Sometimes the definitive version of a song really is the first one.
Here’s Judy Garland.
Your Daily Dose of Christmas
Wow…today is the birthday of the Chairman of the Board himself, Mr. Frank Sinatra! He would have been 104 today. What a star he was! There’s never been a time when his voice wasn’t a part of my life. One of the songs I remember most from when I was very young was a Sinatra song.
Here’s something I found earlier today: a complete episode of a Dean Martin teevee show, with Frank Sinatra joining along with a bunch of family members. This was recorded more than fifty years ago, and it’s sobering to see a number featuring Sinatra’s and Martin’s sons Frank Jr. and Ricci, and to know that both of those men–young, good-looking fellows here–have also died.
Enjoy!
(Long-time readers of mine may notice that late in the show here, Mr. Sinatra sings “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”…without the lyric change that Sinatra himself later foisted upon the world, totally changing the feel of the song! Amazing!)
Share This Post
Your Daily Dose of Christmas
Your Daily Dose of Christmas
Today’s featured piece is apparently really obscure, and it really shouldn’t be. At all. Ralph Vaughan Williams is one of the most revered British composers of the 20th century, and a lot of his music is not only frequently heard but in the standard repertory. So why is his masque On Christmas Night, a work inspired by Dickens’s A Christmas Carol so unknown? I only discovered it purely by accident last week while listening to one of RVW’s more famous Christmas-themed works. On Christmas Night wasn’t even recorded at all until 2006, when Richard Hickox led the City of London Sinfonia, chorus, and soloists. Googling the piece didn’t turn up much more, and the only in-depth information I was able to find comes from a review on Classical.Net, which I excerpt here:
Michael Kennedy’s standard book on the composer’s life and works doesn’t mention it, except in the catalogue. This is its very first recording. Vaughan Williams called it a “masque,” mainly because he hated the ballet’s dancing on point, and he appropriated Dickens’s “Christmas Carol” as its basis. He also drastically telescoped Dickens’s plot. It’s Vaughan Williams light, but “light” doesn’t mean “slight.”
On Christmas Night is wonderfully dramatic as it traces Dickens’s tale, and as it’s clearly meant to be used for a dance company, RVW alternates between beauty and coldness and drama and austere mystery, with familiar Christmas songs scattered throughout. After playing On Christmas Night through several times over the last week or so, I cannot fathom how it has so completely eluded the concert halls and ballet stages of the world since RVW wrote it in 1926. I hope you enjoy it! Here is On Christmas Night.
Share This Post
Your Daily Dose of Christmas
Your Daily Dose of Christmas
OK, so after a really busy day of errands and whatnot yesterday I suddenly remembered about 11:00pm that I hadn’t posted a Daily Dose, so I went with a comedy number by Johnny Carson that I use every year. But that’s far from the only comedic take on The Twelve Days of Christmas! Nope, not at all. In fact, it’s probably more common to hear comedic takes on that old carol than to hear the thing actually performed straight. Cases in point:
This one here is particularly neat if you’re a music history buff:
And what about twelve days after Christmas?
And if you must hear “12 Days” performed perfectly nicely with no comedy attached, here you go:
Share This Post
Your Daily Dose of Christmas
Your Daily Dose of Christmas
Even now it comes as a surprise to a lot of people that the trumpet isn’t just an instrument for blazing fanfares and astonishing brass coluratura fireworks. The trumpet can be a deeply lyrical instrument as well, as is heard in this short selection by the amazing Tine Thing Helseth. Here is Ms. Helseth with “In the Bleak Midwinter”.