Sacred & religious music – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk Henley-on-Thames Tue, 21 Jan 2025 12:18:59 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-Bell-Background-Blue-32x32.png Sacred & religious music – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk 32 32 Deck the hall https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/deck-the-hall-2/ Thu, 10 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=43726 Deck the Hall, musician Andrew Gant tells us the odd, surprising and fascinating stories behind a festive dish of Christmas songs and carols, from 'In the Bleak Midwinter' to 'Jingle Bells'.]]> ‘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 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/deck-the-hall/ Thu, 12 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=35992 ‘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

]]> Music In The Castle Of Heaven https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/music-in-the-castle-of-heaven/ Thu, 03 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/music-in-the-castle-of-heaven/ Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most unfathomable composers in the history of music. How can such sublime work have been produced by a man who seems so ordinary, so opaque – and occasionally so intemperate?

In this remarkable book, John Eliot Gardiner distils the fruits of a lifetime’s immersion as one of Bach’s greatest living interpreters. Explaining in wonderful detail how Bach worked and how his music achieves its effects, he also takes us as deeply into Bach’s works and mind as perhaps words can. The result is a unique book about one of the greatest of all creative artists.

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