man of faith.
March 19, 2008. A few days
ago I received in the mail a reprint of the Davies Gilbert 1822 edition
of "Some Ancient Christmas Carols." It was reprinted as an Elibron
Classics by Adamant Media, Boston, 2002 (http://www.elibron.com/english/
; ISBN: 1421262363). This edition has been especially difficult to see;
I've been looking for a copy for about eight years.
I've compared the seven carols in his
collection with the versions on the website, and made a few minor updates
(mostly capitalization and punctuation). I've also added a few notes to the
biography of Davies
Gilbert. I've got just a bit more to do on the bio (cleaning up the page's
bibliography, for example), but I've uploaded what I've got so far. Enjoy!
March 13, 2008. I came across a
"new to me" translation of "Stille Nacht!" today. It's "Silent
Night, Sacred Night." I found it in the 1912 Crown Hymnal. There was
no attribution. I subsequently found another copy of the words in Frank Langdon
Humphreys' Christmas Carols (New York: Novello Ewer &Y Co,1900). There
was no attribution or music.
February 23, 2008. The
folks at Google have given us the ability to "write" little gadgets.
Here's one that web site creators can incorporate if they'd
like to give their visitors the ability to search for Christmas Carols,
Hymns and Poetry.
December 21, 2007. The new
home of The Hymns and Carols of Christmas is now Huntsville,
Alabama, as the move from to Oregon to Alabama is finally complete.
We're still living out of boxes (we're in a rental until we can purchase
a new home), but grateful not to be sleeping in a different motel each
night during the seven-day drive across the country.
In the middle of the move, literally,
my former web hosting company deleted this web site, without notice. Although I
attempted to resolve the problem, their lack of communication kept the site dark
for the first two and a half weeks of December ... without a doubt, the worst
possible time for a site such as this. I was — to put it mildly — unhappy, but
the site is back up and running, which is the important part.
I'm pleased to report that the
new web
hosting company seems to be working out fine.
September 19, 2007. I occasionally received emails from
visitors who are looking for an old hymn or carol. If I can find it for them, I
reply directly. Sometimes, however, I'm stumped. So, I've set up this page to
solicit you help. I'll be posting a portion of those requests on this page. If
you can help, please let me know (there's an email link at the top of the page).
I'll forward your reply to the requesting visitor. If the song is in the public
domain, I will also create a page for it.
September 17, 2007. The Christmas poetry books are still
consuming a lot of my time (there are currently 12). I hope to have the Advent
Poetry book published by the end of this month — in time for people to have an
additional Advent planning resource. After that, I plan to take a break from
editing. I'll go through each of these books to ensure that any new poems that
I've found will be incorporated into the main site. The books can be previewed
at
Douglas Anderson's
Christmas Storefront. There's also a link to the book I edited about my
dad's World War II career.
September 8, 2007. The
site was honored as the
Site of the Week by ChristmasFinest.com,
a site that features Christmas links, forums, and newsfeeds.
August 27, 2007. Still busy with
the Christmas poetry project (some of the best hymns and carols were poems
first, with the music added later). A large addition of material is expected to
be incorporated this fall.
May 17, 2007. A quiet time
for the last few months. Additions have been made, but not sufficient of
requiring a comment. In large measure, this time has been spent doing
research and gathering new materials. As a result, this weekend more
than 40 new poems and 40 new prose works have been added to the site.
See: Christmas Poetry And
Prose.
In addition, I've published seven books
of Christmas poetry compilations, with another four on the near horizon. These
can be seen at Douglas
Anderson's Christmas Storefront at Lulu.com.
February 16, 2007.
Incorporation of Catherine Winkworth's The Chorale Book For England,
Congregational Edition, is complete. This edition omits the preface,
introduction, etc. In addition, it prints only the melody line, as
opposed to a full SATB arrangement. A full edition has been requested on
inter-library loan. Additional material will be added. Please check
back. See:
Christmas Poetry of Catherine Winkworth.
I've just received, and will begin
incorporation, of A. B. Goodrich's A New Service And Tune Book For Sunday
Schools (New York: Gen. Prot. Episc. S. S. Union and Church Book Society,
1863, New Edition, Enlarged, 1866). See:
Silent Night, Holy Night.
February 7, 2007. Added
are some of the Christmas poems of Emily Elizabeth Steele Elliott:
Christmas-tide Poetry by Emily Elizabeth Steele Elliott. All of
these poems are from Chimes of Consecration. Ms. Elliott is also
the author of Chimes for Daily Service, (1880). It contained 71
hymns, arranged in two parts, the second of which was published
separately as a cheap large-print book for hospitals, etc, with the
title Under the Pillow. I am attempting to locate a copy.
Ms. Elliott is also the purported
author of one of the earliest translations of
Stille
Nacht! Heilige Nacht! that was titled "Stilly Night! Holy Night!" So far, I
have been unable to locate a copy.
The
Christmas Poetry And
Prose page has been slightly restructured to put Christmas poetry
collections such as Ms. Elliott's (and including Winkworth, Rossetti, etc.) in a
grouped location.
Some additional material has been added
to
The Moon Shines Bright - Notes. I've got another approximately one hour of
work to do on this, but there is much new material already.
Additional material has also been added
to Carol Services.
January 12, 2007. There's
some new research notes to two of the most popular Christmas hymns:
O Holy
Night (and including its parent,
Cantique de Noël)
and
Silent Night, Holy Night - Young Translation. Check 'em out! And
check back again soon, as additional research is being conducted on both
of these favorites.
January 10, 2007. Recently added
collections:
Rev. J. Freeman Young, ed., Carols For Christmas Tide
(New York: Daniel Dana, Jr., 1859). Includes the first known publication of
Young's
Silent Night, Holy Night.
John Clark Hollister, ed., The
Sunday-School Service and Tune Book (New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1863,
1865).
John Henry Hopkins, Jr., Carols, Hymns and Songs
(New York: Church Book Depository, 1863). Author of
We Three Kings Of Orient Are.
J. H. Hopkins, ed., Great Hymns of
the Church Compiled by the Late Right Reverend John Freeman Young (New York:
James Pott & Company, 1887) [Incorporation completed January 28, 2007:
Table of Contents]
Phillips Brooks, Christmas Songs and Easter Carols
(New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1903);
Table of Contents
Work is on-going concerning
O Holy Night(Cantique
de Noël or
Minuit Chrétiens. Additional research materials have been
requested on interlibrary loan.
December 8, 2006. I am not able to
provide direct support other formats of music notation software, such as Finale®
or Scorch®. However, all Noteworthy Composer files have been converted to the
MusicXML format:
XML.iso (88,294 KB, using James Lee's
nwc2xml program; as of December 6, 2006). I am told that Finale 7, Scorch 4,
and other programs support this format. The ISO file was
successfully tested on my computer (using Roxio™).
My thanks to Wheat Williams for his invaluable assistance in this project.
September 24, 2006. A Very Bad Person "spoofed" this website's URL
again and sent out several thousand more "spam" messages. Again, this
site does not send unsolicited email under any circumstances. See below.
July 26, 2006. A Very Bad Person "spoofed" this website's URL
and sent out several thousand "spam" messages on July 25, 2006.
I did not send out these messages, and I assure you
that, if I could, I would take the strongest possible action against this
person.
Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, I am
unable either to locate the perpetrator or to prevent further messages from
being sent.
To those to have been inconvenienced, all that I can
say is "sorry."
March 12, 2006. Work
continues on incorporation of carols. All histories have been
removed. All are several years old, and need updated research and
a complete re-write. They will return as time and health allows.
January 1, 2006. And a Happy
New Year.
December 25, 2005. Merry
Christmas.
November 21, 2005. I took
a brief break from the Cambridge Carol-Book to include additional
content from William Hone's The Year Book and Ancient
Mysteries Described. See: The Every Day Book.
November 18, 2005.
Two new (to me) collections from the pen of the Rev. George R. Woodward:
The Babe Of Bethlehem and
The Cambridge Carol-Book. Incorporation of the former is
complete; incorporation of the latter is on-going.
October 21, 2005.
Incorporation is complete of carols from two collections by Lucy
Broadwood:
English Country Songs, with J. A. Fuller-Maitland.
London: The Leadenhall Press, 1893
English Traditional Songs and Carols. London: Boosey &
Co., 1908
I've also completed incorporating Christmas-related information from
William Hone, The Every Day Book. Two Vols. London: William Tegg, 1825,
1827. Work on the Pickard-Cambridge collection is continuing. Just
received is J. A. (John Alexander) Fuller Maitland and W. S. (William
Smyth) Rockstro , English Carols of the Fifteenth Century. London:
Leadenhall Press, ca. 1891.
September 29, 2005.
Incorporation of Bullen is complete (no music; just text — much had
already been incorporated via the Rickert collection). I've begun a
review of the Hutchins' collection, with a view of adding additional
music (SATB). I've also just received W. A. Pickard-Cambridge's "A
Collection of Dorset Carols" (1926), which contains many new carols.
This is a work in progress. Your patience is appreciated.
August 22, 2005. Just
arrived today is A. H. Bullen's A
Christmas Garland: Carols And Poems (London: John C. Nimmo,
1885). Incorporation has begun. Text only; no music.
August 18, 2005.
Incorporation of Cecil J. Sharp, English
Folk-Carols (London: Novello & Co., 1911) is complete. Only 21
carols, but most were new versions, with music.
August 8, 2005.
Incorporation of William Sandys,
Sandys - Christmas-tide -
Its History, Festivities and Carols, With Their Music (London: John Russell Smith, 1852)
is complete. The site now has 2,330 hymns and carols. Sandys published
eleven chapters on the history of Christmas as viewed from 1852.
July 24, 2005.
Incorporation of Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas
Carols: 1400-1700 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1910, reprinted 1914) is
complete. The site now has 2,322 Christmas hymns and carols.
Due to bandwidth requirements, I
will be switching web hosting companies in the next few days. There may be a
brief interruption of service during the switch-over.
My former host,
iPowerWeb, has given
great service; however,
PowWeb will provide me with the bandwidth that I will need next November
and December (300 GB per month at 10 GB per day!). I will be creating an
affiliate relationship with
PowWeb in the future. Please check back.
April 15, 2005.
Incorporation of Christmas material from George Ratcliffe Woodward's
Songs of Syon is complete. Inclusion of Christmas material from
Woodward's
An Italian Carol Book (with George Wood) is complete.
There over 2,176 hymns, carols
and other Christmas songs on the site.
January 26, 2005.
Incorporation of Thomas Wright's Songs and Carols (1847) is complete.
December 31, 2004. All of
the music from Chope's
Carols for Use In Church has been incorporated. A few more milestones:
December 6: 1.2 million hits
this month.
December 9: 2.0 million hits
this month.
December 13: 3.0 million hits
this month.
December 17: 4.1 million hits
this month.
December 21: 5.3 million hits
this month
December 24: 6.1 million hits
this month.
Current collections being
incorporated are by Thomas Wright:
November 30, 2004.As of today, the contents of the
English Carol Book, both the
First Series and
Second Series, have been
incorporated. Several more books were received in the last couple of weeks,
so you can expect to see more carols added soon.
Before I get into the next series, I'll be going back through the Chope
(Carols
for Use In Church, 1894) collection to make sure that all of that music has been incorporated.
As of yesterday afternoon, the site has 1,991 hymns, carols and other
Christmas songs.
A few milestones:
November 1: 11 million hits
total
November 16: 1 million hits
this month
November 26: 2 million hits
this month
November 30: 2.6 million hits
this month and 13.6 million hits overall.
Thank-you for your
support.
September 29, 2004. Just a
note to assure everyone that the JPEG images on this site are scanned
prior to uploading to the web hosting company (over which I have no
control). I've set my antivirus program to scan my system each
evening, and I've got two firewalls protecting the connection to the
internet.
I urge anyone who might be at risk
of this Trojan Horse (e.g., Windows XP, Windows XP SP1, and Windows Server
2003) to immediately apply the appropriate patches from Microsoft. Check it
out at:
September 24, 2004. The
site has received over 10 million hits. Thanks! Still
working on the music from the
Chope
edition.
September 16, 2004. The
lyrics of all the carols contained in the
Chope edition have been
incorporated. Work will begin on sequencing of MIDI files,
creation of Noteworthy Composer scores, and PDF copies of those score.
It's a pretty big stack; I expect this to take quite some time.
September 6, 2004. The
Sylvester and
Husk collections have been fully incorporated. Work
begins on Rev. Richard R.
Chope, Carols for Use in Church (London:
William Clowes & Sons, Complete Edition, 1894).
Martin Shaw and Percy Dearmer,
The English Carol Book,
First
Series(London: A. R. Mowbray,
1923) [Originally published 1913]
Catherine Winkworth, Lyra
Germanica: Second Series:The Christian Life (London:
Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, 1860, Third Edition)
There's many treasures here to be
incorporated at a later date. More books in the mail and coming soon. Work
on the Sylvestre and Husk collections continues.
August 23, 2004. I received
today reprinted copies of "
Joshua Sylvester" Christmas Carols Ancient
and Modern (1861) and William Henry Husk, Carols of the Nativity
(1868). Excellent notes, which I will start incorporating.
August 14, 2004. Those who
are beginning to create Advent programs for the coming holiday season
might want to check out these two resources:
Cyberhymnal's
Advent list (a
Christmas list is also available, among many others).
May 26, 2004. Problems
with spamming the main email account on this site require that I change
the default email address; it's been hijacked and I'm getting more email
(about topics not appropriate to mention in this note) than I can count
on a daily basis. Within a day or so, no mail addressed
to w e b m a s t e r at this site will be read. To get in
contact with me, there is a new
account.
April 28, 2004. Due to
work-related training, there will be no published updates to this site
from May 1 through May 22, 2004. The problem with email seems to
have been resolved.
April 23, 2004. There is a
continuing problem with email communications. I'm working with the
web hosting provider to resolve the problem. Please check back
again.
March 28, 2004. The "W"
carols have been typed and incorporated. This completes the
incorporation of the text of the Christmas carols from Rev. Charles L. Hutchins,
Carols Old And Carols New (Boston: Parish Choir, 1916); the
incorporation process began 10 months ago. The site now contains 1,730
hymns and carols.
Next is to sequence the MIDI files
and create the Noteworthy Composer and PDF scores for the "S," "T", and "W"
carols from Hutchins, as well as from the Cowley Book of Carols, First
Series.
March 27, 2004. The rest
of the "T" carols and all of the "W" carols have been scanned. All of
the "S" and "T" carols have been retyped and incorporated into the site.
The "W" carols will be typed and incorporated next.
In the meantime, I've published a
page that I've titled
Christmastide Poems of Christina Rossetti. It consists of poems written
about topics within the Christmastide, as found (mostly) in The Poetic
Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti, edited with a preface and memoir
by her brother, William (1904). Composers that are looking for some very
musical lyrics might consider looking at these poems.
Finally, I've recently received
several new (to me) books:
George Ratcliffe Woodward,
The Cowley Carol Book,
First
Series (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co.,
Ltd., Revised And Expanded Edition, ca. 1902). See
Preface.
George Ratcliffe Woodward,
The Cowley Carol Book,
Second Series (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co.,
Ltd., ca. 1919). See
Preface.
Richard Leighton Greene, The
Early English Carols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1935)
I've also received two biographies
of Bishop
John Freeman Young, one of which has been reviewed and some notes added;
the other has yet to be reviewed. In addition, I've received another book:
Silent Night, Holy Night: History and Circulation of a Carol, Alois
Schmaus and Lenz Kriss-Rettenbeck, eds., (Innsbruck: University Press,1968),
which contains, inter alia, a short history of the carol by J.
Gassner. More updates to this site will come from these
sources soon.
March 8, 2004. The "S" and
the first half of the "T" carols have been scanned. At this point,
I'll complete the scanning of all carols before typing the lyrics and
creating MIDI / NWC / and PDF files. The volume that I am scanning
from is deteriorating very quickly; this is especially problematic since
this is only one of 1000 copies ever printed - in 1916!
Fortunately, my friend
Max
Marbles, Bookbinder, has done some great work for me in the past
(including my 52 year old baptismal Bible that I got back just two weeks
ago), and I know that he can save this book too.
February 29, 2004. The "R"
carols incorporated, plus the remaining "U", "V", and "Y" carols (one
each). The MIDI and Noteworthy Composer (NWC) files created,
together with a PDF of the NWC files. After all the carols from
this collection have been incorporated, I'll go back and create PDF files of
the existing NWC scores.
February 12, 2004.
The "O" carols incorporated; now to the task of sequencing the MIDI
files and creating the Noteworthy Composer files.
January 7, 2004.
Over 2 million hits in the month of December, 2003, and over 7 million
hits in the sixteen months since the site opened. The sequencing of
MIDI files and Noteworthy Composer scores for the Hutchins "LMN"
files complete. Scanning of the "O" carols complete; incorporation
will begin shortly. I'm spending the day fixing broken links — and
it will take *all* day ;)
December 14, 2003. Incorporation
of the Hutchins "LMN" carols complete.
November 19, 2003.
Incorporation of the Hutchins "I" and "J" carols is
complete. On November 10, I was able to borrow a copy of the Rev.
Richard R. Chope's Carols For Use In Church (London, William Clowes
& Sons, circa 1894). This "complete edition" contains
215 carols, of which 152 relate to Christmas, Epiphany, etc. I spent
the week scanning and formatting these carols. Incorporation of the 97
news carols found in this volume will begin after I complete the full
Hutchins incorporation. However, I will begin linking the sheet music
immediately.
Yesterday, I received a copy of
Edith Rickert's Ancient English Christmas Carols (London: Chatto
& Windus, 1914). There seems to be quite a large content in this book,
which will be incorporated at a later time. Regrettably, it is words only;
no sheet music.
November 7, 2003. I'm
modifying the design to speed up the loading of pages, including removing
graphics. The menu bar is being moved from the top to the left side
of the page; content is being distinguished from affiliate programs.
Finally, a search box is being added at the top.
Because of the large number of
changes, please hit the "refresh" or "reload' buttons in
your browser.
Incorporation of Bramley &
Stainer, Series Three, is complete. The incorporation of Hutchins
"I" & "J" carols will be continued starting
tomorrow (lots of typing, plus MIDI and Noteworthy Composer files).
I noticed that many of the Series
One and Two carols from Bramley and Stainer do not have MIDI or Noteworthy
Composer files. I'll take that up after the incorporation of
Hutchins "I" & "J" carols.
November 1, 2003.
Incorporation of Bramley and Stainer, Series Three, has begun. The
Hutchins "I" & "J" carols are on hold until the
Bramley & Stainer series has been added.
October 26, 2003. I
*think* that the site is stable now. Please let me know if you find
any broken links (I'm expecting a deluge ;). Addition of the
"I" and "J" carols will commence this week, subject to
cataract surgery this Thursday. The expected upturn of hits continues...on
the order of 16,000+ hits a day and climbing.
October 20, 2003. The site
is hosed. The host moved the site last Friday, presumably to balance
the load. I've republished — completely — on Sunday and Monday
(and Tuesday, the 21st). I'll continue to work with the host to get
things re-established. Sorry if I missed you (I'm guessing that I'm losing
10,000+ hits a day!). Please check back.
October 19, 2003.
The "G" and "H" carols have been incorporated.
Problems with the site, which are being worked as fast as I can.
Please check back if you're having problems accessing the sites.
Remember to click the "refresh" or "reload" button.
September 28, 2003.
The "D," "E," and "F" carols have been
incorporated. Updated notes for Adeste
Fideles (from Dom John Stéphan's The "Adeste Fideles": A
Study On Its Origin & Development, 1947)
September 2, 2003.
I've completed the "A," "B," and "C" carols
from Hutchins. Moving on to the "D" carols. The site
got its 4 millionth hit today, 6 days short of a year since the full
collection (at that time) was completed. Since then, an additional 250+
carols and hymns have been added.
May 25, 2003. My web
hosting company, iPowerWeb,
has graciously agreed to expand the size of the site from 200 MB to 500
MB. This will allow earlier posting of scanned copies of scores from
Hutchins, as well as the MIDI and Noteworthy Composer files.
May 24, 2003. I'm still
plugging along. I've started to incorporate the contents of Charles
L. Hutchins' Carols Old and Carols New (Boston: Parish Choir,
1916). The very large volume will take some time to fully
incorporate. I'll be including scanned copies of the scores, as well
as MIDI and Noteworthy Composer scores, as time and web hosting space
allow. The site is approaching 3.5 million hits.
Howard C. Rigby, Jr. is
publishing a very complete collection of public domain texts titled Christian
Hymn Texts From The Public Domain. This collection is available
June 1, 2003 at Handlo
Music. I was privileged to see an advance copy of this carefully
researched work. Cecil can be reached at Harrock Hall Music,
Liberty, South Carolina.
On July 1, 2003, Mr. Rigby also
announced a new service of Harrock Hall Music which will allow an
excellent way for composers to publish new compositions and arrangements
of sacred choir and instrumental music, while allowing those composers and
arrangers to pursue additional publishing options. Get more information at
Harrock
Hall Music.
February 21, 2003. Please
remember the Rev. Vincent Uher in your thoughts and prayers.
He is the author of numerous hymns, and is facing serious medical problems
at this time. I have not received permission to reprint any of his
Advent, Christmas or Epiphany hymns, but several of his hymns can be found
at Oremus.
January 30, 2002.
Additional Scandinavian carols acquired and incorporated. Three calendars
of carols were created for the Christmastide. Footnotes to the History
of Hymns and Carols have also been incorporated.
December 31, 2002. The
site received over 2.5 million hits during the year 2002. My best
wishes to you all for a joyous New Year.
A few statistics:
Hymns and carols on the site:
1,295 (English language; 108 non-English)
Number of files on the site:
9,670
Number of links: 18,641
December 25, 2002. Thank-you
and Merry Christmas. As of today, the site has received more than
1.4 million hits this month.
December
18, 2002. Today was a red-letter day for this site.
The site received over one million hits this month. And today, the site
has now received more than 2 million hits overall. Quite a day! The
site is averaging over 57,000 hits per day for this month (almost 40 hits
per second!). So far, the record day for the month was Dec. 16, when
the site received 80,337 hits. My thanks to you all.
Merry Christmas!
December 15, 2002.
Thanks to the help of two kind souls, I've added several more translations
of carols from Norway and Denmark.
November 30, 2002.
Last day of the month, and the site received its one millionth hit today,
including over 960,000 hits this month! It was first listed in the Google
search engine the week of August 23, just over three months ago. I
am amazed.
November 18, 2002. Still
cleaning up copyright dates and broken links. There are now a total
of 1,675 carols in the main collection, and 1,285 English-language carols
on the site, plus 81 non-English carols (Latin, German, Scandinavian,
etc). As of the 16th, the site is averaging over 13,600 hits per
day.
November 9, 2002.
Still adding carols, a few at a time. About 20 were added in the
last week. This weekend's big project is to nail down copyright
dates, now that I see these are available from the U.S. Government's
Copyright Office. In the first eight days of November, the site is
averaging over 10,600 hits per day! Thanks to you all!
A few statistics:
Current text collection:
1,657 hymns and carols
Hymns and carols
incorporated: 1,263
Number of files on the site:
9,210
Number of links: 21,217
Number of images: 2,558
October 30, 2002. 32
Middle English carols have been added. To correctly see these carols, you
will need to have both "Junicode" and "Old
Blackletter" fonts installed on your computer. See
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for more
details and links (or right-click on the two links above, and "save as"). The site averaged 977 hits per day during this month, with over
30,000 for the month.
October 26, 2002. A
dozen or so carols from Appalachia were added last week. Work
continues on 32 Middle English hymns and carols.
October 11, 2002.
The contents of William Sandys, Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern,
have been fully incorporated, including the 6 French carols and tunes (the
100+ page introduction has not yet been incorporated). A two
additional carols have been included from Heart Songs (1909), plus
variations on four other carols previous acquired.
October 2, 2002. I've
started to incorporate the contents of William Sandys, Christmas Carols
Ancient and Modern (1833). Check the Table of Contents to follow the
progress. The text will include any of Sandys' notes and the sheet music
printed by Sandys. Some of the earliest carols will require installation
of a special font, "Junicode," to be viewed properly.
For more details, see
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). The site averaged 619 hits a
day in September.
September 31, 2002. The
site has received over 5,000 hits.
September 23, 2002. The
new site exists at the web provider, and the site will up loaded this
evening. Sorry if I missed you. Please update your Bookmarks or
Favorites page to reflect the new site: http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com
September 21, 2002. I'll
be moving the website to a new web provider in a few days. The URL (
http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com
) will remain the same, but links at search engines might still point to
pages at my wife's site, http://www.victoriasuzanne.biz
which I will maintain as a "mirror" until December. I'll
be taking steps to correct this problem. In the meantime, Google
offers a "cached" version of many pages. I'll put an
"automatic forwarder" at the old web provider's site in early
November.
September 13, 2002. There
has been a problem the last week with missing hyperlinks. Hopefully,
the problem has been repaired.
September 8, 2002. The
full collection has been published, 8 months and 3 days from the beginning
of publication (January 5, 2002). A few statistics:
Original text collection:
1,504 hymns and carols
Hymns and carols
incorporated: 1,203 (80%; the balance is either under copyright or
inappropriate for incorporation in a family-safe site)
Number of files on the site:
3,985
Number of links: 15,597!
Number of images: 893
There is still much to do.
There are footnotes to add (especially to the History of the Christmas
Carol). There are lots of links to check. There are two
full file cabinet drawers of notes, including printed collections to
incorporate. And, I've acquired four significant volumes of carols
since beginning the incorporation:
William Sandys, Christmas
Carols Ancient and Modern (1833)
Rev. Charles L. Hutchins, Carols
Old and Carols New (1916)
Edward Bliss Reed, Christmas
Carols Printed In The Sixteenth Century (1932)
Sir Richard R. Terry, A
Medieval Carol Books (1931)
I've also acquired other
additional hymnals and carol collections — total is about 60. I'll be
going back through all collections to capture any omissions (and rescan
otherwise unavailable music).
Please check back regularly and
feel free to offer suggestions on how to improve the site!
September 4, 2002. The
"U" and "V" carols are complete. We are now at 90%
completion of the original collection.
September 3, 2002.
The "T" carols are complete; 89% of the maid body of the
collection has now been published.
August 31, 2002. I think
that the search engine issues are finalized; I'll know tomorrow when I
check the site. In the meantime, the "S" carols are
completed.
August 27, 2002. The
problem with the JavaScript-based search engine is that it takes forever
to load on dial-up. I'm also experimenting with a Java-based search
engine. In short, the Search Page is experimental. I'll keep
you posted.
August 23, 2002. The site
appears for the first time in the Google search engine.
August 18, 2002. I've
selected a JavaScript-based search engine for the site. It seems to
be working fine, but I'll continue to "tweak" the settings to
get an optimal product for the site. Work has begun on the
"S" carols. The naming problems that came up a few days ago has
been solved, although it required several attempts to "publish"
the changes to the web provider.
August 15, 2002. Corrected
a naming problem with the indices. Hopefully, the will now correctly
link to the hymns and carols.
August 12, 2002. Not
much for the last two weeks, as I have been out of town of business.
The "R" carols have been completed; this represents 74% (1097)
of the original collection of 1481. The total number of hymns and
carols included is 891, which represents 81% of the hymns and carols
possible. The 19% which have not been published are either under
copyright or considered inappropriate for publication. For more
information, see the FAQ (link above).
August 5, 2002. The
site has been "spidered" by webbots from Google.com.
July 22, 2002. I've
elected not to use the FrontPage® Search page
function. Use of this function requires a web server which has
FrontPage 2002® extensions loaded. That
would exclude CD ROM users from searching the site. Accordingly, I'm
looking for a Java-based application; work is continuing.
July 18, 2002. The
"P" carols are complete and I'm working on the "R"
carols.
July 15, 2002. The
"O" carols are complete. I've added a FAQ (Frequently
Asked Questions) page. There haven't been any yet, but I'm
trying to plan ahead.
July 13, 2002. With
the conversion of O Thou Essential Word, I'm now two-thirds through
the conversion from Word to HTML. Work continues on the
"O" carols
July 6, 2002. Still
working on the "O" carols. The in-laws are in town for the
international SPEBSQSA convention in Portland, Oregon; I've made
significant progress on my "honey-do" list!
June 16, 2002. Completed
the "M" and "N" carols.
June 9, 2002. Completed
the "L" carols.
June 1, 2002. Not much
done this last week. Memorial Day weekend was spent honoring those who
died in the defense of our freedom, plus planting flowers and completing
several woodworking tasks. Minor surgery was scheduled for May 30; no
complications, but the recovery will limit how much work gets done this
week.
May 26, 2002. The Table of
Contents is still slow to load on a dial-up, but not too bad on a T-1. The
problems with the margins have been resolved, although I don't know why
(magic?).
I tried to put up a Search Page,
but my domain server company doesn't support FrontPage 2000. Perhaps I'll
upgrade to FP2002; perhaps I'll change domain providers; it would be
cheaper to change providers. Besides, I'm soon to run out of the 100 MB of
space that I've purchased with this provider.
We are now over 50%, with the
completion of the "J" carols. At this rate, I hope to have
the full collection published by the end of September. At this time, the
site contains over 2700 files and is 90 MB in size. On to the
"K" carols!.
May 18, 2002. There are
several matters to report this week. I'm not sure that I'm liking the look
of the Table of Contents page, but will continue to work with it to get
the margins correct. It does load faster than I originally
anticipated. In the meantime, I've purchased a theme from Themes In Design, and I'm very
pleased with the new look. I'm also continuing to work with tables to
limit the width of text pages to 10 to 12 words per line; this is work in
progress. Finally, I've purchased a copy of William Sandys Christmas
Carols Ancient and Modern (1833), and will be incorporating portions
of his introduction into the History pages of the site; incorporation of
most of the carols will be postponed to a later date.
May 9, 2002. I've created
a Table of Contents page (generated by Front Page), to allow (relatively)
quick access to the full contents of the site. When a hard copy was
printed, it was 22 pages long, and therefore may be slow to load unless
you have a high speed connection.
May 6, 2002. The
"I" carols have been completed and I'm moving quickly through
the "J" carols.
April 28, 2002. I've completed the "H"
carols, and I'm well into the "I" carols. Also, I've
started to reformat pages which contain essentially text in such a manner
as to limit the width of the line with a view towards greater
readability. I will be retaking the Front Page 2000 Level 1 course
on May 1, 2002, and the Level 2 course on May 21-22, 2002.
April 16, 2002. The URL redirection to the new
domain name is working fine. Please update your hyperlinks to: www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com
The site is still physically located under my wife's domain name; that
will remain true until December, 2002. I'm in the processing of updating
the header graphics on the hymns and carols themselves, as well as the
biographies. In addition, I'm adding a footer navigation bar to the hymns,
carols and biographies which allow the viewer to print the page (to your
system's default printer), or to quickly close the page.
April 13, 2002. I reserved the domain name www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com
(Hymns and Carols of Christmas). I'm still working on the URL
redirection, so keep your hyperlinks aimed at my wife's page, www.victoriasuzanne.biz/xmas.
I'll post a note when the new URL can be accessed. The site is now about
85 MB in size. I'll almost certainly have to start
"affiliations" in order to defray the cost of hosting the
domain. Also today was added a "Links" page to sites which
contain collections of hymns and carols; I expect that this page will be
added to regularly.
April 8, 2002. I'm continuing to add more carols;
I'm through the "G" carols and well into the "H"
carols. To date, about one-third of the carols have been added. With luck,
the collection as it stands will be posted by the end of summer, 2002.
After that, about 300 hymns and carols will be added from Rev. Charles
Hutchins Carols Old and Carols New. Menu bars were added to the
bottom of the pages related to the Hymns and Carols of Christmas.
Similar menu bars will be added to the rest of the site — eventually :)
March 16, 2002. The "D" and "E"
carols have been incorporated and I got a running start on the
"F" carols. Nine translations by Catherine Winkworth from Lyra
Germanica have been added (it's always nice to see what the original
translation was, before the editor's got their hands on them).
A number of biographies with additional information and correct
attribution have been updated.
March 10, 2002. Updated the biography of
John
Mason Neale and added a few additional carols, including a start on the
"D" carols. There is still a lot of work to be done on
biographies.
February 24, 2002. A few additional carols or
hymns added to the "A-C" carols.
February 16, 2002. I've just finished all of the
"A-C" carols. There are a number of issues to pursue in
this group, notably dates and authorship. Some updates also made to
the Bibliography. This site now resides at www.victoriasuzanne.biz/xmas.
Please update any hyperlinks — and rejoice at the lack of pop-up
advertisements!
The automatic forwarding from previous sites has been
removed in favor of a notice that this site resides at a previous
location. This was done to allow browsers to use the
"Back" button (otherwise, you were trapped, which is not good
practice). Next: "D" through "J".
January 30, 2002. The plans to publish O
Tannenbaum (The Story of the Christmas Tree) have been put on hold (it
was due some additional research and I don't want to devote that effort at
this time). I'm beginning to convert the Hymns and Carols of
Christmas into HTML. All of the public domain "A"
and "B" carols have been converted, plus some of the
"C" carols.
January 4, 2002. Completed a rewrite of Season's
Greetings — a modest history of the Christmas card. In addition, I
added additional links to certain Christmas works by Dickens and
Washington Irving (from Project Gutenberg). I also repaired some graphics
problems (the thumbnail either pointed to another graphic...or to no
graphic at all). All links on this page will open (hopefully) in a
new window. To return to these pages, close the new window.
December 30, 2001. Added a biography of Professor
William Studwell, together with his Carol of the Year Series.
December 11, 2001: Completed the Advanced Front
Page 2000 course. Work may be limited over the next few weeks as I finish
up gift projects for the holidays, including a solid walnut clock, a red
oak CD holder, and a basswood cribbage board featuring a hand-carved
buffalo head. Merry Christmas to you all!
December 9, 2001: Added links to Project Gutenberg
copies of A Christmas Carol, The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Esq.,
and the excerpt Old Christmas. A new site was established, www.allthingschristmas.netfirms.com
December 7, 2001: Nothing done this last week, due
to a week-long A+ class. More later.
December 1, 2001: Spent a few days cleaning
up existing graphics (usually resizing, re-sampling, and reducing to
thumbnails) in order to speed up the loading of pages. In addition,
headings were standardized, hyperlinks cleaned up (including making all
external hyperlinks open — hopefully — in a new page), and navigation
bars were re-designed.
November 27, 2001: Completed the Intermediate Front
Page 2000 course.
November 25, 2001: Completed the first phase in
incorporating Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, the history of angels -
specifically as they relate to hymns and carols. Additional graphics still
need to be uploaded
November 18, 2001: Completed the first phase of
incorporating From St. Nicholas to Santa Claus, a history of the
development of the jolly old elf. Additional graphics will be uploaded
later.
November 11, 2001: Completed incorporating The
History of the Hymns and Carols of Christmas. The footnotes will come
later. The actual hymns and carols — over 1400 of them — will be
uploaded at a later date, except for those still under copyright.
November 6, 2001 Completed Beginning Front Page
2001. Started work on the web site, which will include the
following:
A History of the Hymns and Carols of Christmas
[published Nov. 11, 2001]
"From St. Nicholas to Santa Claus" - The
Story of Santa [published Nov. 18, 2001]
"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" - The Story
of Angels [published Nov. 25, 2001]
"O Tannenbaum: The Story of the Christmas
Tree" [published Dec. 13, 2002.]
"Seasons Greetings!: The Story of the Greeting
Card" [published January 4, 2002]
The Hymns and Carols of Christmas [over 1400 of them,
beginning January 5, 2002]
