Your Daily Dose of Christmas AND Tone Poem Tuesday

Two birds, one stone! Here’s a symphonic poem by British composer Arnold Bax, titled “Christmas Eve”. Apparently it was originally titled “Christmas Eve in the Mountains”, but Bax revised the work some years later and shortened the title. It’s an atmospheric and dense work, typical of Bax’s sound. There is no specific “Christmas” material here, but the work is redolent of Bax’s usual meditations on nature and mood. Here he is after the feel of a cold, crystal-clear morning in the mountains, and what morning is colder or clearer than Christmas Eve?