Some of the world's most influential carol tunes were published in 1582. These Pious Songs' were collected by a student of Danish parentage, who was born in Finland, grew up in the Russian Federation, studied in Germany, worked in Sweden, and died in Poland. Without one of Queen Victoria's ambassadors who rescued the collection from obscurity, the English-speaking world would never have known 'Good King Wenceslas' or 'Gaudete'.

Jeremy Summerly unwraps this Nordic Christmas gift, accompanied by the St Luke's Carollers.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/now-thats-what-i-call-carols-1582

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

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