# Christmas music!



## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Yes, 'tis the season. I AM one of those annoying people who loves listening to Christmas music as soon as Thanksgiving arrives. (Or earlier if the mood strikes me! I even sometimes sing "The First Noel" or "Oh Holy Night" as a lullaby to my kids)

So give me your must-listen to Christmas/holiday music list. It can be classical or non-classical, religous or secular, serious or goofy. It doesn't even have to BE about the holidays, if you associate it with your holiday anyway, list it. 

Some of mine:

Traditional Carols:
Oh Holy Night
The First Noel
Hark the Herald Angels
What Child is This
I Wonder as I Wander

Pop Christmas music:
I'll Be Home for Christmas
Snoopy's Christmas
White Christmas
The Chipmunk Christmas song (I don't really listen to it, but it was huge in my childhood so I have to list it for nostalgic purposes
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Baby it's Cold Outside
Silver Bells



I don't really have any full fledged classical holiday music other than the Nutcracker, since this is really only the first or second year that I've been seriously into classical.


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## Guest (Nov 21, 2012)

Classical Christmas works:

Bach - Christmas Oratorio
Schutz - Weihnachtshistorie
Handel - Messiah
Tchaikovsky - Nutcracker
Humperdinck - Hansel & Gretel (opera)
Tallis - Christmas Mass (Missa Puer natus est nobis)

The Sixteen, led by Harry Christophers, has some very nice Christmas albums.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Katie Melua - have yourself a merry little christmas (written by hugh martin)





The Pogues - Fairytale of New York





Leroy Anderson - Sleigh ride





Corelli - Christmas concerto


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## cwarchc (Apr 28, 2012)

noooooo!!!!!!


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## DrKilroy (Sep 29, 2012)

cwarchc said:


> noooooo!!!!!!


Good relation with your avatar!
















Best regards, Dr


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Great thread.

Last year I got an album of xmas music, choral pieces by various composers. It included funnily enough one by Webern! I reviewed it earlier this year HERE. I plan to listen to it again soon, tis the season coming up soon.

Otherwise, these works I like to hear at this time:
Handel - Messiah
Ariel Ramirez - Navidad Nuestra, a work incorporating Argentinian folk melodies, sung in Spanish (available on Naxos with the more famous Misa Criolla)
Jazz versions of Christmas carols/tunes are great, eg. Mel Torme's Christmas Song (Mel was actually raised in the Jewish faith) and Ella Fitzgerald's Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Who's heard Penderecki's _Christmas Symphony_? I read its a bit gloomy for a piece with that title. Is it?


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

*Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!* is my favorite.

Dean Martin, Vaughn Monroe, and newly--Michael Buble, Rod Stewart.






In memoriam, Andy Williams.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Duplicate, Beg pardon.


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## cwarchc (Apr 28, 2012)

Bah humbug.....much too early


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)




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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

cwarchc said:


> Bah humbug.....much too early


Yeah, you kind of made that clear on your previous post.


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)




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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

As it's the time of year where I tend to morph into a cross between Victor Meldrew, Ebenezer Scrooge and The Grinch I don't really 'do' Christmas but I might give this a spin:

Fry's Santa Claus symphony - a genuinely likeable work which hovers near my 'guilty pleasure' parameters (and it features the saxophone...)

I have the usual suspects like Hodie, L'enfance du Christ and Christmas Oratorio but I don't play them specifically during the Christmas period.

The only pop/rock Yuletide song I'm not totally bored with is Jethro Tull's Christmas Song - probably because you never hear it on the radio compared to their other one, Ring Out, Solstice Bells. Christmas Song sounds like a po-faced homily about greed and hypocrisy until Ian Anderson's debunking kiss-off after the song's finished.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

elgars ghost said:


> As it's the time of year where I tend to morph into a cross between* Victor Meldrew*, Ebenezer Scrooge and The Grinch I don't really 'do' Christmas but I might give this a spin...


I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! :lol:


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Liven up that dull Christmas gathering! One hour of dance music... Ready?
Michael Praetorius ~ Terpsichore Musarum





Turn everyone's mood to 'Awed Sentiment' for a few minutes with this traditional profound beauty...
Michael Praetorius ~ Es Ist Ein Ros Entsprungen (Lo, how a rose e'er blooming





Then crank it back up to party mode with...
Music of the Troubadors (Basically, "It's a party."  
Troubadours. 





Newer traditions...?
Lou Harrison - Gloria (from Mass to St Anthony) 





Benjamin Britten ~ Ceremony of Carols





Arthur Honegger ~ Une Cantate de Noël
In concert, Tokyo, Dutoit


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I like Bach's Christmas Oratorio best. Nothing else gets anywhere near close.



Sid James said:


> I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! :lol:


This post is a historical artefact and should be preserved. It is the shortest post by Sid James to date and the only one entirely in capitals if one excludes the ":lol:."


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I like Bach's Christmas Oratorio best. Nothing else gets anywhere near close.
> 
> This post is a historical artefact and should be preserved. It is the shortest post by Sid James to date and the only one entirely in capitals if one excludes the ":lol:."


Sid's quoting a variation on a catchphrase so I don't know if it would actually count.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

I agree that it's far too early for the Christmas hysteria to be kicking in. I spent several years programming Christmas concerts in London and was always seeking out and discovering new Christmas pieces to include in the performances. Some of those that haven't already been mentioned are:

Adolphe Adam - O, Holy Night
JS Bach - Cantatas Nos 63, 91, 110, 191 (Christmas Day)
JS Bach - Cantatas Nos 40, 121, 57 (2nd day of Christmas
JS Bach - Cantatas Nos 64, 133, 151 (3rd day of Christmas)
JS Bach - Cantatas Nos 28, 122, 152 (Week after Christmas)
Bax - Christmas Carol
Richard Rodney Bennett - Susani
Brahms - Marienlieder, Op 22
Bridge - Sir Roger de Coverley (A Christmas Dance)
Britten - A Boy Was Born
Britten - A Charm of Lullabies
Britten - St Nicolas
Byrd - Hodie Christus natus est
Caldara - Christmas Cantata: Amarilli Vezzosa (first performance in modern times)
Caldara - Christmas Cantata: Vaticine di Pace
Caplet - Le miroir de Jésus
Charpentier - Messe de minuit pour Noël
Corelli - Concerto Grosso in G minor, Op 6 No 8 (Christmas Concerto)
Finzi - Dies Natalis
Finzi - In terra pax
Arnold Freed - 3 Shepherd Carols
Gibbons - O Clap Your Hands
Holst - Christmas Day
John Ireland - The Holy Boy
Lassus - Resonet in laudibus
Locatelli - Concerto Grosso in F, Op 1 No 8 (Christmas Concerto)
Manfredini - Concerto Grosso in C major, Op 3 No 12 (Christmas Concerto)
William Mathias - Ave Rex
Mendelssohn - Frohlockert, ihr Völker auf Erden
Nielsen - Forunderligt at sige
Poulenc - Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël
Prokofiev - Winter Bonfire, Op 122
Purcell - Behold, I bring you glad tidings
Saint-Saëns - Christmas Oratorio
Alessandro Scarlatti - Cantata pastorale per la nascità di Nostro Signore
Scheidt - In dulci jubilo
Sibelius - Five Christmas Songs, Op 1
Sweelinck - Hodie Christus natus est
Tavener - God is with us (Christmas Proclamation)
Tavener - The Lamb
Torelli - Concerto in G minor in forma di pastorale, per il santo natale di Nostro Jesu, Op 8 No 6 (Christmas Concerto)
Valentini - Sinfonia a tre, per il Santissimo Natale
Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on Christmas Carols
Vaughan Williams - Hodie (This Day)
Villa-Lobos - Praesepe
Vivaldi - Nulla in mundo pax sincera - Motet
Vivaldi - Violin Concerto in E 'per il Santissimo Natale', RV 270
Warlock - Bethlehem Down
Warlock - The First Mercy
Warlock - Lullaby my Jesus


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

elgars ghost said:


> Sid's quoting a variation on a catchphrase so I don't know if it would actually count.


Well.....who cares.


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

Here!


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Delicious Manager said:


> I agree that it's far too early for the Christmas hysteria to be kicking in. I spent several years programming Christmas concerts in London and was always seeking out and discovering new Christmas pieces to include in the performances. Some of those that haven't already been mentioned are:
> 
> Adolphe Adam - O, Holy Night
> JS Bach - Cantatas Nos 63, 91, 110, 191 (Christmas Day)
> ...


Hardly hysteria at this point for me. Rather, enjoyment of the season. I don't oversaturate myself with Christmas music 24/7. But I do like sprinkling it in with my other music. I look forward to trying out some of the above listed, thanks.


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## Nivmizzet (Nov 27, 2012)

Fun fact: jingle bells used to be a thanksgiving song.

Although many of you may already know this since this is after all a MUSICAL forum.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I don't celebrate Christmas until Christmas. 

...

When I'm older I want to be Jewish.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Schoenberg's chamber arrangement of "Es ist ein Ros entsprungen". Quite nice, but a little dense to show up on those Christmas classical compilations.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

I'm right there with you, Sonata! Just picked this one up and I'm loving it:


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

If a christmas song has good four part vocal writing, and isn't jazzy or commercial, I enjoy it very welll.

Traditional is preferable. I like "In the bleak midwinter" by Holst and "Hark the Harold Anges Sing" which I is musical material by Mendelssohn. First Noel is nice as well. 

My group is singing a song that is an arrangement of an old French Carol, "Ding Dong Merrily on High" is the first line, and may very well be the title.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> ...When I'm older I want to be Jewish.


Start saving up for the surgery now....


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## hawk (Oct 1, 2007)

Christmas songs only at Christmas?!? Humbug!!!!!  My family usually begins celebrating Christmas around December 26th. Seriously any time of year is perfect for music that one loves ~ in our home Loreena McKennit's winter/holyday CD's can be heard in the musical mix but when Fall and Winter arrive her music is "almost" constant...  
Here is a selection from " A Midwinter Night's Dream"


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## hawk (Oct 1, 2007)

One more from Loreena McKennit ~


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)




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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

elgars ghost said:


> Sid's quoting a variation on a catchphrase so I don't know if it would actually count.


My memory was wrong. Replace _can't_ with _don't._

So, I DON'T BELIEVE IT!...


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

Dexter Gordon's "The Christmas Song"


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