I posted this entry last year on 12/23. I haven’t discovered a lot of new Christmas music since then, so I’ll repost the entry here in its entirety. This may become an annual thing, plus new tracks as I discover them. So earbuds on and enjoy!
As we close in on Christmas, I wanted to post a few items I’d found and liked on YouTube. Nearly all of it is Christmas music. (I’ll post some other non-Christmas discoveries in a future entry.)
- First up is a kid choir, this one assembled by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, to provide words to Pachelbel’s Canon in G. Until relatively recently I thought the TSO was a Russian group. Not so; they’re from Florida. My only complaint is that I can’t make out the words except here and there. Not to sweat; my friend William Meyer found them.
- I was startled when I clicked on a YouTube-suggested track, “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” by Geoff Castellucci. Not sure if you remember Tennessee Ernie Ford. I do. Ford was a bass, but this guy Geoff is a bass so deep he brushes the Earth’s mantle. Yet he does the same trick that Peter Hollens does, and harmonizes with himself with four video images, all singing at once. Range? He’s got it, lordy.
- For comparison, here’s the good Mr. Ford doing his cover of the same song.
- My really big discovery in 2021was Pentatonix, a marvelous a capella group. How did I get to be this old without ever hearing about them? Their cover of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” is dazzling. (Bet you can’t guess what my favorite Christmas song is, heh.)
- I do have other favorites, and the Wayne Gratz cover of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” is right up there. This isn’t new; I’ve had it on CD for many years. I just wanted you to hear it, and it’s free on YouTube.
- More Pentatonix, from the live action How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I’d love to hear the bass who sang “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” in the original 1966 cartoon do a cover. Geoff Castelluci could do it, since the marvelously gravelly Thurl Ravenscroft is no longer with us.
- And still more Pentatonix: The lyrics of “White Winter Hymnal” don’t make any sense, but the harmony is good and the video is actually a lot of fun to watch.
- I’d heard this one before, but it’s been awhile, the John Williams theme to that over-the-top Christmas movie Home Alone . My mother used to make gingerbread houses, lots of them, almost every year, and gave most of them away. I remember that gingerbread feeling well, and will forever and ever, amen. Nobody did gingerbread houses like Victoria Albina Duntemann.
- It’s not quite a Christmas song, but it’s a hymn that should get more play than it does. There are lots of covers on YouTube. This is currently my favorite, but I doubt I’ve heard even a tenth of them.
- This one was brand-new to me: “Christmas Rush” by composer Matthew Curtis. It’s unusual in that it’s a completely new orchestral composition that doesn’t incorporate familiar Christmas melodies like a lot of orchestral Christmas music. But it’s upbeat, happy, and energetic without getting too manic. (Not that there’s anything wrong with manic now and then; see below.)
- Last year I happened to hear the orchestral piece “A Christmas Fanfare” from the BYU Philharmonic Orchestra on KBAQ and immediately bought the MP3 on Amazon. Weirdly, I do not see it on YouTube, even though the orchestra is very well-represented there. So what I can give you is the Amazon link. It’s a fine piece blending a number of Christmas favorites into a single polished work. 99c. Get it.
- I’ll wrap up here with yet another piece of orchestral Christmas music that captures a lot of my goofy, upbeat, borderline-manic hyperpollyannic spirit, of which a college colleague once said, “The trouble with you, Jeff, is that you’re too damned happy!” Well, yeah. Weave together a bunch of my favorite Christmas melodies into a brilliantly orchestrated march with energy exploding out of every treble clef, and my patron’s saint’s affirmation rises up in blinding light: All will be well. And all will be well. And all manner of thing will be well!
And that, my friends, is precisely what Christmas music is for.
Was in twitter mindset and looking for the ‘Like’ button…. have you considered posting links to new contrapositive posts in your Twitter account?
It’s actually the other way around: I post interesting links that I run across on Twitter, and then periodically gather them into Odd Lots entries here. I should see if WordPress has a “like” button plugin. If you scan my wall (if that’s what it’s called) on Twitter, you’ll probably see links you recognize from Contra. But I put them on Twitter first.
The themes from Home Alone and Polar Express hits the spot for me. Brings back feelings of nostalgia of nothing in particular, just a feeling of good Christmases past.
“The trouble with you, Jeff, is that you’re too damned happy!”
You seem to have an enjoyable life – simple living, little luxuries here and there, keeping the passion for each other and for hobbies, and not wanting for anything. You seem to have made good, conscious decisions. Have you thought about writing something like Jeff’s lessons for living a good life? I think you had something to share not quite yet covered in contra, or at least not collected in one place! Thanks for all the writing over the years.
If I knew how I got where I am, I might well try to explain it. But a great deal of my life was good luck: Finding Carol when I was barely 17, getting a talent for writing in the Great Gene Toss, being born at a time allowing me to get in on the ground floor of personal computing, learning editing and publishing back when editing and publishing were good jobs to have. I chose my parents well; they suffered too much but never failed me. I cultivated attitudes that would keep me out of trouble; the main one being “Don’t do stupid shit.” I tried to keep my promises and help other people get out of first gear on their road to being writers or editors. I tried to be satisfied with what I had, and never had any serious problem with envy. I’m not sure what else I could say, but it’s an intriguing challenge.
” I chose my parents well” or “Degunking your life” seem like good titles ha ha.
Merry Christmas Jeff!
The marvelously gravely Thurl Ravenscroff *was* the one who sang “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” on the 1966 cartoon. Also the voice of Tony the Tiger in the Frosted Flakes Commercials.
And the singing voice (but not the face) of “Stew Pot” in the film version of South Pacific.
Well, yes. What I meant is that Thurl Ravenscroft (who died in 2005) would be intriguing singing other music from the Grinch cartoon, even though “Where Are You, Christmas?” is sung in the movie by a young girl. I’ve looked for other of his covers and haven’t found much. He has a cover of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” on YouTube, but I was actually looking for “Sixteen Tons.”
Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band’s a cappella rendition of “Poor Little Jesus” is very moving. Unusually for Christmas music, it is sombre.
https://youtu.be/JYUpUMXxCgY
and there is this new one….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E1ULv6LcOk