Is there a more popular Christmas carol/song than Silent Night?
Possibly not.
Silent Night was written in 1818 with lyrics by Joseph Mohr and music by Fanz Xavier Gruber.
Dresden Choir
The Bing Crosby version recorded in 1935 is the fourth best-selling single of all time.
The Mannheim Steamroller version has always been my favorite. I'm not really sure why, but it speaks to me. Every year when I hear it that first time at Christmas, I'm in love all over again.
This version of the song is full of good memories. It takes me back to my childhood. I listened to it with my family. It's not Christmas for me until I've heard this whole album. Then we got to play an orchestral version in high school. When I found out I was so excited because the whole second half of the song is violin solo! I was concertmaster at the time and that was going to be me!
Except it wasn't. The orchestral version gives that solo to the cello. I was so mad. I still love the song, though.
One of my favorite Christmas stories begins with Silent Night. Here is a beautiful Sainsbury's ad that shows what happened one Christmas Eve during World War One.
There are Christmas songs that I love, and Christmas songs that I hate. And sometimes they are the same song. It entirely depends on the arrangement. The Twelve Days of Christmas is one of those. When sung straight, it's horribly boring*. But when people do fun things with it, I love it! Here are some of my favorite versions!
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Craig Courtney's A Musicological Journey through Christmas via the Twelve Days of Christmas. I would love to perform this...
In one 19th century version of the song, it's "my mother" that gave the gifts, not "my true love".
Straight No Chaser
The 1780 version of the song says "four colly birds". Colly means coal black.
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir with The Count from Sesame Street!
In old English days, the 12 Days of Christmas was actually often played as a game. Here's a quote from Wikipedia from someone playing the game.
"Lady Gomme wrote in 1898:[42]
"The Twelve Days" was a Christmas game. It was a customary thing in a friend's house to play "The Twelve Days," or "My Lady's Lap Dog," every Twelfth Day night. The party was usually a mixed gathering of juveniles and adults, mostly relatives, and before supper — that is, before eating mince pies and twelfth cake — this game and the cushion dance were played, and the forfeits consequent upon them always cried. The company were all seated round the room. The leader of the game commenced by saying the first line. […] The lines for the "first day" of Christmas was said by each of the company in turn ; then the first "day" was repeated, with the addition of the "second" by the leader, and then this was said all round the circle in turn. This was continued until the lines for the "twelve days" were said by every player. For every mistake a forfeit — a small article belonging to the person — had to be given up. These forfeits were afterwards "cried" in the usual way, and were not returned to the owner until they had been redeemed by the penalty inflicted being performed."
In all those versions, how many different classical songs did you hear? Can you name them?
There is some debate out there about what constitutes "Classical Music". One of the biggest questions is, "Does movie music count?" It's big! It's orchestral. It seems like it should work.
Movie music is often referred to as modern classical music. My local classical radio station even has a show called The Score that is all about movie music. But it is really considered classical music?
The most compelling argument against movie music being classical is context.
Classical music is written for it's own sake. When you come to our concerts, you come expecting to hear music...and nothing else. Sometimes we put on a show (like when we played the Planets and showed you video), but mostly it's about the music.
Movie music is about what's on the screen. The music is written to enhance what you are visually enjoying. Even played in a concert hall, because of the movie, the patron comes in with preconceived ideas about what they should think about while listening. We played music from The Polar Express at our Christmas concert, and while the music is orchestral and wonderful, it's the associations with what's on the screen that gives it it's meaning.
Another way to look at it is the concept of how a musical idea is examined. In a classical piece, a musical idea will be expressed in the song, and then often composers will take that little idea, turn it on it's head, then inside out, and dance around it a bit in one movement of a piece. The most famous example of this is the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Everyone knows the first four notes.
Beethoven takes those first four notes and turns them upside down and all around, leaves them for a while, then comes back to them. You as the listener are taken on a musical ride. But there is, in Beethoven's music, no prior association (except one that you may have on your own).
So no, movie music isn't "classical music".
But it's fun, and it can be a gateway into the world of classical music. So listen guilt free and enjoy it all.
For some Christmas fun, here is the opening of the 2018 movie, The Grinch. If you are familiar with the 1960s version, you'll enjoy a lot of the musical nods wrapped into Danny Elfman's soundtrack.
