In fact, until the Middle Ages life in general didn't have too much of an audio feature. Up until then, there wasn't really music. There were just songs.

Early on, when daily existance pretty much revolved around the Church, the Church wasn't very keen on music. Just chanting and antiphons and the like. St. Jerome wrote in the third or fourth century that a Christian maiden "ought not even to know what a lyre or flute is like, or to what use it is put."

In 350 AD Pope Julius I set December 25 as the official date marking the birth of Jesus. They commmemorated it with a mass, but even a solumn high mass ("tridentine," with a celebrant, deacon and sub-deacon) featured only primative tunefullness.

But music caught up. Maybe Christmas finally gave them something to sing about. It's believed Church organ music was introduced in the 7^th century during the papacy of Pope Vitalian, whose other notable accomplishment was restoring the Vatican's connection with Constantinople and the Eastern Church. That was good too.

Gregorian chant kicked in at the turn of the 8^th century. It was codified by Pope Gregory and is still considered the music most suitable for worship by the Catholic church. This of course was all before the victrola, the radio or the electric guitar.

Most well-known carols were not even sung in church until the second half of the 19^th century. Most were based on medieval chord patterns, which gives them their uniquely characteristic musical sound. Some would call it mournful, which is kind of ironic. (Many modern Christmas songs really do embrace sorrow ("Have Yourself a Merrry Little Christmas," "Please Come Home for Christmas," Blue Christmas"), but the early writers were probably just going for solumn.

Carols like "Good King Wenceslas" and "The Holly and the Ivy" can trace their roots back to the Middle Ages and are among the oldest musical compositions that still get regularly sung. Interestingly, the word "carol" may have made reference to dancing. Note the 3/4 waltz time common to many Christmas carols.

Isaac Watts, called "the Father of English Hymnody" composed "Joy to the World" in 1719. It is widely believed that he did not intend it to be sung only at Christmas.

Charles Wesley, brother of Methodist founder John, and prolific hymn writer, penned the texts for at least three Christmas carols, of which the best known was originally entitled "Hark! How All the Welkin Rings." It was later edited by Wesley's co-worker, George Whitefield, to "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing." Everybody needs a good rewrite man. A tune from a cantata written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1840 was adapted by William H. Cummings to fit Wesley's words. This combination first appeared in "Hymns Ancient and Modern" in 1861.

The 19^th century could rightly be called the golden age of Christmas music. For one thing, a number of the carols most popular today date back to that time. For another, curious as it might seem today, there was a general lack of enthusiasm at the dawn of the century for observing the Christmas holiday in general and for Christmas music in the bargain.

In 1822 Davies Gilbert published a compilation of old Christmas songs, motivated in no small part by an interest in preserving what he saw as a dying tradition.

Gilbert said in his introduction,

No worries. Even as Gilbert wrote, America was embracing successive waves of emotionalizing and personalizing Evangelical fervor. Charles Dickens and Washington Irving get some secular credit, too, but Christmas gradually made its way back into the public's hearts and minds.

Christmas music staged a comeback too, both within and outside the church walls. Caroling came back into fashion both recreationally and as a charitable fund-raising activity.

"Adeste Fideles" ("O Come All Ye Faithful") appears in its current form in the mid-18^th century, although the words may have originated in the 13^th century. There are several theories about who gets credit for the melody.

"Silent Night" comes from Austria. The story is well known that is was first performed in the Nikolaus-Kirche (Church of St. Nicholas) in Oberndorf, Austria on December 24, 1818.

The melody was the work of Franz Xaver Gruber in 1818, put to lyrics Joseph Mohr had written in 1816. On Christmas Eve Mohr brought them to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the church service that evening. The first English translation was done in 1871 when it was published in a Methodist hymnal.

"Away in a Manger" has been traditionally credited to Martin Luther who, the story went, composed it for his children. The first two verses were published May 1884 to commemorate the 400^th anniversary of Luther's birth.

However, no record of the hymn is to be found anywhere among Luther's papers. It has been suggested that the words were written specifically for Luther's 400^th anniversary and then credited to the ol' reformer as a marketing gimmick.

Wow. That hymn was the only thing the Catholic church had ever forgiven him for. Luther also gets credit in some quarters for inventing the Christmas Tree. Behind every successful man there lurks a really good publicist.

The tradition of singing carols in church is said to have originated on Christmas Eve 1880 in Truro Cathedral, Cornwall. They left out the wassailing carols. And, of course, no dancing.

Eventually capitalism evolved to where the immortality of Christmas carols was assured. At some point, everything becomes a business, and then survival is guaranteed for anything that can continue to show a profit. First they began publishing sheet music, then they started giving concerts and selling recordings. And a lot of people started getting rich off Christmas music.

Starting around the turn of this century you may have noticed that Christmas songs rule the radio airwaves from Halloween to the stroke of midnight on Christmas night. Minimal royalties to pay, your nitwit cousin Iggy could run the program, and the same inventory gets used over and over again year after year.

"Ringle, ringle, coins when they mingle." (Mr. Magoo Christmas Carol.) The music is safe.