The New Oxford Book of Carols

The New Oxford Book of Carols

The New Oxford Book of Carols
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Book Summary Information

Editor: Hugh Keyte
Editor: Andrew Parrott
Editor: Clifford Bartlett
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-09-24
ISBN: 0193533227
Number of pages: 702
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Book Reviews of The New Oxford Book of Carols

Book Review: Excellent Resource for Anyone Interested in Christmas Carols
Summary: 5 Stars


The New Oxford Book of Carols is an excellent resource for anyone interested in Christmas carols -- particularly those carols outside the standard, late 20th Century, popular, American canon. Although this book is a product of the music department at Oxford University and contains a fair amount of musical arrangements and notations, it is still accessible to people who aren't well versed in music.

This anthology is authoritative and includes a handy table of contents, a lengthy introduction, a thorough bibliography, indexes of feasts, seasons, sources, first lines, and titles, and several appendices. It is divided into two parts: composed carols and traditional carols. This distinction roughly translates to historical/ancient (composed) and contemporary (traditional).

Part I groups carols by date of composition and loose geographic region: Middle Ages, English Carols 1400 -- 1700, European Carols 1550 -- 1700, Europe and America 1700 -- 1830, Later Nineteenth Century, and Twentieth Century.

Part II groups carols by ethnicity: English, Irish, Welsh, American, Trinidadian, German, Czech, Polish, Provencal French, French, Basque, Spanish, and Neapolitan.

Entries for each carol provide title, approximate date of composition, basic musical arrangement, lyrics, and explanatory notes as to date of creation, sources used, traditional/original musical arrangements, etc . . .. The date provided for each carol is based on the first appearance of the words and music together, so older melodies whose lyrics were composed decades to centuries later are categorized by the date on which the music is first known to have been arranged with the text.

Summary of The New Oxford Book of Carols

Edited by early music experts Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott, this anthology of Christmas carols is the most comprehensive collection ever made, spanning seven centuries of caroling in Britain, continental Europe, and North America. Containing music and text of 201 carols, many in more than one setting, the book is organized in two sections: composed carols, ranging from medieval Gregorian chants to modern compositions, and folk carols, including not only traditional Anglo-American songs but Irish, Welsh, German, Czech, Polish, French, Basque, Catalan, Sicilian, and West Indian songs as well. Each carol is set in four-part harmony, with lyrics in both the original language and English. Accompanying each song are detailed scholarly notes on the history of the carol and on performance of the setting presented. The introduction to the volume offers a general history of carols and caroling, and appendices provide scholarly essays on such topics as fifteenth-century pronunciation, English country and United States primitive traditions, and the revival of the English folk carol. The Oxford Book of Carols, published in 1928, is still one of Oxford's best-loved books among scholars, church choristers, and the vast number of people who enjoy singing carols. This volume is not intended to replace this classic but to supplement it. Reflecting significant developments in musicology over the past sixty years, it embodies a radical reappraisal of the repertory and a fresh approach to it. The wealth of information it contains will make it essential for musicologists and other scholars, while the beauty of the carols themselves will enchant general readers and amateur songsters alike.

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