# Classical Christmas music?



## CageFan

Thanksgiving has flied away, I wonder how many classical compositions are for Christmas season besides Handel's Messiah?


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## Manxfeeder

Tons. Most people just aren't aware of them like they are the Messiah. Just in churches alone, they've been celebrating the season with music for 2,000 years, in both popular and classical formats. That's a lot of music.


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## Vaneyes

Just about anything from Early Music or Baroque will do. Such as...


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## CageFan

Thanks. Would you please kindly list a few here? I am lost in this vast volume of 2000 years of celebration.


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## CageFan

Vaneyes said:


> Just about anything from Early Music or Baroque will do. Such as...


Thanks Vaneyes! yeah..it seems the earlier musics mostly served religious purpose.


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## Manxfeeder

Oh, shucks, where do you start? Off the top of my head, Charpentier put carols in his Christmas mass, Messe di minuit. The first section (a full CD's worth) of Lizst's Christus is about Christmas. Then there's Fry's Santa Claus Symphony, which features a man leaving a Christmas party and dying in the snow from exposure before the Man in Red jauntily appears. Thomas Tallis wrote a Christmas Mass, but it isn't very Christmasy. Then there's Bach's marvelous Christmas Oratorio. A nice piece is Frederick Delius' Sleighride (Beecham's recording is great), which is featured right now in a commercial - I think it's for Glade.

A nicely sung Christmas CD is by John Eliot Gardiner titled Once as I Remember.


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## jurianbai

again I want to mentioned the Ralph Vaugham WIlliams' Hodie and Fantasia on Christmas Carol.


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## Vaneyes

CageFan, once your classical quest is done, don't forget...


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## Huilunsoittaja

Tchaikovsky's _The Nutcracker_!


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## CageFan

Thanks JurianBai...I went to youtube to check for Ralph Vaugham WIlliams' Hodie, indeed it is brilliant. I especially favor on the part at 2:28- with a whisper, and then enter the 'Gloria in excelsis deo: Alleluia".

Huilunsoittaja, The Nutcracker is my long term favorite! 
Vaneye, I will definitely try "sing along with Mitch". I just ordered about 10 cds from Amozon today. Man, I could have gotten more!

Manxfeeder, Fry's Santa Claus Symphony will be in my next order list, can't wait to find out.


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## StlukesguildOhio

A few suggestions:























































continued...


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## StlukesguildOhio

continued...


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## StlukesguildOhio

continued...


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## StlukesguildOhio

http://www.amazon.com/Merry-Christmas-Hermann-Prey/dp/B000B8I8S2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1291343569&sr=1-1-spell










http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Album-Original-Hermann-Prey/dp/B0000AP6HJ/ref=pd_sim_m_1

Just scraping the surface.


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## CageFan

Stlukesguildohio...Wonderful collection of Classical christmas music! What a feast for souls I have found! Million thanks to you, it is gonna take me a while to sample all of them, but I have about month to do so. ...I won't mind to see more....two thumbs up!


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## emiellucifuge

Enough old music.

Try Lutoslawski's beautiful Polish Christmas Carols


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## Delicious Manager

I do wish people wouldn't insert all these CD covers into posts - it wastes SO much space!

Over the years, I have programmed more Christmas concerts than I care to remember. Here is some of my list of Christmas repertoire:

Adolphe Adam - O, Holy Night
JS Bach - Christmas Oratorio
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 Ceremony of Carols
Britten - A Charm of Lullabies
Britten - St Nicolas
Byrd - Hodie Christus natus est
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
Gruber - Stille Nacht (Holy Night)
Handel - Messiah (Parts I & II)
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
Schütz - Christmas Story
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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## Huilunsoittaja

Delicious Manager said:


> Prokofiev - Winter Bonfire Op 122


:devil:

just kidding.


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## Aksel

A Christmas favourite of mine is Grieg's Sang til juletræet from Barnlige sange, Op. 61, no. 2 (Song to the christmas tree). It's a very well known Christmas song in Norway, although it's usually sung to a different melody. And for some even lighter listening, there's always Leroy Anderson's Suite of Carols.


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## Manxfeeder

Delicious Manager said:


> I do wish people wouldn't insert all these CD covers into posts - it wastes SO much space!
> 
> Over the years, I have programmed more Christmas concerts than I care to remember. Here is some of my list of Christmas repertoire:
> 
> Bax - Christmas Carol


That's quite a list. I was unaware Bax wrote a Christmas carol. How is it, if you recall?


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## StlukesguildOhio

I do wish people wouldn't insert all these CD covers into posts - it wastes SO much space!

Never heard that "a picture is worth a thousand words"? Too bad. Speaking for myself, I'm far more likely to look at a collection of discs presented in a visual manner than a sprawling list.

:tiphat:


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## CageFan

Salute, Delicious Manager! Thank you very much for your help and merry early christmas to you.  It is amazing how you typed in each one of them precisely and I appreciated your correcting my typo(from guita to guitar?). 

I love the other post from you, too. (The list of top 90 popular classical) Appreciate your reminder. Thank you for managing this dream-come-true forum. I assume that you are the manager here? 

^-handshake and smile -^


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## CageFan

Stlukeguidoho...whatever you said, it is all musical to the ears. Merry early Christmas!


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## CageFan

Salute, Aksel, thanks for your recommendation. I am going to try it on youtube and see how it sounds like. 

After next week, I will be full of Christmas music from Stlukeguidoho's picture guide to Delicious' sprawling ist, Maybe start with Bach's Cantatas....

Merry Early Chrsitmas to everyone here. You are all my good teacher and love you guys to death. talk to you again 5 days from now.

^-smile-^


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## emiellucifuge

CageFan said:


> I assume that you are the manager here?
> 
> ^-handshake and smile -^


Wrong actually 

The owner is Frederik Magle, a danish composer.

you can tell whether someone is a mod or admin, by the title under their name.


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## CageFan

emiellucifuge said:


> Wrong actually
> 
> The owner is Frederik Magle, a danish composer.
> 
> you can tell whether someone is a mod or admin, by the title under their name.


oops! (Blushing) Sorry, man can have too much assumption!

love ya all.

(Why can't I stop coming back here? study time):devil:


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## Falstaft

Surprised no one's mentioned Rimsky Korsakov's wonderful little opera _Christmas Eve_ (seen it as _ La Nuit de Noel_ elsewhere).






The whole thing is actually on youtube, if you're curious!


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## StlukesguildOhio

I just picked up this particularly lovely disc myself:


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## dmg




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## Delicious Manager

Manxfeeder said:


> That's quite a list. I was unaware Bax wrote a Christmas carol. How is it, if you recall?


The proper title is _A Christmas Carol_. It is hardly a Bax masterpiece, but an attractive arrangement of the medieval carol _There is no rose of such virtue_. It's very short and the material easily obtainable if anyone wants to include it in a Christmas programme.


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## Delicious Manager

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Quote:
> Originally Posted by Delicious Manager View Post
> 
> Prokofiev - Winter Bonfire Op 122
> 
> just kidding.:devil:


Umm, sorry, this joke seems to have flown straight over my head


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## Almaviva

Delicious Manager said:


> I do wish people wouldn't insert all these CD covers into posts - it wastes SO much space!


Uh... it wastes space? It's virtual space. How exactly does it get wasted? It's not like this site has a limit on how much space a thread can take, thus we should avoid pictures to be able to use the space for text.

I love the feature that allows us to attach pictures.

For instance, the picture of Venice on the cover of one of the CDs is lovely. What a beautiful image!

For me, it's not wasted, but rather, enriched.

If you don't like it, you can just scroll down.


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## Manxfeeder

Delicious Manager said:


> The proper title is _A Christmas Carol_. It is hardly a Bax masterpiece, but an attractive arrangement of the medieval carol _There is no rose of such virtue_. It's very short and the material easily obtainable if anyone wants to include it in a Christmas programme.


That's one of my favorite carols. I'll see if I can download the score.


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## CageFan

Manxfeeder, were you sucessed in finding the score? I am searching youtube for a sample listening but in vain. If it is not too difficult and have the score, maybe I could learn and play it for Christmas garthering.


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## Delicious Manager

Manxfeeder said:


> That's one of my favorite carols. I'll see if I can download the score.


Here it is on IMSLP (a fantastic source for legal downloadable music).


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## Manxfeeder

Delicious Manager said:


> Here it is on IMSLP (a fantastic source for legal downloadable music).


Thank you!


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## CageFan

Delicious Manager said:


> Here it is on IMSLP (a fantastic source for legal downloadable music).


Thanks to both of you, Delicious and Manxfeeder! :tiphat: (Just finish downloading it to my flash drive. Great piece for practice! It will keep me busy at least for next week when the semester is over.)


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

shame CageFan didn't last longer at least 433 posts


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## Klassik

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> shame CageFan didn't last longer at least 433 posts


It's a shame that CageFan didn't know that 4'33" is Christmas music.  Well, hey, it beats _Christmas Shoes_ at least. :lol:


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## Klassik

Delicious Manager said:


> I do wish people wouldn't insert all these CD covers into posts - it wastes SO much space!


Ha. I agree, but good luck getting that wish granted. Just wait until you see the _Current Listening_ series.


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