20th Century
A History of Pop Music – 1955
Featured song: Bill Haley & His Comets with “Rock Around the Clock”. This is a series of articles looking at pop music from 1955 when in my opinion proper pop music began up to 1999 [more…]
Music
Arts
The Organ (ii)
Wind The accompanying image is taken from Dom Bedos’ ‘ l’art du Facteur d’ Orgues’ (1776), and shows, among other things, a single organ-blower, operating one of three ‘feeders’ – or possibly, pumping two of the [more…]
Arts
The Coventry Carol
Several oil-on-oak-panel versions of The Massacre of the Innocents were painted by 16th-century Netherlandish painters Pieter Bruegel the Elder and his son Pieter Brueghel the Younger. The work translates the Biblical account of the Massacre [more…]
Arts
The Holly and the Ivy – King’s College Cambridge 2008
The words of the carol occur in three broadsides published in Birmingham in the early nineteenth century. An early mention of the carol’s title occurs in William Hone’s 1823 work Ancient Mysteries Described, which includes [more…]
Arts
Weaponising Campanology
Bells have been rung since time immemorial, but full circle bell ringing only began a few hundred years ago in this country. Bells on the continent are rung in various ways either mechanical or manual. [more…]