I’ve known the song “Greensleeves” all my life. IIRC, it was written in the 14th or 15th century love song.
So why has Xmas shanghaied this sweet pastoral tune for its own devices? when, how and why did that start?
The lyrics to “What Child is This” were composed by W.C. Dix in the 1860s. He wrote a lot of hymns.
I don’t see what the big deal of using a folk melody with different lyrics is. It happens all the time in music.
Mmmm, don’t know if I’d call “Greensleeves” a folk melody - it’s been attributed to Henry VIII of England (actually composed quite a few songs). Then again, it could be a case of “royally sucking up to the king” by giving him the credit, no copyright protection at that time and all that.
Several folksongs** and ‘composed’ songs have been co-opted for carols. I had an argument with a playwright recently over a melody: she claimed it was originally a Christmas carol called “Traveling to Bethlehem” (or something like that); I said it was an English folksong “Dives and Lazarus”. We were both right (but my song predated her words by a few years).
A similar scenario with “Away In a Manger”: AIAW has its own melody, but can also be sung to “Flow Gently, Sweet Afton”. Gets a lttle confusing when out caroling, someone suggests the song, and half the group starts with one melody, the other singing the other melody.
**I use ‘folksongs’ for those whose author is ‘unknown’ or ‘anonymous’.
Several national anthems are also new words to borrowed music, like the US one.
The answer to this question came to me via the CBC Radio program ‘This Morning’.
It seems that back in the day, when people wanted to write new songs, they would write lyrics only, and sing them to the tune of popular songs of the day. The carol ‘What Child is This?’ came about when somebody made up new words for the popular tune ‘Green Sleeves’. So the instrumental portion now became associated with Christmas, along wit the new lyrics.
My answer: Why not it is a beautiful melody.
Also I’m not sure of this but someone can correct me. There are 2 melodic variations to the melody. The way I always figured it is “What Child…” ends on a minor chord and Greensleeves ends on a major (same progression but the last chord has a natural 3rd or a flat 3rd).