From the traditional koledy, passed on for centuries, to some modern authors’ songs that became classics: the finest tunes for the end of year
Joyful or melancholic, rhythmic or emotional, performed by artists or choirs, Christmas songs contribute to creating the magic of the festivities through their unmistakable melody.
The country takes pride in a rich and ancient musical production. Passed on from father to son, everyone knows and sings them – the ones that are baking cookies and the ones decorating the Christmas tree. During Advent season the radio stations broadcast them morning to evening, resonating in cathedral hosted concerts and in country churches and theaters, shopping malls, merchant stands, skating rings and elevators. Koledy is their Czech name. They often have a religious content, rhymed lyrics alternating with a verse, a refrain sung by the choir and a structure taken from the medieval choir models. All this is a proof of their deep history.
The pre-Christian songs celebrating the god Saturn during the winter solstice feast that preceded New Years are at the very origin of these songs. The same word “koleda” was assimilated from the Slavic word Calendae, that during the roman era was referring to the first day of every month. The corresponding Czech word Kalendy became kolenda and then koleda, referring to Christmas carols.
The authors of more ancient koledy are not well known. Apparently, Saint Francis of Assisi invented the first carol. In the Middle Ages, the wandering singers were spreading them all over Europe. All members were singing, from school directors to stablemen and brew masters and the Christmas carols could be heard in markets or cloisters, taverns or noble palaces sometimes in broken versions mixing Latin and local languages. In an era considered as dark as the Middle Ages were, songs that are loved to this day like Půjdem spolu do Betléma or Nesem vám noviny were born.
The first historically documented koledy in Bohemia date back to the beginning of the fourteenth century. In 1414, Friar Jan z Holešova wrote the manuscript Štědrý večer (Largum sero), where he recorded the Christmas customs and traditions of the predecessors. Then, Narodil se Kristus Pán appeared based on the Latin religious song Ave hierarchie coelestis. The main themes were the birth of Baby Jesus, the awakening of the shepherds, the journey of the Kings to Bethlehem. During the reign of Charles IV, the songs were in Latin and had a good language level, due to the introduction of ars musica among the mandatory subjects of the Praguian high schools and in the boy choirs desired by the Emperor.
Nevertheless, another custom arose, going from home to home and offering a song in return for a meal and something to drink. This is a tradition called “koledovat”, derived from the noun “koleda”; it is nowadays kept only in some rural areas. In the fourteenth century, lavishly dressed figures appeared on St Nicholas’s Day, when they were carrying with them the bishop’s figure and were singing for two Groschen, the currency of those times. Other occasions when this custom was kept were Christmas Eve, Saint Stephen’s Day, New Year’s Eve or Epiphany Day. Everybody attended these customs in pre-Hussite Prague, including priests. It was a custom for adults. Children joined these customs only later, especially those from the poorest families.
In Hussite times, the use of local language was maintained and the Christmas songs were among the first texts written in Czech. Stala se jest věc divná, Narodil se Emanuel, Ježíš náš spasitel and many other songs arose. Gradually the word koleda began to refer not only to liturgical songs but also to those with social themes, preferred over the Latin choir songs in the popular environment. The latter gathered the winter spirit and its long nights, the lives of ordinary people, wishes of health, fortune and abundance.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Bohemian Brothers Union tried to spread them by printing the hymnals and suggesting new ones, among which Narodil se Kristus Pán, one of the most adored songs to the day. Another highly appreciated song is Chtíc aby spal, written by the composer and organist Václav Michna z Otradovic. He was a typical representative of the Czech Baroque music and the author of many Christmas songs on four-voice choirs and the Missa super Již Slunce z hvězdy vyšlo, from 1654.
The Christmas masses arose in the late baroque period, together with the pastoral collections, compositions for a solo singer with choir and musical accompaniment of strings and woodwinds, influenced by the style of the koledy singershymnal. The authors were singers, choirmasters and organists. The main representative of this genre is Jakub Ryba, who created in 1796 the famous Česká mše vánoční – Hej mistře (Bohemian pastoral mass).
Half a century later, the English Christmas introduced the song Good King Wenceslas, chanted to the day on Saint Stephen Day. It is said that on this day Saint Wenceslas, bohemian prince, saint and lord of the Czech lands had visited the homestead of the needy. The legend was put into verse in 1853 by the religious John Mason Neale who translated a poem by Václav Alois Svoboda and widespread, from the workers’ suburbs of Manchester to the noble neighborhoods of London.
In Czechia, the koledy are now revived during the month of advent. Which are the favorite ones? In 20016, the website Novinky.cz proposed the largest survey on this subject. Among the most beloved Czech koledy, we find many old ones such as Jak jsi krásné, neviňátko, Dej Bůh štěstí, Pásli ovce Valaši, Veselé vánoční hody, in addition to those we have already mentioned. Head of the list though we can find the great commercial successes. 22% of over seventeen thousand voters consider that Wham’s British song Last Christmas is the most beautiful song. Next place is taken by John Lennon’s Happy Xmas and Stille Nacht occupies the third one.
In addition to the real koledy, many contemporary Czech authors, starting with Lucie Bílá or Karel Gott, have reinterpreted the most famous melodies such as the timeless Jingle Bells, Rolničky in Czech, or offered us new Christmas singles. Gott is associated to Christmas through his song Kdepak ty ptáčku hnízdo máš, part of the fairy tale sound track Three hazelnuts for Cinderella, broadcasted on television every December. “When I hear this song I know it is Christmas”, says Milan Cais, singer and drum player of Tata Bojs. From the same movie comes as well Iveta Bartošová’s Tři oříšky.
The authors of Purpura, Jiří Šlitr ande Jiří Suchý, members of the Semafor theatre brought their contribution to the Christmas music fund. The song is a moving piece with which Suchý proposes a warm memory of Christmas times experienced in his childhood, feelings that many can identify with. “A masterfully described feeling,” comments the lead singer Michal Horáček. Pavlina Filipovská, who interpreted it in duet with Suchý himself, remembers that Václav Havel, newly elected president back then, specifically asked for it to be played on the radio.
We have also various songs which are not necessarily Christmas carols but which established themselves as such because they talk about winter landscapes. It is the case of Václav Neckář’s Půlnoční, a song written for the movie Alois Nebel, which has been very successful. In February 2016, Jaromír Nohavica wrote Ladovská zima to capture the atmosphere of a particularly cold winter, with meters high of snow bending the trees. Helena Vondráčková describes as well the mantle of snow and bell ringing that seem to come from one of Lada’s drawings in Doufej že přijde k nám, a piece with afrom her rich Christmas repertoire. Hana Zagorová sings a duet with Peter Rezek in Vánoční tajemství while in Jen jedenkrát v roce remembers that “Only once a year the world has love and peace in its eyes” and “whomever is lonely finds a place at our table.” A place that is nevertheless empty in Karel Kryl’s Vánoční. Not all modern songs are cheerful and optimistic, some of them are focusing on sad memories, nostalgia and disillusion. It is Kryl’s case that “remembers someone who can no longer sit with us at the Christmas table” explains the musical publicist Vladimír Vlasák. “It moves me every time for its simple effect and with the words one chair stays, one chair stays”. Bearing the same title Vánoční and centered on the same feelings is the choice of the rock band Argema who with a melancholic melody describes the first Christmas of a man who has lost his companion.
Whether they describe the nativity scene or the feelings and the magic of winter, koledy are part of the Czech cultural heritage and in a fast-spinning world, each song offers a reflection point and invites us to stop for a moment to live together the joy of Christmas.
by Sabrina Salomoni