Oxford Book of Carols

by Ralph Vaughan Williams

A firm favourite with choirs for many years, this is a classic collection of traditional carols.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Reference, Christmas

454 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1956

About the author

Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century.

Vaughan Williams was born to a well-to-do family with strong moral views and a progressive social outlook. Throughout his life he sought to be of service to his fellow citizens, and believed in making music as available as possible to everybody. He wrote many works for amateur and student performance. He was musically a late developer, not finding his true voice until his late thirties; his studies in 1907–1908 with the French composer Maurice Ravel helped him clarify the textures of his music and free it from Teutonic influences.

Vaughan Williams is among the best-known English symphonists, noted for his very wide range of moods, from stormy and impassioned to tranquil, from mysterious to exuberant. Among the most familiar of his other concert works are Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910) and The Lark Ascending (1914). His vocal works include hymns, folk-song arrangements and large-scale choral pieces. He wrote eight works for stage performance between 1919 and 1951. Although none of his operas became popular repertoire pieces, his ballet Job: A Masque for Dancing (1930) was successful and has been frequently staged.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found The Oxford Book of Carols (which was first published in 1928 by Oxford University Press and penned by Percy Dearmer, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw) at my local Dundas, Ontario independent bookstore (and with this here edition hailing from 1964).

And yes, I have certainly enjoyed seeing a very goodly number of my favourite British, German and French Christmas carols (and not just famous and universally well-known ones either) being showcased in The Oxford Book of Carols (and that there are three detailed indexes for The Oxford Book of Carols, with one featuring composers and sources, one featuring song titles and also one with the first lines of every carol, this most definitely is an added bonus and sure makes picking and checking out individual songs much easier than would be the case without this). Furthermore, I also really and hugely hugely do appreciate that The Oxford Bool of Carols includes the full lyrics and musical scores as well as alternative versions for the included carols and that for the German and French examples, most of them have Dearmer, Vaughan Williams and Shaw also provide their original texts and not simply English language translations. But just to say that I am definitely more than a bit annoyed that for the Dutch, Flemish, Welsh etc. songs, The Oxford Book of Carols does not provide the originals and that I am indeed rather miffed at that, for if Percy Drearer, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw are going to feature the German and French songs as dual language in The Oxford Book of Carols, well and in my humble opinion, this should be done for ALL non English language songs encountered.

However, even though much of The Oxford Book of Carols has been personally enjoyable (and that the book as a whole is and will be a very nice musical resource for me, even if I as pointed out above really would want dual language for all originally non English language songs, although the supplemental details are sometimes rather confusingly penned and appear in a very small font size), sorry, but considering that The Oxford Book of Carols contains not just Christmas carols, I really do not understand why Drearer, Vaughan Williams and Shaw have not divided their songs into thematic sections (such as for Christmas, Easter, seasonal songs and the like) and that having for example carols celebrating spring appear in the same area of The Oxford Book of Carols as Yuletide songs and of course vice versa really is rather confusing and frustrating. And yes, my general appreciation and pleasure regarding The Oxford Book of Carols notwithstanding, I really cannot and will not consider more than a three star rating for The Oxford Book of Carols (which I think is also quite generous on my part).

And I guess I am also just a bit offended by the fact that The Oxford Book of Carols totally ignores American and Canadian Christmas carols and that for the German songs, Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht (Silent Night, Holy Night) and O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree) have both not been included.

[Pollymoore3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The church choir I am in uses the English Hymnal, and what a delight it is to know you are often singing an alto part "harmonised by Ralph Vaughan Williams", and as like as not a tune he adapted from a folk song. Thank heaven he and his friends went around collecting these wonderful old tunes before they died out.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many carols in here that are not in the Episcopal Hymnal. My mother, who hosted a Christmas Eve tea and carol sing for 47 straight years relied on this for its great breadth.

[Juli Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent source for older carols.

[Sara Gerot · Rating 5 out of 5]

The preface to this edition is wonderful!