Music and texts of 201 carols for the Christmas season (many in more than one setting), each with copious notes on historical background and performance. An extensive general introduction gives an overview of the history of the carol, and there are a number of appendices dealing with specific areas of the repertory.

The book's approach is an attempt to rediscover the native vitality of material that has sometimes been debased and sentimentalized, by means of `authentic' period settings and a...