Saturday, December 5, 2020

The Music That Puts Us In The Mood... for Christmas

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in southern Maine, where we’re having our first snow storm of the season. That’s good because 1) the Guest Son brought most of the wood inside to the woodroom over the Thanksgiving weekend and 2) it’s been hard to feel like it’s “the most wonderful time of the year” with everything going on. Or more precisely, everything NOT going on. Not going out to stores, not attending parties, not going to church, not seeing The Nutcracker at the ballet or The Magic of Christmas at the symphony.


But we do have a few holiday stalwarts we can enjoy just as much this year as any other. One of them is music.


I enjoy the Christmas classics as much as anyone (or at least, as much as anyone not working retail during the holiday season) but my favorite music for this time of year is a bit melancholy. My favorite carols are medieval and early modern pieces, in minor keys and with lots of voices echoing on stone walls. 


My favorite album for the season is George Winston's classic "December," from Windham Hill. When Ross and I were dating in D.C, I dragged him to a George Winston Christmas concert at the Kennedy Center. I was sitting there, enraptured by the music, when I heard this sound like water backing up in the pipes from the seat next to me. It was Ross, sound asleep. (To be fair, he'd been pulling some pretty late nights as a law student at the end of the term.)


And the song I most love in this season - I feel it's one of the few secular Advent songs - is Joni Mitchell's River. It seems...uniquely right this year.


How about you, Reds? What tunes give you that festive feeling?


RHYS BOWEN:  Not going to the Nutcracker for the first time in 18 years is heartbreaking. My first song of Christmas is always Mannheim Steamroller. But I have been humming various Christmas songs as I bake today. Jolly old St Nicholas and All I want for Christmas is you! Not exactly highbrow. But this is one time of year when I love to play familiar music, from the choir at Kings College Cambridge to German folk carols to Bing Crosby. They put me in the mood. 

 

I’m wondering how much to decorate this year for just John and me?

 

JULIA: Rhys, my vote is for doing it up. Like music, the Christmas decorations we use - inside and outside, are one of the few normal touches we have this pandemic December.  


Jenn McKinlay: Back in the late ‘90’s when I had my first solo apartment in Phoenix with a vintage Merritt O’Keefe gas oven that I had to light with a match (not kidding!), I got really into cookie baking. Everyone one I knew got tons of cookies! I spent most evenings that December baking while listening to The Cambridge Singers which I had just discovered on NPR. This has remained my own personal holiday tradition ever since. As hard as this year has been (mercy!), if I listen to John Rutter’s “What Sweeter Music” while I bake cookies, I am eased. 




LUCY BURDETTE: One thing I will miss sorely this season is singing, and listening to groups of people singing. We’ve often gone to hear a small production of the Messiah in our church, and it’s so lovely and special. So that’s what I’ll listen to this year…

 


And one more truly astonishing performance would be Luciano Pavoratti singing O HOLY NIGHT. That might help me remember what the season’s about and hang on to some hope for next year!


HALLIE EPHRON: I’ll dig out Handel’s Messiah from our piles and piles of vinyl. Way back when, I sang in a choral group so I know the alto part. Which means I’ll want to sing along. Which means it’s a good thing the kids won’t be here because they HATE it when I do that. Then we might dig out our ancient Elvis Presley Christmas album. We’ll definitely tune into a Christmas Celtic Sojourn on Public Radio. And listen to Christmas poems -- The Night Before Christmas and A Child’s Christmas in Wales. (Did anyone listen to Alice’s Restaurant on Thanksgiving?)

 

JULIA: Hallie, yes! It was a favorite of Ross's, and it's a family tradition. "The twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one..." 

 

I couldn't find a good video of the King singing "Santa Claus is Back in Town," but here's a great rendition by none other than Kurt Russell: 


 


DEBORAH CROMBIE: One of the musical treats of a normal Christmas for me is the Dallas Winds Christmas concert (especially as my friend Gigi is the Operations Director and if I'm really nice I get to go backstage!) They are actually doing a very limited seating, limited band show in the Meyerson Symphony, but they are also streaming, so I've got my ticket for that on the 18th.


Jenn, I LOVE John Rutter's Cambridge Singers. I'll have to dig out my CDs. I will listen to anything Christmasy, but some special favorites are Jewel's Christmas album, and, always, the soundtrack to LOVE ACTUALLY.

 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Yes, The Love, Actually soundtrack. And yes, the Messiah, which I will sing at the top of my voice. All the parts. I try to sing ALL the parts. (And yes, Hallie, Alice’s Restaurant is a Thanksgiving tradition.)   My favorite carols, too, like Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel. And God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. And as Pogo sings, Deck the Halls With Boston Charlie, Walla Walla Wash, and Kalamazoo. Very festive!

 


How about you, dear readers? What's playing on your record player to get you in the mood?

71 comments:

  1. Christmas music . . . we have so many favorites.
    Jackie Evancho’s “O Holy Night,” “Heavenly Christmas,” and “Someday at Christmas” albums
    Handel’s “Messiah”
    Il Divo’s “The Christmas Collection” and “The Classic Chreistmas Album”

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    1. Joan, I hadn't heard of Jackie Evancho before, so I looked her up on YouTube. She's amazing!

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  2. I love so many different types of Christmas music and so many different kinds of performers of it. I was listening to. PBS special recently of Andy Williams’ music. It was during a fund raising drive, and I donated $60 so I could get his Christmas CD set. I live his voice singing the Christmas classics. I love hearing the traditional Christmas hymns by done in traditional style. Silent Night, The First Noel, Oh Come All Ye Faithful, and O Holy Night give me such peace. As a friend commented the other day, she doesn’t like having Silent Night twisted into a screaming rendition, as it ironically diminishes the meaning. Another low-keyed Christmas collection is Kenny Loggins’ December CD.

    I appreciate some more lively Christmas tunes, too. There’s a group called The Steel Drums, all instrumental, that gets me dancing, and the cute Christmas classics like Rocking Around the Christmas Tree can have bopping and grinning. Then, there are the awful songs like Dominic the Christmas Donkey that I find myself singing along to.

    I also love listening to some of the Christmas jazz CDs and YouTube offerings. Oh, and I do love Joni Mitchell’s River, Julia.

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    1. Kathy, we have at least one Andy Williams Christmas album (a literal album) because that was the music from Ross's childhood Christmas. And we have "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" from the Ray Coniff Singers, because that's the music of MY childhood Christmases.

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  3. I have three Christmas music playlists in my iTunes- a Classical, with Rutter, Brittens's Ceremony of Carols, all the British college choirs, and more; a Traditional, which is built around the Time Life Christmas Classics trio of CDs and has all the crooners and other music from when I was a kid; and Contemporary, which has a pretty random mix
    of CDs by, among others, the Indigo Girls, Melissa Etheridge, Kelly Clarkson, Straight No Chaser, and of course my absolute fave, Pentatonix. Love all of them!

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    1. Pentatonix! Yes!!! Remember that TV show they were first on? It was clear they were amazing.

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  4. I adore Pete Seeger's Christmas album. I always sing along to the Messiah too, definitely a solo activity!

    (Julia, early in my relationship with Hugh, he took me to Symphony Hall to see three jazz greats: Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette. No singing. I fell asleep - it's not my music. We thereafter agreed he would go to instrumental jazz concerts alone or with other friends. The money is wasted on me.)

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    1. Edith, I laughed. For Ross, it was a habit he never outgrew. I learned to only take him to matinee movies. Even the 6 or 7 o'clock showings were often late enough for him to doze off.

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  5. Lots of new music here for me to seek out--thanks! I have an ancient cassette tape of the music from the Nutcracker--always gets me in the mood. Plus Celtic and Zydeco. Doesn't take much to get me in the spirit of Christmas....

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    1. Good for you, Flora! The heavy snow falling outside my window is definitely doing it for me right now...

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  6. The only Christmas music I've heard so far, on purpose anyway, was Rudolph on TV the other night. We usually start on Thanksgiving afternoon, not before, but this year is different is so very many ways.

    My favorite holiday music comes from King's College, Cambridge, particularly Lessons and carols on Christmas Eve. This will be my first time n 25 years to miss going to a local Lessons and
    carols. Next year in Jerusalem I guess. Besides the usual, my all time favorite carol is "In the Bleak Midwinter" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0aL9rKJPr4

    This is one of the bleakest of winters, isn't it.

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    1. I also love the King's College choir, Ann.

      Yes, the bleakest in my personal history...

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    2. Oh Ann, this will be my first time ever for missing Christmas Eve or Midnight mass. I hope I can find King’s College on TV.

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    3. Rhys, they broadcast Lesson and Carols on Christmas Eve on NPR

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    4. Ann, I feel like we're all going to learn the truth Dr. Seuss told us many years ago:
      "He HADN'T stopped Christmas from coming!
      IT CAME!
      Somehow or other, it came just the same."

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  7. This inspired me to wade through our piles of vinyl.... thanks!!

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    1. I got rid of our enormous 80s-era stereo set years ago, Hallie, but I'm thinking now I need to get one of those hip small record players that have come back into style.

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  8. Oh right Joni Mitchell—love that song!

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  9. What a great way to begin my day, thank you Julia and Reds !
    Bing Crosby's White Christmas was the favourite song of my mother and even if she died 46 years ago, I can't hear it without crying.
    I discovered River and What Sweeter Music and laughed at the last one.
    I prefer musical Christmas concerts. I have some of two Canadian composers and performers : Alain Lefebvre et André Gagnon ( who died this week).
    I usually like to watch Michael Bublé's Christmas show.

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  10. Last night I blasted Vivaldi's "Gloria" as we tried to straighten the crooked Christmas tree. Alas, in the ultimate crooked year, it remains at a rakish tilt.

    I grew up in a church with a English choir master, and continued to sing in a church choir as an adult. Lots of medieval carols plus Britten and John Rutter's arrangements. Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College every Christmas Eve on public radio, 10 am, when I'm cooking. "In the Bleak Midwinter" and "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree" are two favs.

    In other years, a Handel's Messiah sing-along. I still have the sheet music stuffed in the piano bench.

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    1. Margaret, I have sung in a church choir all my life. Had the privilege of leading the singing, cantering the psalms. I feel this great sadness as I even think about it now. As Ann said Next year in Jerusalem

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    2. Margaret, I happen to be particularly fond of "In the Bleak Midwinter." :-D

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    3. yes, and Claire's wedding processional, "Tomorrow will be my dancing day".

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  11. Growing up, I became quite accustomed to all the standard Christmas carols both serious and fun. And the parody songs like "The 12 Pains of Christmas" or "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer".

    My parents have a ton of Christmas albums by various artists that you can probably figure out on your own.

    There's a Celtic musician named Marc Gunn who has a Celtic Christmas podcast and he's a damn good artist.

    And while I generally disdain modern artists recording lame Christmas albums to fulfill a recording contract obligation, there are a few acts that have done at least one Christmas song that you can rock out to in varying degrees.

    Slade's "Merry Christmas Everybody" and The Eagles "Please Come Home For Christmas" are a couple of examples of original songs. And you can't discount the Bruce Springsteen version of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town". There's Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run", The Kinks had "Father Christmas" and Billy Squier's "Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You" is a classic.

    AC/DC has "Mistress For Christmas" which is decidedly not really a holiday song but you gotta love the cojones of the band for putting that song together.

    And you can't forget that Cheap Trick (another of my all-time favorite rock bands) recorded the album 'Christmas Christmas' in 2017 where they cover some of the songs I've mentioned plus did some original tracks as well.

    And last but absolutely not least, you have Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The massive holiday group is so big that they have to have two separate touring companies to hit the entire country in one year. The first three holiday albums are amazing. I've seen them in concert and it is a spectacle to behold. Part of the reason for my love of TSO is that the entire project was born from a song that was originally recorded by my all-time favorite heavy metal band SAVATAGE!

    "Christmas Eve / Sarejevo 12/24" first appeared on the Savatage album "Dead Winter Dead", a concept album about the war in the former Yugoslavia. The band released a single version of the song and sent it to radio stations. But no one would play it because it was Savatage. The next year, they re-released the single, slapped a wreath on the cover and re-named it Trans-Siberian Orchestra and now you hear it on every radio station everywhere come the holiday season. And it is the exact same recording! By the way, many of the musicians from Savatage have roles with Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

    I'm doing a weekly post on my personal Facebook page on Saturdays that spotlights a different theme each month. This month is holiday music of course and I started today off with "Christmas Eve / Sarejevo 12/24". It's going to be a rocking Christmas on my page, that's for sure.

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    1. That's fascinating about the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Jay. Decades ago, when they were planning their first US tour, one of the members of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's board of directors was involved somehow. She tried to recruit me to write grant proposals for the TSO but, alas, I had too many home/life commitments to take that on. A missed opportunity.

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    2. Thanks for sharing that story, Jay! I just read it aloud to my son and husband. We have enjoyed their annual stop in Columbus on several occasions!

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  12. Thank you for the not-sappy holiday music this morning. That version of River is exquisite.

    I also sang in the school choir, but only up to when the end of freshman year in high school, and Messiah still gives me thrills and chills. And a memory of singing with the other two high schools in our town one Christmas. What a sound.

    Most years I avoid stores that start playing Christmas music too early. Because by the actual holiday I'm sick of hearing Grandma Just Got Run Over by a Reindeer umpteen times. So, COVID bonus this year! A tiny bit of silver lining: no stores at all.

    My youngest finally leaves for Africa today, sans her husband, whose mother broke her hip yesterday morning. I bought her car from her, and inherited her Sirius account. There are an incredible number of holiday stations on satellite right now. And at least one local radio station usually switches to all holiday around Halloween. I will stubbornly refuse to listen until at least 10-14 days before Christmas. What annoys me is that they all stop playing holiday songs the day after Christmas.

    I know. Picky, picky.

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    1. I sang the Messiah with my high school choir and the choir from one of the local colleges, way back in the day, Karen! Great memories. Under no circumstances short of electrocution could I hit some of those notes these days. I was a soprano then, but am definitely an alto now.

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    2. Same here, Gigi, on both the electrocution and former soprano voice.

      And it makes me really sad that I can no longer sing as I once did, thanks to essential tremors. The first thing to go was my voice, about which I'd once been so proud. Sigh.

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    3. An alto is a soprano who can read music.

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    4. Karen, stopping Christmas music at 11:59pm December 25 is one of my big pet peeves, too!

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  13. Only one more week to the Jungle Reds cocktail party! The very best way to kick off the holidays, in my opinion.

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  14. I love so many of the titles that have already been mentioned here but do have my favorite versions. White Christmas? It has to be Bing. And my favorite version of River is Sarah McLachlan's. Jenn, that album by the Cambridge Singers gets a lot of play in my house this time of year, especially the Candlelight Carol.

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  15. We don't tend to do Christmas carols, I don't know why. I have several recordings from Kings College Cambridge that I listen to and some Manheim Steamroller albums. One never fail Christmas tradition is the Jingle Cats CD. Our three cats run all over the house looking for the singing cats. It's a holiday tradition that never fails.

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    1. When I worked retail after college the office manager had Manheim Steamroller on constantly. I love the group and what they do, but I still kind of get the shakes when I hear their Christmas music.

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  16. Okay, now you've made me cry with that version of River.

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    1. River is on Jewel's Christmas album, too. It's brilliant.

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    2. Isn't it gorgeous? Not many singers can level up to Joni Mitchell, but Sierra Eagleson can. I need to look for more of her music.

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  17. Oh, my! So much music. I've listened to it all at one point or another. The Nutcracker since I was a kid. John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers--legendary in choral circles! Anonymous 4 back in the 1990s. Joni Mitchell and Love Actually and, yes, the Dallas Winds. It all brings memories, doesn't it? I love Kurt Russell's cover of "Santa Claus is Back in Town." Is that Steve Van Zandt on guitar?

    As Deb mentioned, I usually spend my pre-Christmas days sitting in rehearsal or hunched over the Voice of God microphone backstage for Christmas at the Meyerson with the Dallas Winds. It's so much fun, and the band always sounds like a big old blast of seasonal spirit, whether we're playing "Sleigh Ride" or the minor key "Russian Christmas Music" or "Minor Alterations." We have a recording out there called Horns for the Holidays (excellent liner notes!) or you can catch our livestream on December 18.

    This is what we're doing to get onstage: Cutting the band down from our usual 55 musicians to 15; pre-testing all the musicians, staff, and crew for Covid; lining up stand-ins and rapid tests in case anyone tests positive; making sure everyone is socially distanced backstage and onstage; only selling 200 tickets, at carefully spaced locations throughout a 2,000 seat hall; bracing ourselves to pull the plug on it all if the state of Texas shuts down concert halls at the last minute; and losing money on the whole enterprise before we even walk into the Meyerson. I think I'm probably taking my life in my hands to be there and work this concert.

    But I'll be there. And I'll work it. And I'll hope we all have a merry Christmas, because it isn't Christmas without the music.

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    1. Gigi, can you give us a link for the livestream tickets?

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    2. We just watched The Christmas Chronicles last night and Kurt Russell's cover of Santa's Back in Town is now on my faves list. And I wondered who the musicians were.

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    3. I think most of the musicians are LA studio pros.

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    4. Did you know there are words to the music for The Nutcracker? The Cincinnati May Festival Chorus sang it at least once, and a friend who was in the chorus sang The Waltz of the Flowers. Naturally, I cannot find them. But this was almost 40 years ago, too.

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  18. You can get tickets to the Meyerson concert or the livestream at https://dallaswinds.org/december-2020/ And be sure to smile at our spectacular Santa, Rusty Mayes, with his big old baritone sax. He's a sweetie, and he'll be on hand this year, but I won't get my annual Santa hug.

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    1. It's wonderful the Dallas Winds are finding a way to make it happen, even virtually. I recently discovered the Portland Symphony Orchestra has done a streaming version of their much-beloved Magic of Christmas concert; I may buy a family ticket and make everyone sit down to watch!

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    2. Do it, Julia! Performing arts organizations need the support.

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  19. What a joyful, if bittersweet, topic! I love many of the things mentioned already -- the Windham Hill collection, Manheim Steamroller, Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Bing Crosby and Elvis. Pentatonix. One favorite of ours that is off the beaten path is Leon Redbone's Christmas Island CD. If you don't know him, Leon Redbone is a jazz and blues artist with a distinctive baritone voice. The CD is mostly Christmas classics with a few originals thrown in, but his unique style brings a new sound to them all.

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    1. Susan, Leon is definitely an original! I didn't know he had a Christmas CD. I will be checking it out!

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  20. Jungle Reds, lots of wonderful Christmas music!

    Personally, even if it is just us, I still love to decorate for Christmas and I plan to post a photo on Instagram on Christmas Day if my iPhone is still working. Right now it is limping and I still have warranty, though.

    Regarding music, I love King's College Cambridge choir if that is the music that we see and hear on Britbox? When I was growing up, with a profound hearing loss, the music that I loved was what I called dance music, mainly music from my ballet classes. Yes, the doctor said that I would have balance problems due to my hearing loss at 18 months old so the ballet classes was to correct my balance problems.

    Now I know that the dance music is also known as classical music.

    My grandmother loved Elvis Presley music.

    Diana

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    1. Diana, agreed with you about the decorating. If I need to stay at home as much as possible to be safe (and keep others safe) why not make it as lovely as possible?

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    2. Julia, yes! And when you have Zoom, it would be lovely for people to see Christmas decorations in the background too.

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  21. I haven't started playing any Christmas music yet. I'll have to haul out my CDs. I have a stack of LPs in a closet that haven't seen the light of day for years. My CDs include the usual suspects, The Messiah, The Nutcracker, Mannheim Steamroller, and a selection of classical orchestral numbers. I've also Bing Crosby, an album with Bing, Nat, and Dean, the Boston Pops with Arthur Fiedler. I've got a CD with everybody singing: Beach Boys, the Supremes, Gene Autrey, Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams, etc. I hope I have Blue Christmas somewhere. I have great memories of friends singing along with Elvis. . .blue, blue blue blue Christmas.

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    1. Pat, we have "A Ratpack Christmas," but I didn't know there was one with Bing, Nat King Cole and Dean Martin. I need to go looking for that!

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    2. It’s called Christmas with Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin.

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    3. Should be easy to find, then! :-D

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  22. I grew up listening to my mom and her sisters singing four part harmonies while washing the dishes at holiday meals. The concept, from their childhood, was to keep them from arguing while washing up and cleaning the kitchen. They did not always agree where to start the pitch as adults but it is a nice memory. I sang in the church choirs, the children's then graduated to adult's choirs. I also sang in the school chorus, high school and a couple years in college. In church I sang many hymns from the 1940 hymnal that, alas, some did not get included in the current one. One of my favorite is #38 - "Here betwixt ass and oxen mild, Sleep, sleep, sleep my little child", it's a simple and sweet piece. After a long gap, I've been invited to sing in the choir again and I'm trying to stretch back up to those soprano top notes, almost there. Doing a great deal of John Rutter this year. A piece from childhood, not by Rutter, called Star Candles is a fond memory.

    I was shocked the first time I found my mom playing Manheim Steamroller and Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I thought she would never enjoy the more contemporary arrangements. I have old vinyl, Readers Digest collections, from my childhood, one of the recordings is White Christmas by Lorne Green, not Bing Crosby. Yup, Pa Cartwright singing, not my favorite. I would be amiss if I didn't mention "Lucy and Linus" and "Christmas Time is Here" from Charlie Brown's Christmas. It's our local music. Oh, I do like Sleigh Ride by the Boston Pops. Okay, I like music. Now off to find the Dallas Winds on line and check out that program.

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    1. Deana, I miss the 1940 Hymnal at Christmas as well. I learned "Brightest and best of the sons of the morning" and "He comes, prepare ye virgins wise" and "Good Christian men, rejoice" (that last, with it's substituted "Good Christian friends, rejoice," is a real ear-clunker.)

      I still sing the old versions. Humph!

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    2. Julia, I somehow just auto-pilot to Good Christian men, rejoice...I'm not reading the words, just singing along. :-)

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  23. As no one mentioned Alvin and the Chipmunks? That's okay, didn't really want to hear them. Then there's the wonderful jazz setting to Charlie Brown's Christmas.

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  24. The Beach Boys Christmas Album, especially the man with all the toys.

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  25. I have about 30 Christmas albums. 2 Harry Simeone Chorales, George Beverly Shea, Firestone and other collections with famous singers like Bing Crosby and Julie Andrews and some you don't hear much anymore like Robert Merrill and Anna Maria Alberghetti. Also Bobby Vinton and John Denver. My favorite is Roger Whittaker who wrote some of the songs like "Mama Mary".

    I decorated as usual even though it's just me. Stay safe and well.

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  26. I have a ton of Christmas music - from what I grew up listening to, to the music that artists I enjoy now release for the holidays.

    One that always puts me in the Christmas spirit is "Come on, Ring Those Bells" as sung by Christian recording artist Evie. It was a staple in my house growing up, and it's got that nostalgia factor to automatically put me in the mood.

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  27. I love The Carol of the Bells and my Christmas with Dino (Dean Martin) CD. But any Christmas music is alright with me, the exception being Alvin and the Chipmunks. 😁

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  28. Big jazz fan here, so I like the NPR Jazz Christmas with Marian McPartland CDs, the Big Phat Band Wrap This!, Diana Krall Christmas Songs, James Taylor At Christmas. Last year I discovered Bela Fleck's Jingle All the Way -- The 12 Days of Christmas is amazing, each day has a different key and time signature! This year I found The Blenders CD Nog (fabulous a cappella group) and the Vince Lewis Quartet, Golden Christmas. Thanks for all the great suggestions and Happy Holidays to everyone!

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  29. I realize all have moved on to other topics, but if you like spiritual choral music, the St. Olaf Christmas Festival is streaming now for free (My husband works there):https://www.stolaf.edu/multimedia/play/?e=3196

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