Classical Music II

[hectorberlioz]

Thankfully for everyone alive today, Christmas songs and carols have been around for a very very long time. Since Christianity appeared, almost. So there's a lot of music out there that is mediaval, some that was written/arranged by the Victorians, and early American Christmas music, as well as a wealth of music written by famous European composers.

I've compiled this list for your browsing and sampling pleasure .

1. "All Is Calm--the Christmas Truce of 1914."~~~~~This CD's theme is a mixing of Christmas songs and WWI-era songs. Click here to read a review

2. "Chansons Noel---Let's Sing of Christmas." This CD is a compilation of old French carols. Review and music samples here.

3. "A Christmas Festival." This CD is the child of composer/conductor John Rutter, a great modern-day writer of English choral music. His own christmas songwork shows up on this CD, interspersed with some oldies (both mediaval and modern oldies) as well as some classical classics. Should be quite a treat, right? Here

4. "A Venetian Christmas." This is a CD that attempts to reconstruct a particular service at a particular event. Namely, a Christmas service at the church of St Mark's in Venice in 1600. Most of the material is by Giovanni Gabrieli and Anonymous, but spiced up with some other stuff as well. So if you want a late-Renaissance Christmas sound, this is the way to go! Here with samples.

5. "A Mediterranean Christmas." This CD contains music from Spain, Italy, and the Middle-East. A decidedly different flavor to the music! Very unique. Reviewed Here

6. "La Bela Naissenca---Christmas Carols from Provence." More out-of-the-way unique music. Different instruments and tunes, but familiar themes. Here

7. "What If Mozart Wrote 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas?'" This CD is an arrangement of modern Christmas songs, made to sound like they were written by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, or Schubert. It's up to you to see if it is successful. In a way this CD is sort of revenge on all those artists who mucked up time-honored classics by Bach, Mozart, etc for their own vulgur interpretations. Here

8. "A Mediaval Christmas." More era-themed Christmas music. As the review says, done by professionals who are old hands at this stuff. Here

9. "Christmas With The Tallis Scholars." If you want Serene and Majestic for your Christmas music, this is the way you need to go. It's plainchant and Renaissance polyphony...two discs of some of the most beautiful singing you'll ever hear. Here

10. "Wassail Wassail! Early American Christmas Music." Time to explore some Christmas music on the West side of the Atlantic! Here

11. "A New Joy--An Orthodox Christmas." This CD brings us to Russia and the Ukraine, as we explore music of the Orthodox Church. Like most of these CDs, some of the music is anonymous/traditional while other bits are by more famous composers. In this case Tchaikovsky and Arvo Part. Here

12. "Wolcom Yule." British and Welsh carols and songs, sung by the beautifully voiced female quartet Anonymous 4. Their a cappella is now joined by Andrew King, harpist. Some old stuff with new stuff. Here

13."Handel: Messiah." Ok, even though it was written for Easter-time, there's no denying on my part that this great work is just as relevant during Christmas-time. Enjoy one of the timeless classics of music of any genre! Here

14. "Berlioz: L'Enfance du Christ." Here's a work that really waas composed for Christmas-time. It is Berlioz's only Oratorio, but he poured a lot of love into it. Sample the lovely "trio pour deux flute et harpe." Here


15. "Bach: Christmas Oratorio." Aha! So you didn't know Bach also was worried about Christmas music eh? Well, he was. In fact, he was so worried that he didn't have time to write an original work, so he went through some of his church cantatas (short choral works for church) and patched up what we know as the "Christmas Oratorio." Of course Bach wasn't a sloppy worker, and he integrated and smoothed things over quite a bit. Here