Percy DearmerBesprekingen

Definitive source for traditional Christmas songs. Contains many not usually collected in popular books.

A large collection of traditional English carols, as well as modern carols. Most of the traditional ones are from sources in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; some were collected from folk sources in the nineteenth or eary twentieth centuries. There is an introduction on the history of carols, which makes the point that many traditional carols were not about Christmas; some were not even explicitly religious at all.

This is, I suppose, a "classic" in its way, although it is now mainly a curiosity.

Dearmer wrote this book from what everyone but himself would consider a distinctly "Sarum" position, deriving vestments and ceremonial from the Uses in England (not only Sarum but York and other local uses) prior to the Reformation, basing it on the Ornaments Rubric and a concern for following exactly what was formally allowed thereby. Much of that use, of course, overlapped with the more Roman-style ceremonial represented by Ritual Notes (and, of course, Society-of-Sts.-Peter-and-Paul parishes used Fortescue in any case) and was of general application, but the rest was never taken up by the majority of even "high" parishes, as it was seen as antiquarian in tone.

As the 20th century progressed, and especially after the debacle of the 1928/29 Prayer Book, it became the norm for the majority of Anglican parishes, in one way or another, to ignore not only the strict rules regarding ceremonial, however interpreted, but even the text of the BCP as established. Once parishes felt free of those sorts of constraints the relative fussiness of Dearmer's approach became less appealing.

There's still quite a lot in this book that is useful, but it's useful only when used by someone who, essentially, already knows it and its competition and is using it as a quick reference or a refresher. Otherwise it's mainly of historical (and, to a degree, nostalgic) significance.

The church choir I am in uses the English Hymnal, and what a delight it is to know you are often singing an alto part "harmonised by Ralph Vaughan Williams", and as like as not a tune he adapted from a folk song. Thank heaven he and his friends went around collecting these wonderful old tunes before they died out.

Perhaps in WARM's Australia, these songs are well-known. But in the United States most of them were virtually unknown until Martin Shaw's Chorale started singing them and this book gave people access to the music. And I would say that the majority would still be rarely used here in the U.S. Much of this music is drawn from early sources though rearranged in a more modern idiom. There are also a number of songs that express sentiments that go as well with neo-paganism as they do with Christianity.

a treaure trove of true anglican ceremonial

Listed authors (i.e., editors) other than Ralph Vaughan Williams taken from note of 'those concerned in the original production of the English Hymnal in 1906 (Preface, p. vii).

Listed authors (i.e., editors) taken from note in later edition of 'those concerned in the original production of the English Hymnal in 1906 (Preface, p. vii).

formerly at St Mary th Virgin Parish Church Kenton

Ex libris Cora L. Feldkamp.

Bound with S. Swithun's Prayer Book.For price see S. Swithun's Prayer Book.

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