Merrily on High: the History of the British Carol

Wednesday 5th December 2012 at 2 .00 pm

Peter Medhurst

Peter Medhurst’s work as singer, pianist and lecturer-recitalist has taken him all over the world, and in the last few years he has toured New Zealand, Australia (twice) and South Africa (three times), and made frequent tours in Europe, giving performances in Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Salzburg, Brussels, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Paris and Spain.  Closer to home, he has presented events at the Barbican, St John’s Smith Square, and the Royal Festival Hall on the Beethoven String Quartets, The Mozart Operas, Vermeer’s Music Lesson, The Twelve Days of Christmas, The Golden Age of Vienna, and 18th Century Venetian Art and Music.  He has also directed presentations at the Wallace Collection, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A, linking the visual arts with the world of 17th & 18th century music making.

Peter’s lecture traces the progress of the English Christmas carol through seven centuries of continuous development and explores the many fascinating stories that lie behind our popular seasonal songs.

Carols discussed include : Angelus ad virginem, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, The First Nowell, I Saw Three Ships, While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night, Christians Awake, Hark! the Herald Angels Sing, Adeste fideles, and In the Bleak Midwinter.

Peter has his own website which is available here.

Below are photos of this lecture