Story of the Carols
Carols have been sung in Europe for thousands of years. They were earlier known as pagan songs and were sung at the Winter Solstice celebrations and other four seasons but today only the tradition of singing Christmas Carols, also called ‘Noels’ has survived. The word carol is derived from the Latin word ‘choraula’, which means a dance performed in a circle accompanied by songs of praise and joy. The earliest carol written in 1410 was about Mary and Jesus meeting various people in Bethlehem. Official carol singers called ‘waits’ went from house to house during the medieval times before carol singing in churches became popular. The term wait was used as they sang on Christmas Eve, also known as ‘watch night’ or ‘wait night’.
History of Ballet
The term ballet stems from the Italian word “ballare” which means “to dance”. The history of ballet dates back to the 15th-16th century Italian Renaissance courts. Catherine de Medici of Italy introduced the dance style into the court life of France when she got married to the French King Henry II. She organized grand festivals that encouraged Ballet de cour, a program that included dance, decor, costume, song, music, and poetry. King Louis XIV also performed the popular dance style and the term ballet was officially codified in French. The opening of a dance academy in Paris in 1661 led to the movement of ballet from the courts to the stage by 1681. French and Russian ballet developed their unique stylistic characters, inspired by Italian roots. Ballet continued to evolve with new looks and theatrical illusions with new trends of fashion during the 1850s in Russia when the country became a leading centre of the dance world.
Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols
Benjamin Britten was a leading British composer of mid-20th-century music. He was an outstanding pianist and conductor and his operas are considered among the finest English operas. He composed the Ceremony of Carols in around March - April 1942. It is inspired by a book of medieval poetry called The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems by Gerald Bullet that Britten found in Nova Scotia during his sea voyage on the Axel Johnson, a Swedish Cargo ship, in the thick of the Second World War. These eight carols are bookended by statements of the Gregorian chant “Hodie Christus Natus Est” and midway through the set is an astounding interlude for harp solo that features this same plainchant tune.
Nutcracker
The Russian composer, Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, a civil servant joined the Saint Petersburg Conservatory to study music at the young age of 21 during which he wrote Nutcracker, a unique music composition with ballet. He is well recognised for his compositions of The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. It opened in Saint Petersburg Russia in 1892. The German fairytale titled "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" is the inspiration for Nutcracker. The story is about a young girl Clara on an adventure and a life-size nutcracker that has come to life. They both travel to mystical lands while fighting the mouse king.