The Eton Choirbook, a rare and lovely survival of early Tudor choral music, does not, sadly, contain any Christmas carols. Carols were around in the years 1500 to 1504, when the choirbook was being made. They have their roots in the early middle ages, when Christmas music was either liturgical (the sequences of hymns assigned... Continue Reading →
It seems that Eton in the mid-1960s was a fertile source of creativity in contemporary music – pop music to be exact, boasting around a dozen home-grown pop groups. One of these has come to light in copies of material recently given to the Archives by the widow of a former group member, Jamie Graham.... Continue Reading →
Christmas carol in COLL EST HL 01 Written within a book of accounts kept by Richard Rowden, receiver of the rents for the college at Hanging Langford, Wiltshire, is this carol. Known now as “A Virgin most Pure”, it is thought to have originated in Gloucestershire during the 16th century, and the earliest written version... Continue Reading →
