Carols/hymns for this time of year....
  • Everyone knows that December 25 is the beginning of the Christmas season, but how many of us (musicians) plan our carols for December 24th and then move on, as opposed to letting the following occur:

    On December 26, sing Good King Wenceslaus
    On December 28, sing the Coventry Carol
    On January 2, sing Jesu Dulcis Memoria (or something similar)
    saving We Three Kings, the First Noel and the last verses of Puer Natus in Bethlehem for January 6th?


    That thought got me to thinking this one:

    Is there a well-known or deserving-to-be-well-known carol for St. John the Evangelist (today, Dec 27), or St. Thomas Canterbury on Thursday?

  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    @CGZ
    We try to sing Advent Carols in Advent, and Christmas Carols in the Octave, we also have some new year Carols, of course true carols are secular music and should not be sung in church.

    This year we had a joint choir carol concert for the first time, we sang Angelus ad virginem and Veni veni Emmanuel for the part in Church, we then went down to the club and sang proper carols in the church hall, with copious amounts of mulled wine etc.

    We will sing the Coventry carol after Mass tomorrow. N.B. Jesu Dulcis is an office hymn not a carol! Although we will sing it at Mass on the 2nd January.

    The Oxford book of carols has no. 174 that mentions the saints after Christmas

    Here is a Hymn for St. Thomas, https://societyofstbede.wordpress.com/2014/12/29/st-thomas-of-canterbury/