(Published by and possibly written by Luke Wadding)
This Christmas carol is known to have the text first published, although unclear if he actually wrote it or it was one written earlier, by the Irish poet and bishop Luke Wadding in his Small Garland of Pious and Godly Songs in 1684. It was then known by it’s first line “On Christmas Night all Christians Sing”, which it is sometimes still referred to as today or even just “On Christmas Night”.
It was published by Bramley and Stainer in Christmas Carols New and Old in 1878 with a different tune and a slight difference in the text and later it was collected by the folk song collector and composer Cecil Sharp in Buckland, Gloucestershire, England.
The composer Ralph Vaughan Williams first came across it when he heard it being sung in Horsham, Sussex by a lady called Harriet Verall in 1904. His arrangement and setting of the carol is what led to the carol becoming known as “Sussex Carol” and it was included as part of his Fantasia on Christmas Carols which was first performed in Hereford Cathedral at the Three Choirs Festival in 1912. It was later published in his Eight Traditional English Carols as well as his arrangement being included in the Oxford Book of Carols in 1928.
It is been regularly performed at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge, where it has been arranged by both Philip Ledger and David Willcocks.
The carol has appeared on several recordings that include Carols for Choirs by The Bach Choir, Carols from King’s by the Choir of King’s College Cambridge, Old English Christmas by Craig Duncan, Celtic Christmas by Eden’s Bridge, A Tapestry of Carols by Maddy Prior, In Celebration of Christmas by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, Gifts III (Christmas Music from Around the World) by Joemy Wilson along with many others and numerous compilations.
Joemy Wilson recordings
Furry Day Carol/On Christmas Night (Sussex Carol) (Traditional Cornish/possibly Luke Wadding/Ralph Vaughan Williams)
Dargason Music 10108 (CD: Gifts III (Christmas from Around the World))
Hammered Dulcimer – Joemy Wilson
Flute – Valerie King
Sources:
- https://mainlynorfolk.info/guvnor/songs/sussexcarol.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex_Carol
- https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/sussex/22604789.origins-sussex-carol/
- https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/on_christmas_night-1.htm
- https://www.allmusic.com/composition/sussex-carol-on-christmas-night-mc0002375527
- https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/sussex_carol.htm
- https://hymnary.org/tune/sussex_carol_55345
- https://www.allmusic.com/song/sussex-carol-mt0031796153#appearsOn
- https://www.discogs.com/search?q=Sussex+carols&type=all