free online christmas music

Christmas music comprises a variety of music normally performed or heard around the Christmas season, which tends to begin in the months leading up the actual holiday and end in the weeks. Music was an early feature of the Christmas season and its celebrations.

The earliest chants, litanies, were Latin works intended for use during the church liturgy, rather than popular songs. The 13th century saw the rise of the carol written in the vernacular under the influence of Francis of Assisi.

The word carol comes from the Greek word choraulein, meaning a circle dance performed to flute music. In the Middle Ages, the English combined circle dances with singing and called them carols. Later, the word carol came to mean a song in which a religious topic is treated in a style that is familiar or festive.

From Italy, it passed to France and Germany, and later to England. Music in itself soon became one of the greatest tributes to Christmas, and Christmas music includes some of the noblest compositions of the great musicians.

A Christmas playing pipe and tabor. During the British Commonwealth government under Cromwell, the British Parliament prohibited the practice of singing Christmas carols as pagan and sinful. Like other customs associated with popular catholic Christianity, it earned the disapproval of Protestant Puritans.

Cromwells interregnum prohibited all celebrations of the Christmas holiday. This attempt to ban the public celebration of Christmas can also be seen in the early history of Father Christmas. The Westminster Assembly of Divines established Sunday as the only holy day in the calendar in 1644.

The new liturgy produced for the English church recognised this in 1645 and so legally abolished Christmas. Its celebration was declared an offence by Parliament in 1647. There is some debate as to the effectiveness of this ban and whether or not it was enforced in the country. Puritans generally disapproved of the celebration of Christmas.

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