Christmas Carol Song begins as a slightly grand adaptation of American composer C B Hawley’s Christmas Cradle Song in a dotted 6/8 rhythm, to which the Adeste Fideles is added. English Organist and composer Alfred Hollins wasactive in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Blind from birth, Hollins was fortunate enough to attend the innovative Royal Normal College for the Blind outside London, whose music-intensive curriculum suited his gifts. Formore than forty years, he was the Organist at the Free St George’s Church in Edinburgh, and he travelled the English-speaking world repeatedly on concert tours.
