What started out as a 16th-century dance song was changed in the 19th century into a Christmas carol. In Thoinot Arbeau’s Orchésographie, a study of late Renaissance French dance, published in 1589, he gave instruction on social behaviour in the
In essence
In a longer take on the traditional carol, English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams made a ‘fantasia’ on three carols from southern England to create an atmospheric work for baritone, chorus, and orchestra. Given its premiere at the Three Choirs Festival
That wonderfully inventive composer and arranger Leroy Anderson (1908–1975) may be best known at Christmas time for his Sleigh Ride, with the neighing trumpet horses at the end. However, in 1950, he created a lovely arrangement for the Boston Pops
Arnold Bax (1886–1953) was born in south London and raised in north London, but in his early years sought to develop a link with Ireland. In 1902, after discovering the writing of Irish writer W.B. Yeats, Arnold and his brother
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 novel The Secret Garden is a story of redemption. An unloved and sickly child is left orphaned in British India and is adopted by her uncle in England. Out on the Yorkshire moors, Mary learns to
After winning the prestigious Prix de Rome, the young Charles Gounod (1818-1893) arrived in the Eternal City of Rome in 1840. After experiencing a spell of melancholy and homesickness, which he described “this kind of shroud in which I was
Anatoly Lyadov (1855–1914) was condemned with faint praise: ‘Most recollections of this kind, likeable man suggest that he could have achieved so much more if he had not been so idle.’ A case in point was his commission from Diaghilev.
For many, the chrysanthemum is the symbol of Asia. The flower originated in East Asia, and China is the place where it developed its earliest characteristics. It was first cultivated in China as early as the 15th century BCE, and