Christmas Carol - Christmas Carols in Classical Music

Christmas Carols in Classical Music

In the 1680s and 1690s, two French composers incorporated carols into their works. Louis-Claude Daquin wrote 12 noels for organ. Marc-Antoine Charpentier wrote a few instrumental versions of noels, plus one major choral work "Messe de minuit pour Noël". Other examples include:

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Christmas Carols, 1912.
  • Victor Hely-Hutchinson: Carol Symphony, 1927.
  • Benjamin Britten: A Ceremony of Carols (for choir and harp), 1942
  • Christina Rossetti's poem In the Bleak Midwinter has been set to music by (amongst others) Gustav Holst (1905) and Harold Darke (1911).
  • Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki extensively quotes the Christmas carol Silent Night in his Second Symphony, nicknamed the Christmas Symphony.

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