Read Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas for Free Online Page B

of earthly freedom, probably unable to even read the Bible, this unknown slave imagined the emotions of shepherds as a powerful light from heaven shone down on them. Frightened by a power they couldn’t begin to understand, they were greeted by angelic voices trumpeting the birth of a Savior. Leaving their flock, not fully understanding why they were going, these confused men went to see a baby in the most humble of surroundings. And in that place, these shepherds found understanding, knowledge, and love. As crowds listened to the choir from Fisk perform the song, many were brought to tears, others to their knees.
    In 1909, “Go Tell It on the Mountain” was published in Thomas P. Fenner’s book Religious Folk Songs of the Negro as Sung on the Plantations. Still, without the continued contribution of a third generation of the Work family, this song, and scores of other spirituals, would probably have faded away forever.
    Like his father and grandfather, John Work III, a graduate of Julliard, was a devoted student of history and music. Embracing his family’s passion, this third-generation member of the Work family continued to uncover and save unknown spirituals, many times traveling hundreds of miles to seek out elderly slaves who had sung them in the fields. John Work III devoted years of his life documenting this important facet of American culture.
    In the midst of the Great Depression, Work took another look at what his uncle and father had done with “Go Tell It on theMountain.” Using their notes and arrangements as well as the materials he had dug up through interviews and research, he took the old song and reworked it one more time, adding a new arrangement and at least one new stanza. It is unknown if Work composed these new lyrics or simply found them during his research, but they fit perfectly with the words the Fisk Jubilee Singers had sung fifty years before, John Work III’s arrangement—the one we know today—was published in American Negro Songs and Spirituals in 1940.
    Over the past fifty years, the popularity of “Go Tell It on the Mountain” has continued to grow. The song’s melody is infectious, but it is the spirit of the words that seem to provide the song’s real power. As an unknown slave revealed his own prayers and faith, he had little knowledge that the inspiration he felt—probably the only thing of value he ever possessed—would eventually touch millions around the world. Truly, this humble man did not tell the news only on the mountain, but “over the hills and everywhere.”

8
G OD R EST Y E M ERRY G ENTLEMEN
    O ddly enough, understanding the original meaning behind this song—one of the most misunderstood carols of Christmas—also helps explain one of the most misused words describing Christmas itself. What Americans hear when they listen to “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is not anything like what the English peasants meant when they first sang this song more than five hundred years ago. Because of how wonderfully it tells the Christmas story, the song earned a prominent spot in Dickens’s classic novel A Christmas Carol. If people today fully understood its unique lyrics, most would probably designate “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” as one of the most profound and meaningful hymns in the world.
    Like so many early Christmas songs, this carol was written as a direct reaction to the music of the fifteenth-century church. During this period, songs used by organized religion for worship were usually written in Latin and had dark, somber melodies, offering singers and listeners little inspiration or joy.In fact, though few admitted it in public, most church members secretly disliked the accepted religious songs of the day. Yet the laymen of the time had no power over the way they worshiped and had to accept things as they were.
    So, while they continued to go to worship, commoners created their own church music outside the walls of the cathedrals and chapels. In this way,