THE CAROLS OF CHRISTMAS BY ANDREW GANT

I’ve loved to collect Christmas music for years. Everyone has their favorite carol—and their favorite rendition of their favorite carol. The carols come to us from every phase of Christian history, and from many languages. Sometimes we can tell how ancient they are just by their structure. Christmas songs are so abundant and diverse, it’s like having a whole world of music centered on this one season of the year. That’s why I was eager to read this book about the history of the most popular carols—and I enjoyed “The Carols of Christmas” almost as much as I was hoping to. The carols you like say everything about you. This book helps explain exactly why that is.

Mr. Gant, a college professor and choirmaster, gives detailed, well-researched lectures on 21 popular carols. The book is divided into sections based on the phases of the Christmas season. (For instance, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” is at the beginning since it emphasizes the Advent of Christ. “We Three Kings is at the end, since the Wise Men came long after Jesus’ birth and their coming was celebrated after Christmas for centuries.) The style tends towards academic and stuffy, but I found reading it aloud to my little sister, a music student, enormously helped tap into the book’s potential. Lectures are typically heard by groups of people because the shared experience helps with learning.

There were all sorts of fun little tidbits. Did you know that “Away in a Manger” was baldly, dishonestly attributed to Martin Luther—when he DID NOT WRITE IT—on its publication in the late 19th century? That “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night” has literally hundreds of variations that could fill a whole book on their own? That the French author of the soaring “O Holy Night” was anti-religious and that the tune was composed by a man who wrote their equivalent of film scores? That “The Holly and the Ivy” was a crass pagan fertility song into which early Christians sewed faith lessons? And that “Good King Wenceslas” was put into our current carol form by a man who mysteriously created such crowd hostility that people threatened to stone him and burn down his house? These are just some of the many pieces of information in this book.

The carols covered are: O Come, O Come Emmanuel; O Christmas Tree; The Holly and the Ivy; I Saw Three Ships; O Little Town of Bethlehem; Good Christian Men Rejoice; O Come All Ye Faithful; While Shepherds Watched; O Holy Night; Ding Dong Merrily on High; Angels From The Realms of Glory; Hark the Herald Angels Sing; Away in a Manger; I Wonder As I Wander; Good King Wenceslas; Personent Hodie; Here We Come a Wassailing; The Twelve Days of Christmas; We Three Kings; What Child is This?; and Jingle Bells.