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!

[thete1.livejournal.com]

Eee, yay, thanks for these!

[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.

[fleurrochard]

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

[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.

[sage]

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

[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

thank you for the music

[laceymcbain.livejournal.com]

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

[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!

[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*)

[lcsbanana.livejournal.com]

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

[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.)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

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

[amireal.livejournal.com]

Hrmm, I'd have to FIND some... Jewish music is harder to pin down because a lot of it is traditionally sung during times when you're not supposed to record stuff and I guess it's a mindset that sticks with us through the rest of the time.

If you look up http://www.debbiefriedman.com/ I beleive she's probably the most well known contemporary artist, and for the most part she manages to keep a lot of the original in the song when she does her rewrites. I'll have to search around for the more choral type stuff. I can think of a few titles off the top of my head, but I got nothing in CD form at the moment. In the name of cultural sharing however, I shall see what I can do.

Rock of Age (Maoatzur) being one of the most popular and another which I can't possibly remember the transliteration of at the moment, it's a very pretty round, like carol of the bellish.

I'll look and see what I can find. *nods*

[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)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I can't go from tape to CD either. tzikeh has linked me to some information that claims it's very easy, but when they start telling me what cables to go to Radio Shack for, my eyes glaze over.

[tovalentin.livejournal.com]

And this would also be my problem, so I'm delighted to have these files. Thanks so much for your generosity.

[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*

[lamardeuse.livejournal.com]

Am lovin' these. Thanks so much!

[gurrier.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for these and yesterday's!

[bibliokat.livejournal.com]

Thank you for more beautiful music!

[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?