Back
Colonial Christmas - Liner Notes


This recording brings together instrumental melodies from colonial America and the homelands of many colonists. Some of this music was newly composed in America at that time, and some is older folk tunes brought to America from Europe. Our recording is a reflection from today, a look back at a variety of music that might well have been played at a Christmas party in colonial America.
Colonial Christmas includes three distinct types of music: American choral pieces by William Billings and other early American composers, dance tunes from John Playford’s The English Dancing Master, and folk tunes of the period and earlier. Although the music of European composers such as Handel and Corelli was played in colonial America, we are focusing on music composed in America and folk songs from many countries.

During the colonial period the Puritans, whose leaders included the infamous Cotton Mather (1663–1728), banned Christmas in New England. They considered it popish and a secular celebration of pagan rituals.
However, the Southern colonies celebrated Christmas with dances, feasting, hunting, and Yule logs. They adorned their houses with holly and mistletoe, and their churches with laurel, holly, and lavender. The music featured at these balls and parties was the dance music of the period, probably imported from across the Atlantic—not the common carols we know today. Festivities often continued until Twelfth Night (January 6th).
On the 27th of December the Masons of Virginia would dress up in all their regalia to celebrate their patron saint, John the Apostle, with a procession from their lodge to the local church.
There is also some evidence of gift giving in the Southern colonies. An entry in the 1759 diary of Irena Chalmers concerns the gifts that George Washington gave to his children:

A bird on Bellows; a Cuckoo; a turnabout Parrot; a Grocers Shop; An Aviary; A Prussian Dragoon;
A Man Smoakg; A Tunbridge Tea Sett; 3 Neat Book fash Tea Chest; A box best Household Stuff;
A straw Parch box w. a Glass and a neat dress’d Wax Baby.


It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that Americans began to celebrate Christmas as we know it now. The three genres we have included in this recording provide a fairly broad sampling of the music of this time. We perform the pieces in a living room–friendly style, and our fondest hope is that you can easily imagine them played at a colonial Christmas gathering.


1. The Merry Wassail – Traditional / Playford
From Playford’s The English Dancing Master (London, 1651–1728). Playford’s book contains music and dance instruction. It was reprinted many times in London, with some selections removed and new ones added. In tunes that remained through many printings, a few notes here and there sometimes changed. Many colonists had known Playford at home in England and brought the dances and tunes to America when they came. American-born colonists learned the songs from the immigrants.

Shelley Phillips: oboe & English horn; Deby Benton Grosjean: fiddle; Jesse Autumn: double harp; Barry Phillips: cello & cittern.


2. Drive the Cold Winter Away – Traditional / Playford
Also known as “In Praise of Christmas” and “All Hail the Days.”

For better than lands is the help of his hands,
To drive the cold winter away.

Lars Johannesson: flute; Deby Benton Grosjean: fiddle; Jesse Autumn: double harp; Neal Hellman: mountain dulcimer; Barry Phillips: cello.



3. The Sussex Carol – Traditional English
This melody was collected in 1919 by Ralph Vaughan Williams from the singing of Mrs. Harriet Verrall of Monk’s Gate in Sussex—hence the title. The poem was first published in 1684 in Ghent by Irish bishop Luke Wadding, in a collection called Small Garland of Pious Goldy Songs. We have not been able to trace the melody further back than Vaughan Williams noting it in 1919. We do feel that this melody could be quite a bit older, and we decided to include it in this collection.

Robin Petrie: hammered dulcimer; Shelley Phillips: oboe; Barry Phillips: cittern & bowed psaltery.



4. Milford – Joseph Stephenson (c. 1728–1810)
Stephenson, an American composer, created this four-part choral composition, which was later included in The Sacred Harp of 1844.

Lars Johannesson: flute; Shelley Phillips: oboe & English horn; Christa Stiner: bassoon; Barry Phillips: mandolin & cittern.



5. Christ Child Lullaby – Traditional Hebrides
This is said to be a very old Scottish tune from the Hebrides; lyrics were added later, when it became known as “Christ Child Lullaby.” Barry has used both the older “pipe” version and the more modern scale-wise version of the melody. Scottish fiddler Sarah-Jane Summers leads the tune.

My love and tender one are you
My sweet and lovely son are you
You are my love and darling you
Unworthy, I of you

Sarah-Jane Summers: fiddle; Jesse Autumn: double harp; Neal Hellman: mountain dulcimer; Barry Phillips: cello.



6. Christmas (Munson)
Amos Munson, from Read’s The Columbian Harmonist No. 2 (1785).
Munson also wrote the melody for “Newburgh,” which appears in The Sacred Harp.

Lars Johannesson: flute; Shelley Phillips: oboe & English horn; Christa Stiner: bassoon; Barry Phillips: mandolin & cittern.



7. New Year’s Eve – Traditional / Playford
The title of this melody was our inspiration to include it on this recording.

Deby Benton Grosjean: fiddle; Barry Phillips: cello; Linda Burman-Hall: harpsichord.


8. Höken – Traditional Swedish
Barry learned this enchanting tune from the playing of nyckelharpist Olov Johansson. He found it on the CD Apelgrå by Sågskära.
In the seventeenth century Sweden was one of the most powerful nations in Europe. Various business interests in Sweden sought to extend their influence into the New World via the New Sweden Company (a conglomerate of Swedish, German, and Dutch stockholders). In 1638 they sent two ships under the command of Dutchman Peter Minuit to Delaware Bay, where he built Fort Christina on the site of what is now Wilmington, Delaware. Within twenty years there were over 600 Swedes and Finns along both sides of the Delaware, spreading into what is currently New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Though the region was “annexed” by the Dutch in 1655, it remained a somewhat autonomous “Swedish Nation” until 1681, when Englishman and Quaker leader William Penn was given a charter (by the English king) for the three lower counties and the land that was soon to be named Pennsylvania.
Web source: The Swedish Colonial Society

Olov Johansson: nyckelharpa; Barry Phillips: cello & zither.



9. Cold and Raww – Traditional / Playford

Cold and raw the North did blow, bleak in a morning early;
All the trees were hid with snow, cover’d with winter fearly

Lars Johannesson: flute; Deby Benton Grosjean: fiddle; Barry Phillips: cello & cittern; Linda Burman-Hall: harpsichord.



10. Nos Galan (Deck the Hall) – Traditional Welsh
There were many large Welsh communities in the colonies. Barry based this version of the tune on the one in Edward Jones’s Musical Relicks, editions 1 and 2, as well as wonderful Irish fiddler Mark Crickard’s playing of the tune. Welsh fiddler Robert Evans leads this tune.

Robert Evans: fiddle; Deby Benton Grosjean: fiddle; Jesse Autumn: double harp; Barry Phillips: cello.


11. Sherburne – Daniel Read (1757–1836).
Read (a contemporary of Billings) published the first music magazine in America, titled The American Music Magazine. His books include The Columbian Harmonist and The New Haven Collection of Sacred Music. His music remains very popular among Sacred Harp singers, and a number of his songs are still sung in American churches.

Lars Johannesson: flute; Shelley Phillips: oboe & English horn; Deby Benton Grosjean: fiddles; Barry Phillips: cello.



12. Ding Dong Merrily on High – Traditional French (sixteenth-century melody)
This joyous melody first appeared as a composition titled “Bransle l’Officiale” in Orchésographie, which was a dance book written by
Jehan Tabourot (1519–1593).

Robin Petrie: hammered dulcimer; Shelley Phillips: English horn; Jesse Autumn: double harp; Barry Phillips: cello.



13. The Wexford Carol – Traditional Irish (twelfth-century melody)
A beautiful and very old Irish carol named for the county from which it comes.

Shelley Phillips: pennywhistle; Deby Benton Grosjean: fiddle; Jesse Autumn: double harp; Barry Phillips: cello.



14. Christmas (Urania) – Lyon’s Urania (Philadelphia, 1761)
This four-part choral composition is from James Lyon’s (1735–1794) collection called Urania, or “A choice collection of psalm-tunes and anthems.”

Lars Johannesson: flute; Shelley Phillips: oboe; Deby Benton Grosjean: fiddle; Barry Phillips: cello; Linda Burman-Hall: harpsichord.



15. Judea (A Virgin Unspotted) – William Billings, The Singing Master’s Assistant (Boston, 1778).
A four-part choral tune by the incomparable William Billings of Boston (1746–1800).
Billings was originally a tanner who took up music when he was young. His New England Psalm-Singer (1770) was engraved by Paul Revere and became one of the earliest collections of music entirely arranged and published by an American. The first American publication both written and printed in the colonies was The Bay Psalm, initially published in 1640 and reprinted many times. Written music first appeared in The Bay Psalm in 1698 and included selections from Playford’s A Brief Introduction to the Skill of Music (London, 1654).

Lars Johannesson: flute; Shelley Phillips: oboe & English horn; Deby Benton Grosjean: fiddle; Barry Phillips: cello.



16. Shiloh – William Billings, The Suffolk Harmony (Boston, 1786).
Another four-part choral tune. Billings wrote over 300 musical compositions. He is best known for the pieces “David’s Lamentation,” “Lebanon,” and “Chester” (which almost became our national anthem). In addition to The New England Psalm Singer, he also wrote The Singing Master’s Assistant (1778). Billings is thought by many to be the father of American choral music.

Shelley Phillips: oboe & English horn; Christa Stiner: bassoon; Deby Benton Grosjean: fiddles; Barry Phillips: cello.



17. Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming – Traditional German (fifteenth-century melody)
Harmonized by Michael Praetorius (1609).

Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung.
Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.

Shelley Phillips: recorder consort & harp; Barry Phillips: cello

Return to Colonial Christmas