In theory the Internet is the right tool for the job. Many special interest groups exist and, by working at it, you can easily expand your musical horizon. A few of us have been interested in making that step easier. We have some crazy ideas, but the core is to connect knowledgeable people to the musicians and their audience. To start things off there will be a semi regular guest commentary in addition to the normal surf report. The writers have eclectic tastes and strong opinions, so strap in and prepare to discover some new music!
comments and suggestions on this slightly different approach to the blog are very welcome!
We're reaching the end of the holiday season, and with it the end of
what might be called "seasonal holiday music" - for a year, anyway.
Those of us with an interest in this sort of music, or with significant
others or children or visiting relatives or parents with a similar
interest, are by now thoroughly marinated in ditties about kings and
angels and sleighbells and the like.
Over the years, my wife and I (mostly my wife) have accumulated a
number of albums of seasonal/Christmas music which play a large
role in making the Christmas season what it is. I've selected a
subset of the music that my wife likes to hear. I
even enjoy some of it myself.
I've tried to pick music which is interesting, either because the tunes
aren't your usual elevator music, or because the singers have an interesting
take on the tunes, or simply because the recording stands out in some way.
You'll not find much in the way of reverent music here - reverence is easy.
About half of these albums are on independent labels.
As with foreign languages, I am incompetent in many genres of music and
on a number of instruments. I am not a musician. Any resemblance between
informed commentary and what I've written below is purely coincidental.
There's no effort to be comprehensive and no pretense of comprehensitivity
or any other social malady.
I am particularly incompetent at jazz and related genres, and as our
jazz/blues/pop Xmas albums simply do not get air time during the season,
because my wife doesn't like jazz/blues/pop Xmas albums, I am not going
to mention those here. Nor will I mention Bob Rivers or Dr. Demento
albums, because I didn't remember them until just now and I'm already
past my deadline, but you can find them on Amazon or by googling. And you
should. (Among my favorite Rivers tracks: "The Bathroom Door Said Gentle-
men". Highly recommended. Thanks to JJ for introducing me to this high-brow
stuff.)
_______
My all-time favorite holiday album is a collection recorded by Maddy Prior
and the Carnival Band: "Carols and Capers", Park Records PRK CD9. Prior
is one of my favorite singers, not only for her voice, which is crystal-
clear with a driving edge, but also because she chooses less familiar tunes.
The Carnival Band plays an unusual collection of instruments, among which
shawm, curtal, bagpipes, and tin whistle.
Prior is front and center. The Carnival Band plays with enthusiasm and energy.
Wassail, one of the more familiar tunes, stands out in comparison to renditions
in other collections. The harmonies are complex and bracing, almost astringent -
a welcome contrast to the easy sugary simplicity of elevator carols. This album
demonstrates that Christmas music need not be simple-minded. The arrangements
are by Andy Watts.
Not your usual holiday music. Most highly recommended.
Online:
steeleye span records
amazon
parkrecords
Note that the Amazon link offers two-fer price on a 2nd Prior album, "Hang Up
Sorrow and Care", which is an even better collection of tune-age than "Carols
and Capers". If I were stranded on a desert island with a portable CD player,
a copious supply of batteries, and a few CDs, "Hang Up Sorrow and Care" would
be among those CDs.
______
I have three second-place favorites: Christmas Revels; Peter Paul and Mary's
"A Holiday Celebration"; and a classical recording by Paul McCreesh and the
Gabrieli Players of Michael Praetorius' music (mostly), styled as a "Lutheran
Mass for Christmas Morning."
The Christmas Revels are a stage production of music and Mummer's Play produced by
the non-profit Revels, Inc., based in Cambridge, MA, and directed by John Langstaff.
According to the jewel box insert, "the Christmas Revels celebrates the ushering out
of the shortest day of the year, and the welcoming of the rebirth of the sun - a
wild and holy day known to early civilization as the Winter Solstice, which many of
us celebrate as Christmas."
Although the members of the Revels' production staff are professionals, much of the
bounce and good spirits of the recording come from the amateur musicians chosen to
participate. The price paid is an imprecision of ensemble, but the result is nonethe-
less infectious. As Peter Schickele once said, "Everyone went out whistling the tunes."
I have Revels Records CD1078, one of their many recordings. See the first entry on:
http://revels.bizland.com/store/index.html
Revels website is:
http://www.revels.org/
Like the Prior recording above, they perform unusual arrangements with modern and
antique instruments - among which rebec, sackbut, lyzarden, shawms &c. In common
with the Prior recording, the use of old instruments lends the recording a primitive
and unsophisticated sound which contrasts pleasantly with the sophistication of the
music.
Much of the pleasure of this album lies in the unfamiliar and less familiar tunes -
for example the Monk's March - and the sound of the ensemble. "Lord of the Dance",
based on the Shaker tune "Simple Gifts", is a particular favorite.
Personally I find Watts' arrangements on the Prior album more interesting - compare
Wassail on the two albums - but there's a larger diversity of tunes on the Revels
album than on the Prior albums (Revels accomplishes this by packing 30 tracks into
45 minutes, versus 18 tracks in the 50 minutes of the Prior album) so it's an enjoyable
album and well worth including in your holiday music marinade next year.
_____
Peter Paul and Mary recorded "A Holiday Celebration live with the New York Choral Society"
some years ago for a PBS TV Special. Most years you can find replays on TV. I'm reviewing
the selection of audio cuts that was released as Warner CD 9 45070-2.
PP&M are so well-known that I haven't much to say interesting that hasn't been said
many times by commentators much more knowledgable than I am.
This recording is bursting with energy. The arrangements tend toward rich harmonies.
The song mix includes both traditional carols and lesser-known songs. I particularly
enjoyed Wish You a Merry Christmas (says something about me, no doubt, but the lead-in
patter sets up the album nicely). The album ends with their trademark song, "Blowin'
in the Wind", which unfortunately is appropriate this year. The attitude of the album
is non-sectarian/liberal.
My primary reservation is the same reservation I have about most of PP&M's music: the
harmonies are so rich that they sometimes cross the veer across the median strip into
self-parody. Listen to this album back to back with the Prior album and you'll see
what I mean: the Prior album is taut, lean, and supple - the PP&M album can be Just
Too Much, like eating holiday roast beast and cheese cake for two weeks straight.
Eventually it wears out its welcome.
Until next year.
PP&M fans will disagree with me, I am sure; but I also suspect that non-PP&M people
will barf at the idea of listening to PP&M Christmas music.
The liner notes are disgracefully inadequate, a more positive evaluation than they
deserve.
______
Most "classical music" Christmas albums pick a set of Christmas tune-age written
by 19th and 20th century composers - a familiar example is the tune Gustav Holst
wrote for "In the Bleak Mid-Winter" - and stir in a set of lambently refulgent
musicians such as The Three Tenors or a famous soprano (see the Kathleen Battle
recording below) with an entirely predictable result: great voices singing
uninteresting arrangements of utterly familiar music.
I came across the Gabrieli Consort and Players recording of "Michael Praetorius -
Lutheran Mass for Christmas Morning" on DG Archiv recording 439250-2 a couple of
years ago. Other performers on this recording are the the Boy's Choir and Congre-
gational Choir of Roskilde Cathedral, and the Roskilde Cathedral organ ably assisted
by Timothy Roberts. Paul McCreesh directs. Some of the tune-age is by composers
Samuel Scheidt and J.H.Schein, contemporaries of Praetorius. This is a "period
instruments" recording.
"This recording presents a selction of Praetorius' music as it might have been heard
at a Lutheran mass for Christmas morning celebrated at one of the major churches in
central Germany around 1620. The reconstruction follows the 1569 Wolfenbuttel Order
of Service, a rite owing much to Luther's Wittenberg liturgies.."
Makes you positively drool at the prospect of hearing the music, eh?
No?
Well, think again. Remember that Luther wrote some of the most enduring hymns in the
Protestant hymnology - for example "A Mighty Warrior".
Praetorius (1571-1621) was a contemporary of Shakespeare, and like Shakespeare was
the foremost practitioner of his art in his generation. Many of the tunes we recognize
in Christmas music today were composed or adapted by Praetorius and his contemporaries.
Among the tracks which particularly appealed to me:
from the Introit "Puer natus in Bethlehem": great solo and ensemble singing
with surprising and energetic choral entrances;
the Gradual Hymn: Luther's familiar "Von Himmel hoch da komm ich her";
the Pulpit Hymn: Quem Pastores laudavere - a lovely 14thC folk-hymn,
traditionally sung by four boy sopranos placed high in the galleries
to represent the heavenly host of angels on Christmas night;
the Final Hymn: Puer nobis nascitur, which is the tune for three hymns in
the Presbyterian Hymnal I consulted (oddly enough, I don't know any of the
three);
the Recessional: In dulci jubilo - known to us as "Good Christian Men Rejoice",
with volume and sonorities to challenge anyone's sound system.
This is a very engaging album, presenting familiar Christmas tunes in unfamiliar
arrangements which are indeed much earlier than the overly familiar arrangements
we all know by dint of repetition!
At once religious, reverent in the best way, and engagingly joyful. A must-have
Christmas album.
____________
In the rest of this list I'll describe albums only briefly and say no more
than a few words about why I mention them.
The first album, "A Waverly Consort Christmas" (Virgin Veritas D108831),
subtitled "Christmas from East Anglia to Appalachia" is another quasi-
classical album, with Michael Jaffee directing. It exemplifies another
style of classical seasonal music, one which mines early (baroque) and
18th and 19th century folk music for less well-known seasonal tunes.
This Waverly album presents music ranging from the 13th century to the
mid-1800s. Among the tracks are:
Wassail - pleasant harmonies, not challenging - just compare it with
the arrangement of the same tune on the Prior and Revels recordings; and
Bethlehem - a tune by the self-taught American composer William Billings,
with interesting turns and harmonies
This is a very civilized album, without the excitement and challenge
of the four albums I listed above it. Good playing, good singing, middling
interesting tune-age, in my opinion; interesting instruments and ensemble;
and preferable to most of the Christmas albums marketed each year. But not
a first choice.
__________
Pete Seeger - Traditional Christmas Carols - Smithsonian Folkways 40024
Seeger front and center on banjo - close-miked, a clear vibrant solo recording.
Standard Christmas carols, sung by one of the masters of folk song. Enjoyable,
but even Pete Seeger singing "What Child is This" is nonetheless another
arrangement of "What Child is This".
The liner notes aren't. If you like Pete Seeger, or don't mind standard Christmas
carol fare, this is a good choice. Otherwise you probably won't find anything
particularly exciting here.
__________
Britten - Ceremony of Carols - King's College Choir, Steven Cleobury, Argo 433215-2
Yet another style of classical Christmas music - 20th century composers of
new music. Some of these tunes have become very familiar - for example Deo
Gracias. Or perhaps at some point long ago and far away I was involved in
a performance and have never recovered from the experience.
You can't dislike an album which has titles like: "For I will consider my
cat Jeoffry" or (track 15) "For the Mouse is a creature of great personal
valour". (If you want to know what these have to do with Christmas - you'll
have to buy the album.)
This is a choral recording, no instrumentals. Unearthly harmonies.
Britten is an acquired taste. Although I enjoy this album, I haven't entirely
acquired the taste yet. But it's not conventional Christmas music, for sure.
__________
Kathleen Battle, Christopher Parkening - Angel's Glory - Sony SK62723
A star ensemble of the sort I mentioned. It stands out for its imaginative
and unconventional set of songs. Unfortunately I'm put off by the conventional
reverent style. Battle has a lovely voice, but I'll take Maddy Prior any day.
The two artists (Battle and Parkening) mostly work together, but there's one
solo each by Parkening and Battle.
If you don't mind conventional reverence, go for it.
__________
Chanticleer - Sing We Christmas - Teldec 4509-94563-2
Chanticleer is a male a capella group named after Chaucer's clear-singing rooster.
(I know because the liner notes say so.) Well-crafted harmonies, less forward motion;
seems overly restrained after the Gabrieli Consort performance, but beautiful singing
nonetheless. Some of the tracks seem almost sluggish in comparison to other albums.
My favorites on this album:
Verbum caro factum est, a un nino llorando - lovely performance, polyphonic;
Ive's Christmas Carol; and
Billing's A Virgin Unspotted
__________
Noel - a 3 CD set of Christmas music from Harmonia Mundi France
On Yoolis Night - Anonymous 4 - Harmonia Mundi France HMX 290825, subtitled
"Medieval Carols and Motets"
Truly great singing. Anonymous 4 have become a star vehicle, but there's nothing
restrained or affected about their singing. They're great.
The only potential difficulty here is that the music they sing is so different
from what most Christmas listeners are used to that one doesn't recognize it
as Christmas music. No matter, get the album and learn to love it.
Anonymous 4 have two other albums more or less losely related to Christmas
(consider how much music from medieval Europe was *unrelated* to Christ!):
"A Star in the East" (Hungarian Christmas music), and "The Lily and the Lamb".
Unreservedly recommended excepting only that unless you already know and enjoy
medieval chant and polyphony, their singing will like as not take a while to
grow on you.
_________
The next album in this Harmonia Mundi series is "Carols from the Old and New World",
sung by the Theatre of Voices as directed by Paul Hillier on HMX 290824.
In contrast to the Battle/Parkening album (which is saved by the unconventional
choice of songs) this album includes mostly familiar carols - "Hark the Herald
Angels Sing" (gak), in unfamiliar arrangements. The Theatre of Voices sing with
great energy. A welcome antidote to anodyne carol recordings.
A brief brief for Harmonia Mundi - they are one of the largest (I'm guessing
the largest) independent classical music label, with a wide range of repertoire
and artists. I am mostly familiar with their recordings of early music, but
they range much more widely than early music alone. Their recordings are almost
always of interest, and their album notes copious and interesting. Highly
recommended!
Try for example Corelli's Christmas Concerto (number 8) by Patrick McGegan
conducting the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (HMU 907014). A subset of
the album notes can be found at:
http://www.digitalphono.com/m/McGeganNicholas/Corelli_Op6_1-6/
Unfortunately this link is of no more than historical interest, and then only
to those of us who were involved in the creation of digitalphono.com.
Digitalphono.com has been defunct for more than three years, yet somehow
continues to serve pages.
_________
Medieval Carols - Oxford Camerata, Jeremy Summerly, dir. Naxos 8.550751
Enjoyable album - my favorite tracks were "Riu riu chiu" and "Gaudete Christus
est natus". Naxos is a budget label which has brought out a huge number of
recordings of familiar and less familiar music. This album is well worth
having, especially at the price.
_________
Christmas Carols - Simon Preston & Choir of Westminster Abbey - DG 445572-2
This is one of those albums which sets my teeth on edge, entirely unfairly
to the performers. It's familiar carols, familiar arrangements, excellent
choral singing. I still can't bring myself to like it. Too reverent, too
conventional, too, hmm, well, too much the standard Christmas music recording.
Another recording that I similarly dislike is an old recording by Elizabeth
Schwarzkopf, one of my favorite singers, and conducted by none other than
Charles Mackerras, no slouch himself, with Denis Vaughan on organ and Julian
Bream on guitar. ugh. I've played it exactly once. Angel D103375, if you can
find it.
If you like conventional reverent Christmas recordings, consider these two.
_________
"A Baroque Christmas" - Roger Norrington directing the Heinrich Schutz Choir,
London String Players, Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, Camden Wind Ensemble, and
Charles Spinks (organ). London 430 065-2.
A classical Christmas album along the lines of the Gabrieli's recording of
Praetorius Lutheran Mass above, with the difference that Norrington has selected
music from a variety of composers.
My favorite tracks: Schutz - "Hodie Christus natus est", Hammerschmidt - "Alleluja!
Freuet Euch, ihr Christen alle", and Praetorius (again) - "Singt, ihr lieben Christen
all".
Another enjoyable recording, well worth owning if you enjoy choral Christmas
music. You will recognize a number of the tunes, although probably not the
arrangements or the words.
The Gabrieli's recording of the Lutheran Mass wins out as my first recommendation
over Norrington's recording because the latter recording just doesn't have as much
zip. Subjective, but that's my preference.
_________
The surprise entry into the Christmas music marinade isn't a Christmas recording at
all. I figured I could sneak it in because a) most people won't get this far, so
won't object, and b) anyone who's read this far must be seriously interested all
out of proportion to common sense, and so needs another good recording.
Hanneke Cassel - My Joy - Cassel Records HJC2001
http://www.harborside.com/~cassel/myJOY_cd.htm
Cassel is a young folk fiddler trained at the Berklee College of Music. Her biography
is on her website:
http://www.hannekecassel.com/
I gather from what I read in various places (the liner notes are woefully inadequate)
she's a devout Christian, so perhaps including her album among Christmas albums isn't
too far out. Be that as it may, my wife has had this album playing multiple times a day
during the holiday season although she's winding down to only once or twice a day.
It's hard to believe, but the recording withstands that kind of exposure.
This is a joyous recording of great tune-age. You have to have it if you don't actively
dislike fiddle music. What stands out for me in this music is the fiddler's joy in her
craft.
I particularly like "November" (fits, eh?), "Farewell to Mass Ave", and most of all
"Tannen's Wedding March". Cassel composed all of these tunes.
You have to get this album.
Buy it.
Now.
