This post is dedicated to those who limit themselves to the contemporary Christmas pop music that they play in department stores and restaurant chains. Anyone who understands the true meaning of Christmas knows that the holiday is 2010 years old, but most Christmas compilations only feature songs written within the last 200 years.
James Galway's Christmas Carol (1986) remedies that by including the "
Chorale" and "Sinfonia" from Johann Sebastian Bach's
Christmas Oratorio (1734) and "
Ave Maria," which is based on a melody that Bach composed for
The Well-Tempered Clavier (1722). Dates that old make "Frosty the Snowman" (1950) and its predecessor "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1939) seem like new releases. He also includes "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," which is probably older than Charles Dickens'
A Christmas Carol (1843) and the only other familiar carol, "Greensleeves," is older than Dickens himself. My personal favorites are the "
Shepherd's Pipe Carol" (1975), "I Saw Three Ships" (first published in 1928, supposedly an upbeat variation of "Greensleeves"), "
Zither Carol," "Holy Boy" and "
Past Three O'Clock" (1924).
This post is dedicated to those who limit themselves to the contemporary Christmas pop music that they play in department stores and restaurant chains. Anyone who understands the true meaning of Christmas knows that the holiday is 2010 years old, but most Christmas compilations only feature songs written within the last 200 years. James Galway's Christmas Carol (1986) remedies that by including the "Chorale" and "Sinfonia" from Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio (1734) and "Ave Maria," which is based on a melody that Bach composed for The Well-Tempered Clavier (1722). Dates that old make "Frosty the Snowman" (1950) and its predecessor "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1939) seem like new releases. He also includes "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," which is probably older than Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843) and the only other familiar carol, "Greensleeves," is older than Dickens himself. My personal favorites are the "Shepherd's Pipe Carol" (1975), "I Saw Three Ships" (first published in 1928, supposedly an upbeat variation of "Greensleeves"), "Zither Carol," "Holy Boy" and "Past Three O'Clock" (1924).
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