Why Is the joyful "Carol of the Bells" written in a minor key?

Now bear with me here. I’m not a music theorist, so you musicians reading this may wince a little in places. This post will be very much of a layperson’s view of the whole major/minor issue and its relationship to the mood of a piece. I’m probably spelling out more than I need to in places; no intention is meant to insult anyone’s musical intelligence!

Where to begin? I guess with the question of what makes a key minor. Hoo boy. That question opens up a real kettle of fish of a different color. In modern tuning there are 7 major keys using sharps and 7 using flats (with some overlap, but I’m not going to get into that). There is also one key, C major, which has no flats or sharps. If you want to find the minor key that has the same key signature, that is, the same number of flats or sharps, as the major, then you count down three half steps and that’s the starting point for your relative minor scale. Even if you don’t play an instrument you probably have access to a keyboard of some sort. So start on middle C and play just the white keys up to the next C. There’s your C major scale.

Now skip the next two keys down, one white and one black, and play that second white key below C, which is A. Play your scale from there up to the next A above middle C, again just playing the white keys. Hear the difference? Because of the change in the arrangement of whole and half steps in pitch, the key is now minor. (There are different “flavors” of minor keys—natural, harmonic, and melodic—but, again, we’re not getting into those weeds.) Does the A minor scale sound “sad” to you? We’re conditioned to think that way in modern Western music, but other cultures and other times did not think that way at all. Good comment I found online: “Minor keys may seem ‘sad’ to you, but there are many countries where they are preferred because melodies with them are more beautiful and meaningful. Music for the soul.”

In reality, the arrangement of pitches on a piano or other instrument that has to have set pitches (as opposed to a stringed instrument, where pitches are determined by the length of the string and controlled by the musician’s fingers, therefore making an infinite range of pitches possible) is very much a modern invention, dating back only a few hundred years. If you’d like to read a fascinating book (and it really is, I promise) about how we got our modern Western ideas of pitch and tuning, take a look at Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization by Stuart Isacoff.* I read it a number of years ago and found it completely absorbing.

So what does all this have to do with “The Carol of the Bells”? It is written in what we call the key of G minor, that is, the relative minor of B-flat major. But it’s a very joyful song, so the minor key can’t signify that it’s meant to be sad. In reality, the tune is an ancient Ukrainian folk chant that was sung to bring good luck at the beginning of the New Year and was written long before this whole major-vs-minor idea developed. Music was then written in different “modes” instead of keys. The original lyrics have nothing to do with Christmas or even that time of year, since the calendar then being used had the beginning of the year in April. So there are references to the birth of lambs, and the song is written as if being sung by a returning swallow. In 1916 the Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovich arranged the piece for an a cappella mixed-voice choir and it became quite popular. It may very well be the case that there was no written version of the song until Leontovich arranged it, so he wrote down what he heard and may have changed it somewhat. Who knows? In 1921 the American composer and arranger Peter Wilhousky heard a performance by the Ukrainian National Chorus at Carnegie Hall; it reminded him of the beautiful sound of bells ringing. So he decided to write his own words to the song. Wilhousky was associated with the broadcasts of the NBC Symphony Orchestra, so he had a great venue for his music and the song became a huge hit. I’m posting below two videos of performances I particularly like; you can find an endless array of versions on YouTube or other sites. You can even find performances for which the key has been changed to major; they really don’t work, to my mind (or ear). But in the interest of fairness I’ve included one of those versions, too. I think you’ll agree that we should just stick to what those ancient Ukrainians wrote–they knew what they were doing!

As my son used to say when he was a toddler, “I don’t WIKE dat!” But here it is:

But wait! There’s more! I found a version on YouTube that has the original lyrics, both in Ukrainian and in English. So cool!

*Amazon Affiliate link–if you click on the link and purchase the book, or indeed any other item during your session, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.