Thanks for that S_L.
My biggest puzzle is the origins of item 5 ‘French Carol’. The thing that I would like to know is where did Hurford get the theme? What is the theme? Is it something he got from his time in France with Andre Marchal without knowing it had English origins?
Also, would he have composed at his desk or improvised and then written the piece out in full and in correct form?
So has he improvised in error an existing English carol from a forgotten memory or extemporised knowingly and expanded upon the same? A bit of work with the Carols for Choirs I and the Cowley and Oxford Carol books will reveal that the first 8 notes of his theme were part of an existing carol. He would have known this surely (as would OUP) but there is no acknowledgment printed. ‘Tis mystery all!
Whatever the answer one can certainly sing "Christmas is coming, the sevenths are getting flat."
GC