Obscure Carol Classics II

Abstract

Sir Richard Runciman Terry (1865-1938) was one of the key figures in the history of Christmas carols. In addition to an impressive list of other works, which he wrote, edited, or arranged, he produced three books on carols which could well be regarded as classics. He published two of these in 1931, Gilbert and Sandy's Christmas Carols (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne), a small but extremely competent study of the two early carol collections, and A Medieval Carol Book (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne), again a small volume but one of the most important collec tions of medieval carols. The third classic, Two Hundred Folk Carols (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne), was published in 1933. THF was just as well done as the other two, but is especially valuable because of its size and scope. It has a preface of xxxii, 395 pages, and con tains sixty-eight English carols, eigh teen French carols, ten Besancon carols, eleven Bernaise and Burgun dian carols, thirteen Provencal carols, eighteen Basque carols, nine teen Dutch and Flemish carols, ten Italian carols, twenty-one German, Alsatian, and Polish carols, twelve European medieval carols, and two good indexes. The songs are all in English, with the title of all foreign carols given and the texts of the Latin carols and one Italian carol also