Christmas music
Dec. 17th, 2011 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
resonantThe new car has an iPod-capable stereo, something I've never had in my life. So I can put all 309 of my four- and five-star Christmas songs on it. I'm having a lovely time.
So I thought I'd share some stuff with you. Come inside.
First, two pieces from the older part of the collection, to make a point:
The spouse pointed out to me that the Christmas music they bombard us with on the radio this time of year really only has two moods: cheerful (from "Jingle Bell Rock" on back) and conspicuously pious ("O Holy Night" comes to mind). "When it's Christmas and you're sad, or sick, or worried about someone far away, that really grates on you," he says.
So I'm providing these two to add to the emotional range:
Bittersweet homesickness: Ella Fitzgerald, "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas." (Don't get me started on the rewritten version of this song that takes away the bittersweet so that "Next year all our troubles will be out of sight" becomes "From now on, our troubles will be out of sight.")
Pity: Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band, "Poor Little Jesus"
Now here's some stuff that's new to me this year that I'm particularly enjoying.
Mary Chapin Carpenter, "Hot Buttered Rum." Not strictly speaking Christmas music, but just a wintry love song.
Joglaresa, "Down In Yon Forest." I know I've given y'all other versions of this before. I love them all and can't bear to part with any of them. Creepy Arthurian imagery.
The King's Singers, "El Nino Querido." A pretty lullabye.
The King's Singers, "Morgen Kinder wird's was geben." I don't understand German, but it sounds like a barnyard in there.
The Festival Consort, "The Holly She Bears a Berry." Another one that I have multiple beloved versions of.
The Festival Consort, "Apple Tree Wassail." Every time I think I've heard all the wassail songs there are, I find a new one.
Grupo Canto Coral, "Ay Andar" and "A Este Sol Peregrino." I don't know much about this, but it sounds to me like Mexican baroque, which I particularly like; it's more like early music (short pieces, quite danceable), and more rhythmically interesting, than most baroque. (No, don't ask me why they're introduced in German, because I don't know.)
Kerfuffle, "Nowell, Nowell" and "Sussex Carol." Sussex is "On Christmas night all Christians sing to hear the news the angels bring." "Nowell Nowell" was unfamiliar to me.
Enjoy!
[edited to correct the Morgen Kinder link]
So I thought I'd share some stuff with you. Come inside.
First, two pieces from the older part of the collection, to make a point:
The spouse pointed out to me that the Christmas music they bombard us with on the radio this time of year really only has two moods: cheerful (from "Jingle Bell Rock" on back) and conspicuously pious ("O Holy Night" comes to mind). "When it's Christmas and you're sad, or sick, or worried about someone far away, that really grates on you," he says.
So I'm providing these two to add to the emotional range:
Bittersweet homesickness: Ella Fitzgerald, "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas." (Don't get me started on the rewritten version of this song that takes away the bittersweet so that "Next year all our troubles will be out of sight" becomes "From now on, our troubles will be out of sight.")
Pity: Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band, "Poor Little Jesus"
Now here's some stuff that's new to me this year that I'm particularly enjoying.
Mary Chapin Carpenter, "Hot Buttered Rum." Not strictly speaking Christmas music, but just a wintry love song.
Joglaresa, "Down In Yon Forest." I know I've given y'all other versions of this before. I love them all and can't bear to part with any of them. Creepy Arthurian imagery.
The King's Singers, "El Nino Querido." A pretty lullabye.
The King's Singers, "Morgen Kinder wird's was geben." I don't understand German, but it sounds like a barnyard in there.
The Festival Consort, "The Holly She Bears a Berry." Another one that I have multiple beloved versions of.
The Festival Consort, "Apple Tree Wassail." Every time I think I've heard all the wassail songs there are, I find a new one.
Grupo Canto Coral, "Ay Andar" and "A Este Sol Peregrino." I don't know much about this, but it sounds to me like Mexican baroque, which I particularly like; it's more like early music (short pieces, quite danceable), and more rhythmically interesting, than most baroque. (No, don't ask me why they're introduced in German, because I don't know.)
Kerfuffle, "Nowell, Nowell" and "Sussex Carol." Sussex is "On Christmas night all Christians sing to hear the news the angels bring." "Nowell Nowell" was unfamiliar to me.
Enjoy!
[edited to correct the Morgen Kinder link]