Christmas Carols in Classical Music
In the 1680s and 1690s, two French composers incorporated carols into their works. Louis-Claude Daquin wrote 12 noels for organ. Marc-Antoine Charpentier wrote a few instrumental versions of noels, plus one major choral work "Messe de minuit pour Noël". Other examples include:
- Ralph Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Christmas Carols, 1912.
- Victor Hely-Hutchinson: Carol Symphony, 1927.
- Benjamin Britten: A Ceremony of Carols (for choir and harp), 1942
- Christina Rossetti's poem In the Bleak Midwinter has been set to music by (amongst others) Gustav Holst (1905) and Harold Darke (1911).
- Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki extensively quotes the Christmas carol Silent Night in his Second Symphony, nicknamed the Christmas Symphony.
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