Program notes from the composer: "This carol comes from the boar’s head procession held at Queen’s College, Oxford. In generations gone by other Oxford colleges such as St. John’s held their own style of processional with their own Boar’s Head Carol, but I believe only Queen’s College carried the ceremony into modern times. The Queen’s College version, in which the verses are sung by a solo voice, can be found in the Oxford Book of Carols. The tale behind this carol is of a student who was attacked by a wild boar during a walk in the woods, and who killed the beast by forcing a volume of Aristotle down its throat. The head was brought back to the college as proof of the power of philosophy." Stephen Hatfield