Andrew Gant: Christmas Carols at Kneller Hall

Andrew Gant, composer and former choirmaster of Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal, tells the story of some of the most loved Christmas Carols. Unravelling a captivating - and often surprising - tale of great musicians and thinkers, saints and pagans, shepherd boys, choirboys, monks and drunks.

He will delve into the history of such favourites as 'Good King Wenceslas', 'Away in a Manger' and 'The Twelve Days of Christmas', discovering along the way how 'Hark, the Herald angels sing' came to replace 'Hark, how all the welkin ring' and how Ralph Vaughan Williams bolted the tune of an English folk song about a dead ox to a poem by a nineteenth-century American pilgrim to make 'O little town of Bethlehem'.

Join us to celebrate the start of the festive season – mince pies included!