God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
"God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" is a surprising favorite among children, both in their hymnals and amongst our choir in 2023. It is not written for children and contains antiquated language ("ye") and concepts ("resting merry" and "gentlemen"). But the tune is certainly engaging, possibly because it was originally a folksong and a part of folk dance culture. Early- to mid-century Victorians started combing folksong-culture for music and it was William Sandys who collected many for his Christmas Carols New and Old (1833), as did Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams as part of the late-century English Folksong Revival, which led to the “discovery” of “God rest ye merry,” “A virgin most pure,” and “The first nowell,” among others.
This hymn was one of the choir's favorites. Again, very surprising given that it was not one of the children's carols I had selected for the group and has very "old-fashioned" language.