A Victorian Christmas Songbook - hardcover

Here is the most original, the most attractive, above all the most entertaining Christmas book to appear for many a long year. Presented and compiled by Richard Graves - virtuoso, scholar and entertainer - the book contains a cornucopia of Christmas songs and pieces of yesteryear. In spite of (or because of) everything that television can offer, there is today an astonishing and encouraging revival of home entertainment. A Victorian Christmas Song Book explores the entertainment our grandparents made for themselves at Christmas-time, rediscovering the songs they sang, and enriching this experience with colourful, vivid and nostalgic illustrations of the period. The demand for 'occasional' music in the Victorian age was immense - particularly at the season of goodwill they took so seriously. Comic songs (Miss Hooligan's Christmas Cake), sentimental tear-jerkers (Now I've got no Daddy) and descriptive fantasies fantasias (those extraordinary hybrids that artlessly combined music and verbal commentary) poured from the pens of a thousand aspiring Sullivans. Here is a selection of songs and pieces, games and puzzles which is unique in its unpretentious and refreshing charm and in its haunting evocation of a genteel age long past. Sing it and play it, or simply join in the chorus. Fill up the glasses, gather round the piano. - Have a Happy Christmas. SHIPPING NOTES For CANADIAN buyers, shipping within the country is $15.00 USD. For AMERICAN buyers, shipping is $20.00 USD.