Your favorite Christmas Albums or Songs

[Damelon]

Bah Humbug!

60%

[Cameraman Jenn]

Oh Gosh Dangit! It's that time of the year again when I have to freaking rant.

THE NUTCRACKER is not about CHRISTMAS! THE ONLY THING THAT IN ANY WAY RELATES TO CHRISTMAS IS THAT IT TAKES PLACE DURING CHRISTMAS, THE PIECE IS ABOUT A TEENAGE GIRL'S SEXUAL AWAKENING. IT'S NOT ABOUT CHRISTMAS.

Here's the gist:

It's Christmas, the girl's parents are having a party. They get presents. She gets a nutcracker carved in the form of a soldier. She watches the older girls dancing and being courted and then is sent to bed. She dreams of monster mice trying to kidnap her and then she is heroically rescued by a handsome soldier and then they fly around the world and he shows her dances of the world while riding with her on her BED. Then they dance together. End of diatribe.

[DukkhaWaynhim]

This seems as good a place as any.

So you think you know Chr-stmas Carols?

I missed 3 out of 25. Not bad for a Jew.

You got 80% correct. Not bad. You stand to be the life of any winter holiday party you attend, should caroling break out.

...like Bubonic plague.

Just kidding.

Merry Christmas... and Festivus for the Rest of Us!

[danlo]

I've been trying like crazy to find Joe Pesci's classic Christmas routine where he plays Santa and treats kids like trash, "How do I do it?, ya little ----, it's maiaagic, I tell ya maiaagic...". It's hilarious and my local rock station plays it every year but, aside from calling them, I can't find it on the web, or anywhere.

[CovenantJr]

I got 56%. Not bad considering I hadn't even heard of the vast majority of the songs.

[Cameraman Jenn]

You got 48% correct. Bah! You're not even trying, Ebenezer.


HAHAHAHA!

[wayfriend]

"The First Nowell" ?!?!?!

84%. Ho ho ho.

[Cagliostro]

If only the Nutcracker she was given looked like this:



I suspect a lot more men would want to go see this "sexual awakening."

[Menolly]

"The First Nowell" ?!?!?!

I've been waiting for this comment...

The first Nowell complaint led to merry laughter -- chicagotribune.com

[DukkhaWaynhim]

Cool fun. Like snopes, but for Christmas. <-- What happened to the Santa smilies?

DRG

[I'm Murrin]

You have to register to view that link, Menolly.

[wayfriend]

Basically, it says, "We know everyone wants to call it The First Noel, but they are all wrong, and we will force this on you for your own good."

Try hér.

[Menolly]

You have to register to view that link, Menolly.

Well bummer. I don't remember ever registering and it still works for me.

Hmm...

The first Nowell complaint led to merry laughter
Eric Zorn
December 14, 2006

Some days my work brings such joy to the world!

Earlier this week, for instance. As an online extra, I posted to chicagotribune.com a 25-question trivia quiz having mostly to do with fine points in the lyrics to famous winter holiday songs.

Question 21 read: In "The First Nowell," whom does the angel address? A) Poor shepherds. B) Wise men. C) King Herod. D) Skeptical fellow angels.

Ninety-one percent of more than 2,500 readers who've taken the quiz so far know the answer is poor shepherds. But about a dozen also have written, called or posted messages online to say that I'd blown the spelling of the title of the song. Ha!

"It's `The First N-O-E-L.' Duh!" was the most concise and gleeful of the corrections.

A year ago, "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno was similarly singing in exultation when he held to the camera a sheet of music labeled "The First Nowell" during his Monday-night roundup of oddities in print.

"I don't know if this is just a misspelling or if they're trying to be politically correct," he quipped. His audience roared.

Other days, though, my work brings tidings of discomfort.

Today, for instance, a number of illusion-busting truths about famous carols. The first addresses my critics:

"Nowell" is correct: Retired Northern Illinois University history professor William Studwell, 70, confirms this, and he's been studying and writing about Christmas music for more than 30 years.

A passage on Nowell-Noel confusion appears in the chapter on common misconceptions in his new book, "An Easy Guide to Christmas Carols" (Lyre of Orpheus Press).

"The song comes from Cornwall [a region in England]," said Studwell Wednesday. "`Nowell' is the British spelling, and all the early published versions in the 1800s spell it `Nowell.'"

Why did so many 20th Century typographers switch to the Frenchified "Noel"?

Probably because "Nowell," a word that dates back at least to Chaucer's time, looks antiquated, Studwell said. "`Noel' is more familiar, more modern, more trendy. It looks better. But there's nothing at all French about the words or the tune."

There are no merry gentlemen. "The title is `God Rest Ye Merry'--comma--`Gentlemen,'" Studwell said. "It's a jolly tune and talks about comfort and joy. So people think the title means `God keep you well, you happy fellows.' In fact it means, `God keep you happy, fellows.'

The title is "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear," not "a Midnight Clear." "That was a pretty special midnight, after all," Studwell said. "Not just a midnight."

Conversely, "Away in a Manger" is correct, not "Away in the Manger." "A manger was used to emphasize that it was just a humble manger," Studwell said. And Martin Luther didn't write the song.

"Messiah" composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) did not write the tune to "Joy to the World." In 1839, American composer Lowell Mason (1792-1872) set to music a 100-year old poem by English writer and minister Isaac Watts (1674-1748).

He called the tune "Antioch" and added a note that it was "from Handel," through Studwell said it wasn't clear if Mason meant he'd been inspired by Handel, sampled a few notes here and there or simply wanted to add a little gloss to the new carol with some creative name-dropping. In any case, "from Handel" became "by Handel" before you knew it.

"Maybe he really did think he stole the melody, but no serious researcher thinks anyone but Mason deserves the credit," Studwell said.

"The 12 Days of Christmas" really is just a silly folk carol. "There's a bogus tale that keeps going around the Web claiming the lyrics are a code written by persecuted 17th Century English Catholics to help them remember articles of their faith," Studwell said. "There's nothing to it."

Yet the beauty of these musical myths and the truths behind them is that there really is so much to them. So much history, so much folklore and, yes, occasionally, so much vindication.

- - -

Take the quiz, merry, at chicagotribune.com/carolquiz . Leave comments on this topic at chicagotribune.com/zorn.

Basically, it says, "We know everyone wants to call it The First Noel, but they are all wrong, and we will force this on you for your own good."

[The Dreaming]

The fact that the Nutcracker is only marginally about Chirstmas doesn't make the music any less gorgeous.

[matrixman]

That gorgeous music is the only reason why I bother with the Nutcracker at all. In fact, I rarely watch the ballet anymore; just listening to the score is enough for me.

I don't have a strong opinion about the story either way. Pagan, Christian, Martian...whatever, I just enjoy the music.

Oh, and Menolly's inflicting these Xmas quizzes everywhere. I got 48% on the Christmas carols.

[Menolly]

Oh, and Menolly's inflicting these Xmas quizzes everywhere.

Not bad for a Jew, eh? 'tis the season...

[CovenantJr]

Basically, it says, "We know everyone wants to call it The First Noel, but they are all wrong, and we will force this on you for your own good."

Try hér.

Heh. Noel is more elegant than Nowell, so they can bugger off. As for the article Menolly linked claiming Nowell is "the British spelling" - no, it isn't. It's Noel here too. The article does clarify that it's likely a Chaucer-era spelling, but neglects to mention that if we wrote everything in Chauceran English, no-one would understand a word of it. The claim that Nowell was once the correct spelling doesn't alter the fact that it isn't anymore.

Incidentally, I couldn't help chuckling at Cornwall being described as 'remote'. Ok, it's a peninsula, but it's hardly remote. It's only a couple of hundred miles from London.

[Menolly]

Incidentally, I couldn't help chuckling at Cornwall being described as 'remote'. Ok, it's a peninsula, but it's hardly remote. It's only a couple of hundred miles from London.

However, all historical evidence indicates that the song emerged from the remote Cornwall region of southwest England in the mid 16th century.

Uhm...would it have been considered remote in the 1500's?

...wishing I had my own copies of Lawhead's Pendragon cycle now...

So is Cornwall the region described in one of the later books? I can't recall specifics, but I think it had to do with the search for the Grail? And finding lost people from Charis' (sp? it's been a long time since I've read them) home?

I really should have read those books with a current atlas of the region next to me.

[Cameraman Jenn]

Matrixman, don't get me wrong. I love "The Nutcracker Suite" with all my heart. It's gorgeous music, a lovely ballet an amazing peice of work. I just get all crazy because people think it's about Christmas and it really isn't.

[CovenantJr]

Uhm...would it have been considered remote in the 1500's?

Quite possibly, but the way it was phrased made it sound isolated now.

...wishing I had my own copies of Lawhead's Pendragon cycle now...

So is Cornwall the region described in one of the later books? I can't recall specifics, but I think it had to do with the search for the Grail? And finding lost people from Charis' (sp? it's been a long time since I've read them) home?

Cornwall is Llyonesse in the Pendragon Cycle - the region where Belyn and family settle down, and where Morgian eventually battles Myrddin and blinds him. In the books, it's portrayed as slightly eerie and pervaded by an unnatural atmosphere. When I've been there, what it's mainly been pervaded by is cider and surfers.