Tune of the Day: The Twelve Days of Christmas
Contrary to much popular belief, the ”twelve days of Christmas” are not the twelve days before Christmas, but the twelve days from the day after Christmas (December 26) to the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6, or the Twelfth Day). Although the carol was first published in England in 1780, textual evidence may indicate that the song is actually French in origin.
It is a cumulative song, meaning that each verse is built on top of the previous verses. There are twelve verses, each describing a gift given by “my true love” on one of the twelve days of Christmas.
Unlike most popular music, the time signature of this song is not constant. The introductory lines are made up of two 4/4 bars, while most of the lines naming gifts receive one 3/4 bar per gift, with the exception of “Five gold(en) rings”. Another peculiar aspect about this song is how the second through fourth verses (before the song gets to the “five golden rings”) use a different melody than in the fifth through twelfth verses.