Edmund Sedding

Name: Once a Week
Author: Edmund Sedding

Once a Week (1864)

Summary

“Once a Week”, published in 1864, is a work by Edmund Sedding. It explores elements such as carols, Christmas and melodies.

Quotes from Once a Week (Edmund Sedding)

Edmund Sedding, Once a Week (1864)

“ And now collections of carols are every year multiplying, the advertisement sheets of musical and other papers testifying to the universal demand for suitable music for Christmas time.
The majority of modern carols evince in a marked manner a desire to imitate the honest sincerity and piety exhibited in the productions of our ancestors. The men of the nineteenth century are fain to admit that better means for attracting the ear and ravishing the hearts of the poor and simple, can scarcely be employed than those used by the men of old. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Edmund Sedding, Once a Week (1864)

“ A boar is a sovereign beast,
And acceptable in every feast;
So might this lord be to most and least,
Nowell.
This boar's head we bring with song,
In worship of Him that thus sprung
Of a Virgin, to redress all wrong:
Nowell.
There is a much earlier example given by Sir Frederic Madden in the "Reliquæ Antiquæ."
The word Nowell, or Noël, which occurs very frequently in old carols, is by many supposed (and with good reason) to be derived from natalis, the birthday of our blessed Lord. This word was used as a cry of joy, and was "sung at Angers during the eight days preceding Christmas." ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Edmund Sedding, Once a Week (1864)

“ In villages and quiet country places, it is true, carols in some form or other have never been allowed to die out, and appear to have been cherished with no little reverence as one of the rarest delights of the "blessed Christmas Tide." ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Edmund Sedding, Once a Week (1864)

“ May our good friends who with loving hearts celebrate the "Holy Tide of Christmas," not omit from their catalogue of festivities the hearty and genuine old carol.
The following is extracted from "Antient Christmas Carols," published by Novello, and is written by Mr. Morris:—
Masters in this hall,
Hear ye news to-day,
Brought from over sea,
And ever I you pray.
Chorus.Nowell! Nowell! Nowell!
Nowell! sing we clear!
Holpen are all folk on earth,
Born is God's Son so dear:
Nowell! Nowell! Nowell!
Nowell! sing we loud! ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Edmund Sedding, Once a Week (1864)

“ Amongst the earliest specimens of carols are those for bringing in the boar's head.
The boar's head was the first dish served up at ancient feasts, and was carried in with great solemnity, dressed with garlands. Flourishes of trumpets and singing of carols accompanied the pageant. The custom of bringing in the boar's head is still observed in great houses, and (as has been stated over and over again) at Queen's College, Oxford, where upon Christmas night the precentor and choir sing a modernized version of Wynkin de Worde's carol. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Edmund Sedding, Once a Week (1864)

“ There is a place prepared in hell,
From which thou canst not flee.
Another species of carol is that for bringing in the wassel. This term, derived from the Saxon, and signifying "Be in health," occurs in the early Anglo-Norman-French carol preserved in the British Museum, and translated by Mr. Douce. The wassel was introduced with considerable state originally upon Twelfth Night, but in course of time New Year's Eve came in for a share of these festivities ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Edmund Sedding, Once a Week (1864)

“ The mental powers of the printer are again taxed to invent "catching" titles for his publications; and we have "The Christmas Holly," "The Star of Bethlehem," "Christmas Mirth," "Blossoms of Holiness," "The Heavenly Garland," "The Select Carolist," "The Morning Star," "The Golden Chaplet," and "The Gem, a variety of excellent carols."
The design and execution of the woodcuts are sometimes highly ludicrous; and when coloured in the "approved style," they are apt to provoke mirth rather than devotion. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Edmund Sedding, Once a Week (1864)

“ Upon another is shown a Village, a young man borne to the skies in the arms of some ethereal beauty (by sprites of all sizes and shapes) , our Blessed Lord instituting the Holy Eucharist, a Family Party, and a Deathbed. Again, we have the Seven Ages, boys playing at marbles, girls gathering flowers, fiends seizing a murderer, and a congregation at worship, to illustrate "favourite carols for the present year." ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Edmund Sedding, Once a Week (1864)

“ In A.D. 1822 Gilbert published the music of twelve favourite carols preserved in the west of England, and in the following year enlarged the collection to twenty. Mr. W. Sandys, F.S.A., brought out in A.D. 1833 a set of fourscore carols, with seventeen melodies, and some French Noëls. This valuable work, containing an abundant store of information on all customs and traditions of Yule-tide, has been since supplemented by a book by the same author on "Christmas; its History, Festivities, and Carols." Mr. Wright's reprint of mediæval and later carols, published for the Percy Society, with Dr. ”

Edmund Sedding

Summary

Quotes from Once a Week (Edmund Sedding)

Common terms

Similar works

Get perspective with Kwize: daily news enlightened by great literature