Frodo Baggins

Many many thanks!

Vox Humana and Martin, Thank you so much for your help and for your time! I'm very grateful

Hello, my name is Andrea and I’m a pianist and choir director in a small town near Rome, in Italy. First of all, many thanks for accepting me into your Forum. For several years I have been studying (from an historical point of view, mainly) Christmas Carols: I’m very keen on this music, but I find it very difficult to study its history especially because in Italy libraries are not equipped with the relevant bibliography. Searching through Internet, last year I came to this Forum and I was struck by your competence and accuracy about some Christmas Carols’ tunes. So I would like to ask you, if I may, two questions about two songs. 1) O little town of Bethlehem. I’ve already studied the tunes composed by L. H. Redner and R. V. Williams. However I have read that, among the several tunes of this Carol, two were composed by H. Walford Davies (“Wengen” and “Christmas Carol”): do you know if them were published and, if yes, there is a way for me to read them? 2) The holly and the ivy. In the collection "100 Carols for Choir" by D. Willcocks and J. Rutter (pag. 328 ss) there is that carol, arranged by Henry W. Davies (Sharp’s tune). Now, in the sheet music and generally in Internet it is stated that Davies copyrighted "The holly and the ivy" in 1913. Please, can you tell me what is the oldest collection in which the Henry Walford Davies' arrangement was published? I think it was before "Carols for Choir 2" (because if I'm not wrong this collection appeared in 1970). I have asked such questions also to St. George’s Chapel Archives, but they don’t have a catalogued copy of “The holy and the ivy” by sir Walford Davies. Many thanks... Andrea