4. Carol Crisis? What Crisis?

Jeremy Summerly describes the impact of the Reformation and later Puritan attitudes to music in general and carols in particular.

The development of the Medieval carol may have been arrested but there was never a serious threat to folk caroling and it wasn't long after the Commonwealth that carols, or rather one particular carol, was back in church.

The choral conductor and scholar continues his series tracing the history of the Christmas Carol in Britain.

It's a journey full of song describing the history of a people who needed expression for seasonal joy in the coldest, hardest time of the year.

Producer: Tom Alban

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.