JS BACH - Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

Merry Christmas, everybody.

 

Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo - O Holy Night

Georg Frederick Handel - Hallelujah Chorus from The Messiah

With a Flash Mob at Macy's, and accompanied by the Wanamaker organ - the World's largest pipe organ. 

Brad Paisley & Steven Tyler - Run Run Rudolph

You're welcome. 

Andy Williams - It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

This looks like a number from The Andy Williams Show, maybe late 1960s.  We all watched this back then. 

Thurl Ravenscroft - You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch

For years I thought this was sung by Boris Karloff, but he only narrated the show.  It was actually sung by Thurl Ravenscroft - the voice of Tony The Tiger.  And sang in "A Pirate's Life For Me."

And yes, Dr. Seuss wrote the lyrics. 

Nat 'King' Cole - The Christmas Song

This is perhaps the Platonic Christmas song. 

Johnny Cash - White Christmas

This is a very Country take on the old classic. 

Michael Bublé Duet With Thalia - Mis Deseos/Feliz Navidad

Love this version. 

St. Ambrose - Veni Redemptor Genitum

St. Ambrose is often described as one of the four Latin Doctors of the Church*, influential theologians who established the foundations of the church in the fourth century.  Unlike his compatriot Doctors, Ambrose was a most unusual saint.  He was the Roman governor of the province around Milan when he (kind of accidentally) became bishop of Milan.  He was quite popular as Governor and when the crowd was beginning to get rowdy debating who would become the next bishop, someone called out his name as a suggestion.  Suddenly it was a done deal.

Except there was this little problem: not only was Ambrose not a priest, he wasn't even baptized as a Christian.  The crowd wasn't about to let minor issues like that stand between them and their new bishop.  So Governor Aurelius Ambrosius became Bishop Ambrose.

He was a force to be reckoned with, even excommunicating Emperor Theodosius the Great (I think that this was the first time this had ever happened).

He also composed the first Christmas Carol, Veni Redemptor Genitum (Come, Redeemer of the Nations).  It is still performed today, 1650 years later.

Latin:

Veni, redemptor gentium;
ostende partum Virginis;
miretur omne saeculum:
talis decet partus Deum. 

English translation:
Come, Redeemer of the nations;
show forth the Virgin birth;
let every age marvel:
such a birth befits God.

Now the Christmas season is upon us.  It seemed right to start our annual christmas music posts with the very first Christmas carol.

* The others are St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory the Great.  It was sort of a Murderer's Row lineup of the early Church batting order.

 

Alan Jackson - "Let It Be Christmas"

This is one of my favorite Christmas songs.  Country music can tend to the sentimental, and all the best Christmas music does too.  The marriage of these combine beautifully.  If you're not a fan of the sentimental, you might want to pass this by.  But if you're like me, then enjoy.

Vince Guaraldi Trio - O Tannenbaum

CBS didn't like this soundtrack, and predicted that the show A Charlie Brown Christmas would be a flop.  It was wildly popular, and the soundtrack won a Grammy.  For obvious reasons.

Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss - The Wexford Carol

This is one of the most lovely carols ever recorded. 

Greg Lake - I Believe In Father Christmas

Sunday music here is usually classical.  So why Greg Lake (from Emerson, Lake, and Palmer fame)?  Well, Lake sampled Sergei Prokofiev's famous sleigh ride from his Lieutenant Kijé suite.  You almost certainly know this music well enough to hum along (it starts about a minute into the video). 

There's quite a lot of classic rock that really should be labeled "Classical Rock" ... 

Anne Murray - "Winter Wonderland"

Anne Murray was huge on country radio in the 1970s and 80s, but has sadly dropped off the airways since then.  Maybe it was because she was more "Old COuntry" than the new wave of the 90s and beyond.

That's a pitty, as she had a wonderful voice.  Somewhat reminiscent of Julie Andrews, at least in this Christmas classic. 

Joe Bonamassa - Christmas Boogie

Here's some Christmas music to make you tap your toes during Black Friday. 

Face Vocal Band - The Parting Glass

We have come to the end of another year.  Modern New Years' Eve celebrations include the singing of Robert Burns' Auld Lang Syne, a traditional Scottish ballad. But that's not the only song that was included in the party.  This one is older, perhaps almost two hundred years older.  It sings of the sorrow of parting, of reminiscing of times now gone.  The "parting glass" was the final toast offered to a departing guest, frequently served when the guest mounted his horse (i.e. a stirrup cup).

Burns referred to this song, so it was not only common but famous in his day - the music was incorrectly attributed to Joseph Haydn (!).  But the song dropped into obscurity.  It was Tommy Makem and The Clancy Brothers who re-introduced it into popular use; it became a signature number of theirs, and they would typically close concerts with it.

 

So this New Years' Eve when everyone dusts off the old Robert Burns, hoist a glass of cheer to the anonymous authors of this.  We even now saddle up to ride into the New Year; a parting glass is not too much to ask from 2024.
 

The Parting Glass (traditional)

Of all the money that e'er I had
I spent it in good company
And all the harm I've ever done
Alas it was to none but me
And all I've done for want of wit
To mem'ry now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be to you all

So fill to me the parting glass
And drink a health whate’er befall,
And gently rise and softly call
Good night and joy be to you all

Of all the comrades that e'er I had
They're sorry for my going away
And all the sweethearts that e'er I had
They'd wish me one more day to stay

But since it fell unto my lot
That I should rise and you should not
I gently rise and softly call
Good night and joy be to you all

A man may drink and not be drunk
A man may fight and not be slain
A man may court a pretty girl
And perhaps be welcomed back again
But since it has so ought to be
By a time to rise and a time to fall
Come fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all
Good night and joy be with you all

To all our readers, we wish you a happy and healthy New Year!

 

Ernest Tomlinson - Fantasia on Auld Lang Syne

This is one of the most clever and enjoyable pieces of classical music that I know.  Ernest Tomlinson's story is quite an impressive one, but the quick story here is that he weaved bits of 152 other songs in this composition.  It's a challenge to recognize them all which is why I have a (partial) cheat sheet below.  What a fun song.

0:33- Auld Lang Syne 
2:10 - Gounod’s Soldier Chorus from Faust
2:15 - The British Grenadiers
2:24 - Leroy Anderson’s The Rakes of Mallow
2:42 - Cesar Franck’s Symphonic Variations
2:52 - Chopin's Piano Sonata No.2, 2nd movement
3:09 - Elgar's Enigma Variations, main theme
3:37 - Beethoven's Symphony No.9, 4th movement, "Ode To Joy"
3:53 - Haydn’s St.Anthony Chorale
4:06 - Purcell's Abdelazer, "Rondeau" or Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
4:23 - Schubert’s Trout Quintet, 4th movement
4:32 - Haydn's Symphony No.94, 2nd movement
4:50 - Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
5:33 - Dvorak’s Humoresque no 7
5:41 - Foster’s Beautiful Dreamer
5:44 - Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique symphony 3rd movement
5:51 - A Life on The Ocean Wave
5:51 - Auld Lang Syne
5:54 - Khachaturian’s Adagio from Spartacus
6:14 - Mendelssohn’s Overture to The Hebrides
6:51 - Mozart's Piano Sonata No.16, first movement
7:09 - Handel's Entry of the Queen of Sheba
7:23 - Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Little Swan from Swan Lake
7:27 - Bach’s Fugue in C minor from Well-Tempered Clavier
7:31 - Arthur Sullivan ... "Major General" (Pirates of Penzance)
7:32 - The Keel Row
7:44 - Bizet's Overture to Carmen
7:53 - This Old Man
8:00 - Thomas-Arne’s Rule-Britannia
8:08 - Strauss Jr’s Voice of Spring Waltz
8:53 - Tchaikovsky’s Valse no. 2 from Swan Lake
9:25 - Weber’s Invitation to the Dance
9:31 - Je veux vivre (Juliet's Waltz) from Romeo et Juliette by Charles Gounod
9:46 - Strauss. Jr’s Waltz from Die Flaudermaus
10:05 - Chopin's Grand Valse Brilliante
10:55 - Tchaikovsky - Serenade for Strings, 2nd movement
11:26 - Smetana’s Dance of the Comedian from The Bartered Bride
12:26 - Strauss. Jr’s Perpetuum Mobile Polka
12:35 - Mozart’s French Horn no. 4, 3rd movement
12:42 - Shenandoah
12:48 - Dvorak’s Slavonic Dance no 2 op.46
12:53 - Wi’a Hundred Pipers
12:59 - Offenbach's Can-Can Dance
13:02 - Schubert's Military March No.1, or Stravinsky's Circus Polka
13:13 - Offenbach's Can-Can Dance
13:22 - Rossini’s La Danza from Les Soirée Musicales
13:38 - Mysterious Pizzicato
13:44 - Bach’s A Riercar a 6 from The Musical Offering
14:24 - Rossini’s Overture to Semiramide
13:56 - Dark Eyes
14:07 - Koenig’s Post Horn Gallop
14:42 - Benjamin’s Jamaican Rumba
14:50 - Khachaturian's Sabre Dance
15:02 - Rossini's Overture to "The Barber of Seville"
15:04 - Bizet's L' Arlesienne Suite No.2, "Farandole"
15:07 - Glinka's Overture to "Ruslan and Ludmilla"
15:20 - Goodnight, Ladies
15:57 - Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture
17:56 - Verdi's Le donna e mobile, from "Rigoletto"
16:41 - O, Come All ye Faithful
17:47 - La Curachacha
17:58 - The Girl I left behind 
18:04 - Yankee Doodle
18:06 - Good King Winceslas
18:10 - Sailor's Hornpipe
18:19 - Grieg’s Morning Mood from Peer Gynt
18:26 - Dvorak’s New World Symphony, 2nd movement

Merry Christmas

Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo - O Holy Night

The World awaits its Savior.