In the Middle Ages all the singing inside the church was clone by the priests. However, outside the church the people gave vent to their emotions and sang their semi-sacred songs in the vernacular, based mainly Bible stories and characters. From this practice there grew up the carol or ring dance which was less formal than a solemn religious chant and performed in a freer, relaxed atmosphere. The words were made up spontaneously by the leader and fitted, as far as possible, to the rhythm of the music. This accounts for the irregular meter of this hymn and also for the slight inaccuracies; e.g., it describes the shepherds as seeing a star shining in the east. What they saw was the angel of the Lord (Matt. 2:8, 9). The Wise Men were in the east when they saw the star, and obviously saw the star in the west. The star was not visible continuously “both day and night,” for the Wise Men “rejoiced with exceeding great joy” (verse 10) when they saw it again standing over the house where Mary and Joseph and the Babe then were. The words are found in Davis Giddy’s (later Gilbert) Some Ancient Christmas Carols, 1823, but the words with the tune are taken from William Sandys’ collection of Christmas Carols, 1833. But both words and music are of much older origin, at least from the seventeenth century. There were nine stanzas.

THE FIRST NOEL first appeared in Sandys’ collection; the name may be from the French nouvelles or news, that is, “good tidings.” Another origin suggested is that the sound is the echo of the last two syllables of Emmanuel, the prophetic name for the child Jesus (Matt. 1:23). Yet another traces it from nada/ or natalis, i.e. , birthday. The melody is very easy to learn and to sing, for it is almost a complete succession of notes separated by a single interval; in other words, a series of scale passages, ascending or descending, or portions thereof. The four exceptions are a drop of a fourth, which occurs three times, and a rise of the same interval once. William Sandys was born in London on October 29, 1792, and died in London on February 18, 1874. He was called to the bar in 18 14 and engaged in a law practice, but is chiefly remembered for his interest in carols and his revival of carol singing.