I could write a lengthy intro essay for this one…or I could just write, “Here’s Mr. John Denver.”
Choices, choices.
Here’s Mr. John Denver.
Your Daily Dose of CHRISTMAS!!!
Somehow I made it to just the other day (as you’re reading this) without knowing that in 1983 David Bowie starred in a Japanese war film about the individuals living in a POW camp. The film’s English title is Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, and the film’s score, by Ryuichi Sakamoto, is highly regarded, possibly moreso even than the film. (I only know this by reading the film’s Wikipedia entry.) The movie doesn’t appear to have any specifically Christmas subtext, except that one of the Japanese characters wishes Mr. Lawrence, one of the non-Japanese characters, a Merry Christmas several times throughout the film. Nevertheless, the title track from the film has apparently become a Christmas standard in Japan. Listening to it now, I’m pretty sure I’ve heard it before, but I’m not super familiar with it.
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Your Daily Dose of CHRISTMAS!!!
A lot of what I post in this series every year comes from just simple YouTube searches, which I then follow until I find something interesting. This is a case in point: I searched “Appalachian Christmas”, which yielded some good stuff! One thing I almost used was a recording of an actual cantata a composer wrote using old Appalachian melodies, but…I didn’t like the performance in the recording, which sounded oddly “commercial” in my ears. So here is this, performed on a selection of Appalachian instruments. The performer, Timothy Seaman, provides this information:
I found this song, one of only three Christmas-themed shape-note hymns, in an old book back in the 1980s, and have sung it in concerts ever since; here it’s an informal ensemble (all played by me) on mountain dulcimer by Bert Berry, tuned CGC, with harmonica, then baritone mountain dulcimer by McSpadden, tuned AEA, with harmonica and Woodsong bamboo flute by Rob Yard.
The strong mountain melody is joined with these powerful words reminiscent of Handel’s Messiah’s Christmas section, drawn from prophecies in Isaiah of the coming Messiah:
1. The people that in darkness sat
A glorious light have seen;
The light has shined on them who long
In shades of death have been.
To us a child of hope is born,
To us a son is giv’n;
Him shall the tribes of earth obey,
Him all the hosts of heav’n.
2. His name shall be the prince of peace
Forevermore adored,
The wonderful, the counselor,
The great and mighty Lord.
His pow’r increasing still shall spread,
His reign no end shall know;
Justice shall guard his throne above,
And peace abound below.
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Your Daily Dose of CHRISTMAS!!!
Taken on Miranda (Lumix FX1000ii), using a “starburst” scene mode.
f/3.1, 1/15 sec, ISo1600
Welcome to December! Along with “normal” blogging, this month always features a daily music or video selection pertaining to Christmas. There are some items I post annually, while other things will be brand new. That’s one of the things I love about this season: every year it’s a mixture of the old and traditional with new stuff that may become tradition in the future, or rather fade into memory until someday you say, “Hey, remember that one Christmas when everybody was doing/singing/watching that one thing?”
Anyway, I hope you’ll join me in this tour through Christmas as it unfolds in my brain. The mood will be festive at times, introspective at others, sometimes happy, sometimes bittersweet…but always Christmas. Because that’s how I roll.
We’ll start with the United States Marine Band performing “A Christmas Festival” by Leroy Anderson.
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Your Daily Dose of Christmas!
Your Daily Dose of Christmas!
One more day….
My general tradition when I get to the 24th is to post a grab-bag of favorites that didn’t get their own posts this year. But hardly also-rans–these are greats and favorites that I don’t want to ignore. So, let’s go! No commentary, just music. (Well, maybe a little commentary….)
(These last two offered in memory of Robert John Guttke, who loved these composers and these two works in particular.)
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Your Daily Dose of Christmas
Another year gone by without seeing The Nutcracker live. What in God’s name am I waiting for? Well, I don’t know. This Christmas season has been unusually chaotic and hard to plan. For me the problem was twofold, I think. First, there was the fact that Thanksgiving was as late as it can possibly be, so that once it was over, there was already less than four weeks to Christmas. That’s way too short a time to pack in everything. Second…well, this is the second Christmas since Mom died and…well, I’ll write about Dad some other time. Suffice it to say that it’s really sunk in this year that the old memories are just that: memories, and the old traditions have joined them.
But I still have some traditions, such as this series of posts. And putting aside two hours at some point, even if it is over several lunch breaks at work, to watch The Nutcracker. Here’s the one I took in this year. This is one of the more magical versions I’ve watched, and the music-making is superlative.
(I’m eschewing the Nutcracker Suite this year. Please make time to lose yourself in this fantasy world, if you can. I still think of my old college orchestra conductor, Dr. Janice Wade, when I hear the numbers that make up the Suite. I hope she doesn’t mind that Maestro Gergiev here does the last bars of the “Waltz of the Flowers” in a way that she personally did not.)
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Your Daily Dose of Christmas
As a lover of film music for just about all my life, here are some film music selections from Christmas movies!
First, from 1984’s A Christmas Carol, the one starring George C. Scott:
Next, a suite from the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol, the one starring Alastair Sim as Scrooge. Which I have never actually seen, even though the wide-spread consensus is that Sim’s Scrooge is definitive to the point of being iconic. I don’t know about that, but the music is certainly damned good, and it should be: it’s written by Richard Addinsell, that fine English composer who is best known for another piece of music he wrote for film, the amazing Rachmaninoff-pastiche Warsaw Concerto, written for the film Suicide Squadron.
Moving into more contemporary times, but staying in the London area, we have this compilation of the three major love themes from Love Actually. This movie has sustained something of a backlash in recent years, but I will hear none of that. NONE, you hear?
Much has also been said of the Robert Zemeckis adaptation of The Polar Express, which I do in fact enjoy a great deal, even if the animation of the eyes isn’t quite…up to par, I suppose. Alan Silvestri turned in a wonderfully evocative and sweeping score for this one. Silvestri is one of those composers who probably doesn’t rank at the fore, but a second rate hack, he ain’t.
Finally, here’s one that I haven’t had the best relationship with over the years. I think my “I love John Williams” bona fides are well-established by now, but in all honesty, I have never much liked his score to Home Alone. However, I’ve given some selections from it a fresh listen this year and I do find myself warming to it, a bit. I still think he explored moods like this more effectively in films like Hook and the Harry Potter films (the ones he scored, obviously). But I do find myself appreciating his Home Alone music more than I used to. I’m still not a fan of the movie itself, but the music is good. I’ve come to hear it as Williams in “Carl Stalling” mode: he’s basically scoring a cartoon, live-action though it may be, which is loaded with gonzo action.
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Your Daily Dose of Christmas
Earlier in the month I featured a Christmas song by The Killers, a band I’ve been delving much more deeply into this year (more to come on that in my end-of-year summation post). So now I’m thinking, “What about some of my other favorite bands and acts?” So, a tour of Christmas sounds of other bands and artists that I like! (I am limiting this to living performers.)
Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors:
Shannon Dooks:
Dolly Parton:
Kelly Clarkson:
Heart:
Blackmore’s Night:
The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra:
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Your Daily Dose of Christmas
Here’s another annual feature on this site, because it’s as perfect a rendition of a song as I can remember. No cover has ever come close–well, maybe Bing Crosby, but that’s about it. Certainly not the more famous Frank Sinatra version in which he foisted that awful “Hang a shining star on the highest bough” lyric on the world, because he wanted it to be more cheerful.
This is not a song about cheerfulness in general. It is a song about finding what cheer you can, what joy you can, however momentary, in the midst of whatever else is going on in your life. It’s about hoping that someday soon we all can be together, but also about muddling through as best we can until that day comes, if it ever does.
Strong opinions, I know, but I cannot abide “Hang a shining star upon the highest bough”. It’s a totally meaningless lyric, crafted for scansion and rhyme and that’s it. And I cannot abide the erasure of Judy Garland that happens every time any version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” other than her original, from Meet Me In St. Louis, plays on the radio.