Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols Podcast Por America Media arte de portada

Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols

Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols

De: America Media
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It’s the most wonderful time of the year! The cookies, the mistletoe, the lights...oh, and the music! 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.Copyright © 2025 America Media. All rights reserved. Espiritualidad Música
Episodios
  • Angels We Have Heard on High

    Angels We Have Heard on High
    Dec 7 2025
    We often imagine angels as gentle and serene. But in Scripture they arrive in blinding light and overwhelming sound—so much so that their first words are almost always “Do not be afraid.” These are the messengers who burst into the night sky to meet a group of poor, worn-out shepherds—outsiders who become the first to hear the news of Christ’s birth. “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. Born in French, welcomed into English, yet always held by one steady constant: the Latin refrain “Gloria in excelsis Deo.” According to French legend, shepherds sang that proclamation from field to field on Christmas Eve, their voices reaching person to person, place to place, echoing the angels announcing Christ’s birth to all. Maggi speaks with: Candida Moss, the Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham, who explains why angels in Scripture inspire awe and fear, how the idea of guardian angels emerged later in Christian history and why God chose marginalized shepherds as the first recipients of the good news. Christopher Walker, an internationally renowned Los Angeles-based composer, conductor, choir director and liturgist, returns to his hometown in Bristol, England, where he directed music at Clifton Cathedral for years. From a friend’s recording studio, he deconstructs the carol’s musical architecture, showing how a single word in the Latin refrain unfurls across sixteen soaring notes to evoke the motion, echo and lift of angels in flight. Our thanks in this episode go to Armonico Consort; Vox Turturis and Andrew Gant of Signum Records; the Choir of King's College, Cambridge; Ricardo da Silva, S.J.; Derek Fiechter; the Gothard Sisters; Richard Gilewitz; Malukah; The Grant High School Royal Blues and John Eisemann; The Roches; Christopher Walker and OCP; Simon Wester; John Weston; and Anna, Fae, Frank and Genevieve Tuson. Our theme music was produced by Frank Tuson. Want short, inspiring Bible reflections every day during Advent and Christmas? This year, our Scripture Reflections are free for Hark! listeners—sign up at AmericaMagazine.org/hark. Love a good holiday brain-teaser? Our weekly Christmas carol trivia is exclusively for America subscribers. ⁠Take the quiz here!⁠ Or visit, AmericaMagazine.org/hark. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    56 m
  • The Coventry Carol

    The Coventry Carol
    Nov 30 2025
    Most Christmas carols celebrate the birth of Jesus. But not “The Coventry Carol,” the premiere episode of “Hark!” season five. This song centers on a biblical horror: the “massacre of the innocents,” King Herod’s order to kill all male babies two years old and under in Bethlehem. It’s a lullaby sung by mothers to children who may not survive the night. 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. She speaks with: - Rev. Richard Cooke, an Anglican priest in the Diocese of Coventry, who unpacks the carol’s scriptural and early historical roots. - Malvern Carvell, a local historian with deep family ties to Coventry, who walks her through the cathedral ruins and the city’s medieval past. - Rev. Kate Massey, the cathedral’s minister for arts and reconciliation, who reflects on the carol’s spiritual power and Coventry's enduring commitment to reconciliation - ⁠Rachel Mahon, the cathedral’s director of music—and the first woman to serve as organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London—who walks Maggi through the carol’s uneven rhythms and haunting modal lines In a BBC broadcast from Coventry Cathedral’s ruins after Germany’s bombing Blitz, against England, Provost Richard Howard urged the nation to “build a kinder, more Christ-childlike world,” even with years of war still ahead. Hope had to begin in the rubble—a reminder that this lullaby carries us through Advent into Christmas not by turning from the world’s pain, but by singing through it together. Want short, inspiring Bible reflections every day during Advent and Christmas? This year, our Scripture Reflections are free for Hark! listeners—sign up at AmericaMagazine.org/hark. Love a good holiday brain-teaser? Our weekly Christmas carol trivia is exclusively for America subscribers. Take the first quiz here! Or visit, https://www.americamagazine.org/hark The music featured in this episode was generously gifted to “Hark!” Our thanks to James Bilodeau, ⁠The King’s Singers⁠ and ⁠Signum Records⁠, ⁠Brad Prevedoros⁠, ⁠Matthew Pierce⁠, ⁠Avaendil⁠, ⁠Brian Thiessen⁠, ⁠Cynthia Boener⁠, ⁠Salt of the Sound⁠, ⁠the Coventry Cathedral Girls’ Choir⁠ and the ⁠Choir of King’s College, Cambridge⁠. Our theme music was produced by ⁠Frank Tuson⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 h y 5 m
  • What Child Is This?

    What Child Is This?
    Dec 15 2024
    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?” Please complete our brief survey to share your hopes for Hark! and to let us know which carols you’d love us to feature next year. “What Child Is This” may have been derived from a Christmas poem by William Chatteron Dix in the mid 19th century, but its musical roots stretch as far back as the 16th century, when its famous tune, “Greensleeves,” was circulated in Europe’s royal courts. In an attempt to track the tune’s composer, and separate fact from fiction, Maggi Van Dorn brings on Milton Mermikides, the 37th Gresham Professor of Music at Gresham College, London. Maggi is then joined by Richard Jeffrey-Gray, head of the music service for the Diocese of Clifton, Bristol, United Kingdom, who traces how the romantic ballad “Greensleeves” became the Christmas carol “What Child Is This,” along with what makes this, according to Richard, “one of the most, perfect tunes to to play and to sing.” Susan Reynolds, a theologian at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University and mom of three girls, unpacks the rhetorical structure of the song’s lyrics and its profound theological implications for our world today. The music featured on this episode was generously gifted to Hark! by Clifton Cathedral Choir, Bristol, U.K.; Nicholas Steinbach and Grey Duck Music; Holland Albright; Cynthia Boener; Michael Logozar and Brian Thiessen. With special thanks to Signum Records for providing renditions of the carol "What Child Is This" by the following artists signed to their label: King’s Singers, Armonico Consort, Matthew Barley and The London Cello Sound, featuring the 40 cellos of the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, and Philharmonia Orchestras. Support Hark! by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine at: americamagazine.org/subscribe This season of Hark! is sponsored by Saints for Sinners, offering divine saint medals imported from Italy and meticulously hand-painted in New Orleans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    48 m
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This is a thoughtful, informed and intelligent celebration of the music of the Christmas season. A gift, truly.

charming and grounded in history

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Loved it all...historical, intriguing, and not too long. Great way to get in the Christmas spirit.

Fascinating Details!

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I was uncertain at first but was pleasantly surprised. I am not a Catholic but am a Christian. I may disagree with some of the concepts at times but really not many. I love history so I like the stories but equally enjoyed the spiritual challenges. Just great podcast. listen and share

Enjoyable way to learn and contemplate

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