Scholarly Work that Requires Some Knowledge Base

Before ever reading the information on the back about the author's background, the book itself reveals that Andrew Gant is a musician and scholarly expert on this subject.  His work - The Carols of Christmas: A Celebration of the Surprising Stories Behind Your Favorite Holiday Songs -- is scholarly and requires a musical background to understand much of what he digs into.  Since I do not have that background (while in college, I struggled to make it out of Introduction to Music which was required for my major), I found much of the book to be meaningless to me; and that led to a lower rating of the book.

For those of you that absolutely love this book, please understand that these are my opinions based upon my knowledge base.  I am not a musician but am a lover of history, so I assumed this would be a treatise that I would greatly enjoy.  My hopes were that this examination of Christmas carols would be similar to Stephen Nissenbaum's Battle for Christmas; however, excluding the more narrow scope by Gant, the accessibility factor and seamless construct are the major differences.  As another example of accessibility for a reader, the author includes multiple Latin phrases to make a point about the origin of some language in a song; yet, the English translation is missing.  That omission leaves a reader wondering exactly the point the author is attempting to make.

The book does have neat stories and some interesting tales about the differences in these Christmas carols across nations and cultures.  He raised and answered some interesting questions about what are "carols" for the Christmas season.  For instance, consider "Jingle Bells" and "O Christmas Tree."  Neither one mention Christmas nor are they about the Christ child - now, you may want to argue the last one, but I simply say read that chapter and you will understand.  I did learn several things from this book, so it does have some value in it.

If you have a strong based of musical knowledge and love to know stories behind songs, then this is THE book for you.  I simply do not have that foundational knowledge, so reading this was a struggle for me. 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLookBloggers.com review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”