Gant, Andrew – The Bell Bookshop

Deck the hall

Emma — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

‘Christmas carols are sung in church, therefore Christmas carols have always been sung in church.
Christmas carols have these words and this tune, therefore Christmas carols have always had these words and this tune.
Well, not really.
Our carol tradition, like us, is a rich and dynamic mixture. An ecosystem, not a still life.’

Written with effervescent charm and professional knowledge, composer and conductor Andrew Gant reveals the fascinating musical and social history behind our favourite Christmas carols.
From the Annunciation to Epiphany, the episodes of the Christmas story link the tales and anecdotes behind twenty-seven carols from a variety of traditions and places of origin: those that come from folk song; those we owe to Victorian moralists, and those that are, in fact, French. As Andrew says, ‘Some carols were born to Christmas, some have achieved Christmas, and some have had Christmas thrust upon them.’
This wonderful, rich musical treat gives us a unique insight into our Yuletide traditions and customs. A delightful gift for anyone who loves to sing, or who just loves Christmas trivia, this is the ideal companion with which to while away those lazy days between Christmas and New Year.

‘Ding dong! This is my kind of Christmas present. A musical Christmas cracker –
fascinating and full of interesting surprises.’
Gyles Brandreth

‘Enlightening and entertaining. You’ll never hear or sing these carols in the same way again’
Anne-Marie Minhall

‘And I thought I knew about Christmas carols.’
John Rutter

‘An unexpected romp through a festive slice of musical history, with Gant our thoroughly entertaining guide.’
BBC Music Magazine

Deck the hall

Emma — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

‘Ding dong! This is my kind of Christmas present. A musical Christmas cracker –
fascinating and full of interesting surprises.’
Gyles Brandreth

‘Enlightening and entertaining. You’ll never hear or sing these carols in the same way again’
Anne-Marie Minhall

‘And I thought I knew about Christmas carols.’
John Rutter

Five Straight Lines

Emma — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

‘Fascinating … Composer Andrew Gant is a masterful guide, introducing readers to the major players and key themes of an entrancing topic.’ BBC History MagazineWhether you prefer Baroque or pop, Theremins or violins, the music you love and listen to shapes your world. But what shaped the music? Ranging across time and space, this book takes us on a grand musical tour from music’s origins in prehistory right up to the twenty-first century. Charting the leaps in technology, thought and practice that led to extraordinary revolutions of music in each age, the book takes us through medieval Europe, Renaissance Italy and Jazz era America to reveal the rich history of music we still listen to today. From Mozart to McCartney, Schubert to Schoenberg, Professor Andrew Gant brings to life the people who made the music, their techniques and instruments, as well as the places their music was played, from sombre churches to rowdy taverns, stately courts to our very own homes.

Christmas Carols: From Village Green to Church Choir

Emma — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

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.