“When Christ Was Born of Mary Free” — a hidden Medieval gem for Christmas music lovers!
- larees24
- Dec 10, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 13, 2025
🎄 Welcome, to ‘Christmas around the Piano’…a nostalgic musical journey!🎄
Day 10 - December 10, 2025:
“When Christ Was Born of Mary Free” is not a mainstream carol, and is one that is still relatively unknown to general audiences. I myself stumbled upon it during this Project.
Let’s step back into the 15th century with the timeless Medieval English carol which celebrates the Nativity with joyful angelic imagery and heavenly echoes of the beloved refrain “in excelsis gloria.”
This places it in the late medieval period — a time when carols were not just songs but communal celebrations, often sung in processions, feasts, and church gatherings.
The text has been set by numerous composers like Arthur Henry Brown, Richard R. Terry and Tim Pratt, across centuries, in choral collections and SATB arrangements.
The carol emphasizes the Nativity, the angelic announcement, and the joy of Christ’s birth.
Quick Facts!
🌟The 15th century was the height of English carol composition, especially in monastic and collegiate settings. Such carols share a blend of Latin and English, a hallmark of late‑medieval devotional poetry. And as such, also connects with the Macaronic tradition combining Latin with the vernacular language.
🌟“Mary free” in its Title means Mary who was in the sense noble or exalted, free from sin and corruption — a medieval poetic way of affirming her purity. It’s a compact theological statement wrapped in poetic language.
🌟Medieval English carols often mixed sacred themes with lively rhythms. This carol’s refrain “in excelsis gloria” echoes the angelic hymn from Luke 2:14. It likely circulated orally before being written down, which explains the small textual variations found in different versions.
🌟It’s one of the few carols mentioning “Herdsmen” instead of “Shepherds”. “Herdmen” is a Middle English term — a linguistic time capsule.
🌟Some versions include the line “Christo paremus cantica” (“Let us prepare songs for Christ”) in the Refrain. This is unusual — most carols focus on angels singing, not humans preparing songs. It’s one of the earliest examples of a carol inviting the audience to join the heavenly choir.
🌟Being from the 15th century, this carol predates the printing press becoming widespread — meaning it was originally preserved through oral tradition, and often performed by choirs specializing in Renaissance and medieval repertoire.
🌟Because the text circulated widely, different regions used different tunes. In medieval times, the same text could be sung to multiple melodies — a common practice before standardized hymnals.
🌟The Carol’s Structure Is “Burden + Verse”, which was the standard medieval carol form of Burden = Refrain, and Verse = narrative section. It’s the ancestor of the modern chorus‑verse structure. This may have let it to be sung Antiphonally, split between two Choirs, one singing the Burden (Refrain) and the other answering with the Verse.
🌟It is sometimes referred to as a A Carol of Light, because its text repeatedly references light (“great light,” “angels bright”)— a major theme in medieval spirituality, symbolizing Christ entering a dark world. This made the carol especially suitable for Candlelit processions, Midnight Mass, and Epiphany celebrations.
🌟Many medieval carols were lost during the English Reformation (1530s–1550s), when Latin texts were banned, Catholic devotional songs were destroyed, and / or Monastic libraries were dissolved. This Carol, among its few contemporaries, survived, perhaps due to its popularity at the time, its flexibility to different settings, its existence in multiple copies, and its simple and Nativity‑focused theology. It’s a rare survivor of a turbulent era.
🌟The English choral revival (1900–1930) rediscovered many such medieval carols. Richard R. Terry’s SATB setting helped bring this carol back into modern repertoire. So this carol is part of a larger cultural rediscovery.
I do hope you have enjoyed reading about this carol, as much as I have enjoyed presenting this to you.
Thank you for joining me on this festive journey! Wishing you and your loved ones, a season filled with light, laughter, love, and of course, MUSIC! 🌟🎄
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Christmas cheer and good tidings to you!
Larissa
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