Music post: Christmas, less familiar

[resonant]

The Chieftains, Past Three O'Clock from "The Bells of Dublin." Classical-mixed-with-Celtic; there's a men's and boys' choir collaborating with the Chieftains on this CD, and the results are lovely. The tune is so catchy.

Cathie Ryan and Liam Tiernan, In Dulci Jubilo from "The Soul of Christmas." I think this CD was a reward for donating money to NPR one year. This was never a favorite Christmas song of mine, until I heard it in this danceable Celtic arrangement.

The Chieftains, Ding Dong, Merrily on High from "The Bells of Dublin." Classical-mixed-with-Celtic. I have six versions of this; it's one of my very favorite Christmas songs. I sang it in a choir once, and when we came to Ding dong! Verily the sky/is riven with angels singing, one of the tenors said, "What does 'riven' mean, anyway?" and I said, "Torn apart," and his eyes got really big.

Baltimore Consort, Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day from "Bright Day Star." Classical. I like the Nativity told as a love story "to call my true love to my dance."

Deller Consort, Patapan from "The Holly and the Ivy." Classical. The flute-and-drum carol, which inspires arrangers to great feats of making the human voice mimic a musical instrument.

Mike & Peggy Seeger, Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow from "American Folk Songs for Christmas." Usually you hear this done as gospel; this version is country gospel, i.e. that Brother, Where Art Thou sound. And if you like this sort of thing, you need this two-disc collection; it's wonderful.

Chanticleer, Noel Nouvelet, from "Christmas with Chanticleer." Classical. Similar to the "Angels" that I uploaded last time. You do have to have a tolerance for freakishly high male voices.

English Baroque Soloists, Rejoice Greatly from Handel's "Messiah." Baroque. If you're familiar with the piece, this version is interesting because it's in three rather than in four. Sounds like a dance.

Gregg Smith Singers, Boston from "Christmas Carolling." Classical. "Methinks I see an heavenly host of angels on the wing."

The Revels, Masters in This Hall from "The Christmas Revels." Classical. "Noel, noel, noel/Noel sing we loud!/God today the poor hath raised/And cast adown the proud."

Edited to add: I have multiple versions of almost all of these songs; if anyone would like to compare and contrast, let me know.

Comments

[theamusedone.livejournal.com]

And thank you one more time!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Y'welcome!

[thete1.livejournal.com]

Eee, yay, thanks for these!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

I was annotating my music the other day, and I realized that you're the first person I ever downloaded music from. Some of the songs have a strange significance attached to them just because of that. (Something similar attaches to the 10,000 Maniacs CD "In My Tribe" because it was the first album I ever bought on CD as opposed to vinyl.)

[apetslife.livejournal.com]

This is SO wonderful, what a great idea and how marvelous of you to share these songs! *goes on downloading spree* Thank you thank you.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad people are enjoying them!

[fleurrochard]

More Christmas music! *loves all over you and downloads*

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

You can never have enough Christmas music.

[rivier.livejournal.com]

Res, I utterly love this idea, and thank you so much for doing this! Christmas music gets right to my heart, everything from the modern and cliched through to the most ancient. I haven't heard Tomorrow... since I sang it at school years ago - off to listen now! Brilliant stuff.

[sobelle.livejournal.com]

very cool... wish I werent so very looserish in the tech sense (and lotsa others too for that matter) because I would love to reciprocate.

how looserish? you might ask?

I can't even move my music from tape to cd.

::sigh::

v

[sage]

Thank you again, so much. This ought to be a tradition in itself. :)

[sage]

Wanted to let you (& anyone else here who might be interested) know that I posted a bunch of songs here. It's all Holiday jazz, blues, and pop from 1930-1950 or so, which is almost on another planet from what you've been posting here, but I like a little of everything in my personal holiday mix, so maybe other people will enjoy it, too. *g*

thank you for the music

[laceymcbain.livejournal.com]

I adore Christmas music - thanks so much for sharing these!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

You can never have too much Christmas music, I devoutly believe.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

*yoinks*

I grew up with the years and years of Chanuka music, which is great and steeped in tradition and all that, but *dude* Carol of the Bells makes my *toes* tingle, know what I mean?

But I have so very little frame of reference for any of it, so these ought to be interesting. *nods*

Thanks again!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Ooh, would you consider posting some Chanuka music? I don't know any, unless the Dreidl Song counts.

[ladysorka]

Thank you so much for these! I love traditional Christmas carol that don't get quite as much play. I always get the strangest looks when I tell people my favourite Christmas song is "The Boar's Head Carol".

(Bells of Dublin has always been my favourite Christmas disc. *pets it*)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I love the Boar's Head Carol! I've got [counts] six versions; if you want some, I could put them up next week.

What I have:

The one from the Bells of Dublin, which you obviously already have
Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band (my favorite, voices and Renaissance instruments)
Maddy Prior live (a small ensemble, wonderful)
The Robert Shaw Chamber Singers (a capella male choir)
The Revels (full choir with lots of brass)
The Deller Consort (a capella, four-voice male choir)

[lcsbanana.livejournal.com]

eeeeeeeeee thank you! i LOVE proper christmas music, ie not pop songs. *G*

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- I have nothing against pop Christmas songs, except that by December 5 I've usually absorbed so many of them, just by virtue of being bombarded with them in every public place, that I just want to go home and put "Orientis Partibus" on repeat.

[ngaio]

Many thanks, have grabbed them all. I've only recently come across Chanticleer in the balladeers community and I rather like their scary high voices!

Favourite actual songs? Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day, Rise Up Shepherd, and Rejoice Greatly and I'm looking forward to hearing your posted versions as they all seem to be slightly different from the usual.

Do you have any version of 'Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel' by any chance?

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I have choral versions by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Robert Shaw Chorale (these are both pretty traditional choral recordings; I like the Shaw a little better) and instrumental versions by the Christmastide Musicians (variety of acoustic instruments) and Liz Story (solo piano).

Let me know if you already have any of those; the rest I'll try to get up during the week, but if not, then next Saturday for sure.

I also have a ton of Chanticleer -- bits from "Wondrous Love," "Christmas with Chanticleer," "Maitines para la Virgen de Guadalupe 1764" (which I love), "Mexican Baroque," "Our American Journey," and all of "Sound In Spirit," if you'd like. (If it's more than five songs, and you'd care to share your address, I could send you a CD instead; e-mail me at resonant8(at)att(dot)net.)

[lamardeuse.livejournal.com]

Am lovin' these. Thanks so much!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Great!

[gurrier.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for these and yesterday's!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Glad you're enjoying them.

[bibliokat.livejournal.com]

Thank you for more beautiful music!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_swallow/]

The Baltimore Consort is awesome! Do you have others of their collections?

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

"Bright Day Star" is the only Christmas CD of theirs that I have, but I also have some non-Christmas collections: "A Trip to Killiburn," "Tunes from the Attic," "Watkins Ale," and "On the Banks of Helicon." They're terrific.

[qe2.livejournal.com]

Oh, delovely - mille grazie for filling my ears and my hard drive with apposite melodies galore! I'm entertained by the apparent obscurity of these - I've sung pretty much all of them at one time or another, and take some of them (In dulci jubilo, for example) quite for granted as an integral part of the Christmastime landscape. Just goes to show what one can (be lucky enough to) get used to.

I haven't hauled my collection out yet. When I do, I'd love to play the compare/contrast game. How would you like to arrange it?

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when I said "obsure," I forgot how many slashers are also choir singers. Which is odd in itself, I think. (And also why instead of focusing on boybands, some of my favorite writers need to be sending me to hell by providing me with Chanticleer slash, but I digress.)

Would you like to exchange CDs? If so, you can e-mail me at resonant8(at)att(dot)net.

[snpdiva.livejournal.com]

Grrrr. I just realized that on both of these recommended music posts you can click on the songs to download them. Since we have very similar tastes in many other areas, I'm sure I'd lurrvve to hear your Christmas music picks. I am familiar with Chanticleer and adore their work, already. But my crappy slow dial-up internet takes approximately two hours to download a single song, IF it doesn't freeze up or just stop. Poop. Oh, well. We are supposed to get DSL soon, so maybe I'll see if the links are still active then. Thanks for the thought, though, it was a cool thing to do!
Aranel

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know; it takes forEVer to download music on dial-up. My coffee shop has broadband access, so every week or so I take the computer in and download music. (And do software updates, and pick up episodes of TV shows, and look at artwork that takes too long to load at home ...)

What I've been doing, with music posts, is that after the YSI uploads expire I leave the post up but take out the links. So when you get your DSL, you can go back through things with the Music tag, and if you want me to reupload anything, let me know.

[miss-pryss.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thanks so much!

You've inspired me to do an X-mas music upload of my own, here:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/miss_pryss/109394.html

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Excellent! I've bookmarked it for the next time I get to the Cafe of Broadbandness.

[raucousraven.livejournal.com]

This list is much with the seasonal awesomeness. Thank you!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh, good!

[mary-re.livejournal.com]

*glomps and twirls*

Heee, Handel! I just got back from performing the Christmas section of Messiah earlier tonight! The choir did And the Glory of the Lord, Glory to God, sections of And He Shall Purify, For Unto Us a Child is Born, and His Yoke is Easy, of course Hallelujah, and maybe one or two more that I'm forgetting. Of course, it was with an octet of soloists that performed more from Messiah, and an orchestra. OMG so much fun!

*glances back over music selection once again* Oh, In Dulci Jubilo!!! I've sang that with a choir before; it's really fun to sing also! All ornate and stuff!

Yay for Christmas music! <333

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh, I haven't sung the Messiah in years, except for the Hallelujah chorus our church always does on the last Sunday in Advent.

I was in a community chorus that did it, once, and I've never forgotten the director singing along with "For Unto Us A Child Is Born" and the way his face would light up when he sang, "Wonderful!"

I have a problem with those songs that go back and forth between Latin and English -- though come to think of it, it doesn't bug me at all in the Boar's Head Carol, which is a favorite of mine.

[katyabaturinsky.livejournal.com]

"The Bells of Dublin" is great, isn't it? I'm afraid my favorite song from that -- and possibly my favorite Christmas song of all time -- is "The St. Stephen's Day Murders," with Elvis Costello. Which is probably indicative of something deeply disturbing, but never mind.

Do you have "Wassail! Wassail," which is another in the set done by the folks who did "The Christmas Revels?" (Judging by your collection, I would suspect so.) I adore the first song on that CD, "Exultation;" it's just glorious when the whole chorus kicks in after that opening oboe solo.

This is a lovely idea -- thanks so much for sharing all this wonderful music!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh, "Murders" is a great song.

I do indeed have that Revels CD, and "Exultation" is one of the songs I'm going to put up. (Though I actually can't decide whether it's that version or the MIke & Peggy Seeger one or the Waverly Consort one that I'm going to put up, since i love them all.)

[umbo.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thanks so much for posting these!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! Great icon!

[kiezh.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for all the music. I'll definitely have some great playlists this December. :)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Great!

[xjestx.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for sharing. The only Christmas music I normally get to hear is the canned stuff played in shopping malls. Your selections have reminded me that Christmas music can actually be moving and pleasing and wonderful. Thank you!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad! I like weird stuff; my best friend's husband once caught me singing along to "Riu, Riu, Chiu," and said, "Do you even understand what you're singing?" (And I had to answer: "Yes, but only because there's an English translation in the liner notes.)

[gelasius.livejournal.com]

Sweet!

Out of curiosity, what company of Christmas Revels is that from? I'm guessing Cambridge, but I think some others have put out commercial albums... I ask because I was involved in the Washington Revels when I was a kid (dad was in the chorus, I was a Props Brat) and then sang in the chorus of the NY Revels one year in college.

It's always fun to see Revels pop up in unexpected contexts. :)

"And so the shortest day came, and the year died..."

*nostalgic sniffle*

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I'm actually not sure which company. I have about five of their CDs, and iTunes doesn't know how to fill in the Artist section -- some of them say Revels, and some say Revels Choir, and some say Christmas Revels ...

I would so love to see a Revels performance live. Well, we got the Waverly Consort in town last year, so I guess I can't complain.

How cool, though, that you've been involved! I'll bet they're lots of fun.