Christmas carols

About this book

Everyone loves a Christmas carol - in the end, even Scrooge. They have the power to summon up a special kind of midwinter mood, like the aroma of mince pies and mulled wine and the twinkle of lights on a tree. It's a kind of magic. But how did they get that magic? In Christmas Carols Andrew Gant tells the story of some twenty carols, each accompanied by lyrics and music, unravelling a captivating - and often surprising - tale of great musicians and thinkers, saints and pagans, shepherd boys, choirboys, monks and drunks. We delve into the history of such favourites as 'Good King Wenceslas', 'Away in a Manger' and 'The Twelve Days of Christmas', discovering along the way how 'Hark, the Herald angels sing' came to replace 'Hark, how all the welkin ring' and how Ralph Vaughan Williams bolted the tune of an English folk song about a dead ox to a poem by a nineteenth-century American pilgrim to make 'O little town of Bethlehem'. Christmas Carols brims with anecdote, expert knowledge and Christmas spirit. It is a fittingly joyous account of one of our best-loved musical traditions. List of carols: The Angel Gabriel O Come, O Come Emmanuel The Boar's Head Carol O, Christmas Tree The Holly and the Ivy I Saw Three Ships O Little Town of Bethlehem In dulci jubilo O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste fideles) While Shepherds Watched The Fleecy Care Ding dong! Merrily on High Angels from the Realms of Glory Hark, the Herald Angels Sing The Christ-child's Lullaby Away in a Manger Good King Wenceslas Personent hodie Here We Come a-Wassailing The Twelve Days of Christmas We Three Kings What Child is This?