Hark! host Maggi Van Dorn visits a farm near the Welsh border and takes up fiddle lessons again in this episode on “The First Nowell” (original Cornish spelling) to find out why.
Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols
For Christians, Christmas carols mark a season of hope and the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Even in popular culture, these iconic jingles capture a warmth, a cheer and a nostalgia that transcends religious belonging.
But where do these beloved yuletide songs come from? What inspired the people who composed them? How did they become popular and even mainstream? And what impact do their ancient Christian messages have on an increasingly post-Christian culture?
America Media presents “Hark!” a podcast on the meaning and the making of our most beloved Christmas carols and their time-honored traditions.
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‘Angels We Have Heard on High’: What do angels sound like?
“Angels We Have Heard on High” draws us into that holy night. Encounters with the divine rarely stay within the bounds of one language, and this carol embodies that truth.
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Quiz: Christmas Carol History (Part 2)
How well do you know your Christmas carols?
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The Coventry Carol: A mother’s lullaby, born of biblical tragedy
In this episode, host Maggi Van Dorn travels to Coventry, England, to trace how this centuries-old lament survived the Reformation, a devastating library fire and the 1940 bombing of Coventry Cathedral during the Second World War— and how it has served the city’s witness to grief and reconciliation.
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Quiz: Christmas Carol History (Part 1)
How well do you know your Christmas carols?
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How a scandalous love song became a sacred Christmas carol: ‘What Child is This?’
On the final episode of Hark! this season, prepare yourselves for a wee bit of scandal because we’re looking at a tune that began as a bawdy love song and has long been associated with an evil monarch, but which, over the course of three centuries, finds its redemption as a Christmas carol. This is the story behind, “What Child Is This?”
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How a 4th-century poem combating heresies became a Christmas carol
Discover how a 4th-century poem by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius to respond to Christian heresies evolved into “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” by the 19th century.
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The little drummer boy is never mentioned in the Bible. Where did the Christmas carol story come from?
On this episode of “Hark!”, we follow a figure the Bible never mentions, but whose bold gift leads us straight to the heart of Christmas. This is the story of “The Little Drummer Boy.”
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The music of the magi: Exploring the history behind ‘We Three Kings’
To kick off the fourth season of “Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols,” we have a Christmas song that begins on a plodding, somber note and erupts into a thrilling epiphany. We’re exploring “We Three Kings.”