Christmas Carols: From Village Green to Church Choir
Reviewed By Grasshopper2 January 12, 2015
Author Andrew Gant
Distributor:
ISBN: 9781781253526
Publisher: Profile Books
Release Date:
Website: http://www.allenandunwin.com
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This small, beautifully crafted book contains a scholarly collection of carefully researched stories, all dealing with the history and origins of Christmas Carols. They cover the time frame from the birth of the carol, the places it was taken, and the people who were responsible for transporting, re writing and introducing it into different societies.
Andrew Gant is a “composer, choirmaster, church musician, university teacher and writer”. He has written this book with a deep knowledge of the different forms of music. He is able to chart how changes have occurred to songs over time, suggesting we all enjoy the “English magic of Christmas Carols”. There are no versions of “six white boomers “in this collection.
Andrew writes with humour. And explains that, after “Restoration in 1660, carols were an excuse for having fun”. “Songs about drinking, wassailing, drinking, eating, dancing and drinking were especially popular.
The book is set out with an introduction, which goes back to the origins of the carols, and follows their journey from country to country, and person to person.
“Many of the mostly English Carols have at least one ancestor in another country…” a sturdy hymn book from Finland, first opened by the flickering light of a fire in some stone hall, one dark evening, deep in the sixteenth century”…..becomes a familiar family Christmas Carol in England. Twenty two carols are examined historically and musically, and at the end of each chapter, the musical score is reproduced.
There is a CD which accompanies this book, a marvellous way to compare some of the old and some re written carols. All of the songs are professionally arranged, sung and produced.
In the epilogue, the author explains how the carols often originated as drinking songs around the fire. Then congregational began in the sixteenth century, “a mixture of folk music and Handel. ” Andrew goes on to write where these carols were performed and how they developed.
The illuminated first letters of each chapter and ancient texts and drawings, give this book its own feel of magic. It is a wonderful reference book and a joy to explore. There is a life time of reading and re reading here.