Wishing you all a peaceful, blessed, and merry holiday season. Here is some music to go along with it. Enjoy!
Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Now come, Saviour of the gentiles), an old German advent chorale, in versions by Lukas Osiander (1534-1604) and Andreas Raselius (1561/63-1602).
From Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow (1663-1712) Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her (From Heaven Above to Earth I Come), a chorale prelude, and Uns Ist Ein Kind Geboren (Onto us a Child is Born), a Christmas Cantata.
Hail Little Jesus by Franz Xaver Murschhauser (1663-1738), a set of harpsichord variations on Lasst unß das Kindelein wiegen (Let's rock the baby) with cuckoo calls.
William Henry Fry's (1813-1864) Santa Claus Symphony. Fry is sometimes downplayed as a 'a sort of Louis Moreau Gottschalk to the American symphony.'(1) This is undeserved criticism for a quite enjoyable work.
And some delightful contemporary works all by composers/artists born in 1962:
From Fredrik SixtenMary's lullaby/Stille Nacht and In the Bleak Mid Winter.
From Mauro ZuccanteLa Notte Santa, Blessed Be That Maid Marie and Angelus ad Pastores.
The Magi and Thou Whose Birth by Gabriel Jackson.
And for a change of pace, Chardash with Alexey Kochetkov, violin, and Yuri Povolotsky, piano, and Run Rudolph Run with Robert Wells.
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(1) Raymond Tuttle, "William Henry Fry, Occasional Music." CD review, Classical Net. (http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/n/nxs59057a.php (12/24/2013))
(2) Kile Smith, "FRY: Santa Claus Symphony / Niagara Symphony." CD liner notes, Naxos. (http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.559057&catNum=559057&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English# (12/24/2013))
Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Now come, Saviour of the gentiles), an old German advent chorale, in versions by Lukas Osiander (1534-1604) and Andreas Raselius (1561/63-1602).
From Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow (1663-1712) Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her (From Heaven Above to Earth I Come), a chorale prelude, and Uns Ist Ein Kind Geboren (Onto us a Child is Born), a Christmas Cantata.
Hail Little Jesus by Franz Xaver Murschhauser (1663-1738), a set of harpsichord variations on Lasst unß das Kindelein wiegen (Let's rock the baby) with cuckoo calls.
William Henry Fry's (1813-1864) Santa Claus Symphony. Fry is sometimes downplayed as a 'a sort of Louis Moreau Gottschalk to the American symphony.'(1) This is undeserved criticism for a quite enjoyable work.
What Fry called a symphony we might term a fantasy or overture, but by any name it remains a tight1y constructed drama full of heady drawing-room romanticism. Fry called it 'the longest instrumental composition ever written on a single subject, with unbroken continuity', and he was doubtless correct He composed it for the unsurpassed Jullien soloists, their technique showing in very high passages for the winds and the violins, and many solos, even a rare one for the double bass. It also seems that this is the first symphonic use anywhere of the newly invented saxophone.(2)
And some delightful contemporary works all by composers/artists born in 1962:
From Fredrik SixtenMary's lullaby/Stille Nacht and In the Bleak Mid Winter.
From Mauro ZuccanteLa Notte Santa, Blessed Be That Maid Marie and Angelus ad Pastores.
The Magi and Thou Whose Birth by Gabriel Jackson.
And for a change of pace, Chardash with Alexey Kochetkov, violin, and Yuri Povolotsky, piano, and Run Rudolph Run with Robert Wells.
___________________________________________________________________
(1) Raymond Tuttle, "William Henry Fry, Occasional Music." CD review, Classical Net. (http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/n/nxs59057a.php (12/24/2013))
(2) Kile Smith, "FRY: Santa Claus Symphony / Niagara Symphony." CD liner notes, Naxos. (http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.559057&catNum=559057&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English# (12/24/2013))