Ralph Vaughan Williams
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My reaction to Lucy Worsley’s Christmas Carol Odyssey….
“Tudor” propaganda, “Tudors”, Anglo-Saxons, bias, Catholics, Charles “III”, Christina Rossetti, Christmas carols, Christmas truce, Edward VI, Ely Cathedral, Father Christmas, First World War, French Revolution, Gustav Holst, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Jacobites, Lucy Worsley, Methodists, music, mystery plays, Napoleonic wars, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Reformation, Reverend Phillips, wassailingSometimes the stories behind our much-loved Christmas carols are quite disheartening, involving as they do national and international strife and religious rivalry that was both bloody and filled with hatred. Yet every year we sing the resultant carols with joy. The reactions of the human race are sometimes contradictory. To say the least! I am…
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As we take down our Christmas trees and put away our recordings of “Santa Baby,” perhaps some of the readers of the Murrey and Blue are preparing to stroll forth on Twelfth Night to sing the charming “Gloucestershire Wassail” song for friends and neighbors this January 5th of the new year 2017. This is the traditional day…
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