Musicology Commons^™

"No Human Ever Made A Cathedral Such As This": Scoping The Ecology Of The Carols By Candlelight Effect In Australia's Open-Air Environments, Robin Ryan

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

During Australia’s dry December, traditional and popular forms of caroling shape the sight and sound of the key Christian festival of Christmas. Creative connections between belief, place, and music are characteristically manifest in focused open-air environments of beach, bushland or park. Reasoning from gospel belief that the very first “Christmas carol” emanated from a heavenly host of angels singing to an audience of shepherds in a field, caroling alfresco is an appropriate activity. How, then, do Australian caroling venues become conducive to environmental spheres of sound and influence? While the annual mass Carols by Candlelight concerts televised from Melbourne and …