INTRODUCTION
Of their very nature hymns and psalms were dedicated by the human spirit, with due reverence, to one or more superior beings. In ancient Egypt, in the lands of the Bible, Greece and elsewhere, devotional dance, song and instrumental music were offered to a Deity or deities. Plato, Socrates’ greatest disciple, commended the singing of hymns in the fifth and fourth centuries, B. C. Carols on the other hand did not originally have a religious intention.

By Plato’s time the universal popularity of the theatre as entertainment was long established. There was chorus, acting, dancing and singing, frequently in alternation with the classical Greek flute-like instrument the aulos. The Greek word choros properly means a circling dance, as well as the chorus or choir that performed such dances. The compounded chor-aulos, forerunner of the carol, can thus be said to have signified an often pleasurable form of entertainment.


The 55 carols, as they appear in this volume, are intended for unison singing in any domestic or parish performance. It has been my aim to keep as closely as possible to the style of Elizabeth Poston’s arrangements. Most of the keyboard writing is in three parts, and, while preserving the essentials of the music, they lie easily within the technique of people who even though enthusiastic about carol performing, are otherwise busy, and do not have burning musical aspirations. With this degree of simplicity, singers and players should find no problems in making informal performances a practical and pleasurable pastime. This is, after all, how carols were born. The undeniable glamour of trained, hand-picked multi-voiced choirs with large organs and orchestras is often centuries later than the original carols. Yet in the true spirit of the carol many of these here, according to whim, may well be performed with additional instruments using whatever comes to hand – dinner-gongs, bells, fingers on table-tops, metal spoons on empty bottles, wooden spoons on saucepans, and of course hand-clapping and foot-stamping, and certainly, where suitable, community dancing. The essential thing is to spread the act of celebration from the keyboard out to participation by all present.