Christmas Time Musical Research is Back!

Was it really two years ago that I did my blog post on Christmas tunes? I can't believe how time flies, and I know I sounds like an old granny, but as I've been informed twice today, I act like one in all the right ways, so it's alright:)

I decided as Thanksgiving draws near again it was time for some early Christmas tunes and Christmas research! If you know me at all you'll know that I am not the biggest Christmas fanatic. Especially about music. I am so picky, I'm sure it drives everyone nuts. And I can't listen to it for too long. If I do, I start to loose my mind. Once Christmas is over I have to take it off my playlists and everything... So without much ado, here is another Christmas music research extravaganza.

1. Drive the Cold Winter Away
This is totally my favorite song this year! I love it.

Drive the Cold Winter Away is a 17th century ballad most well known from John Playford's 1651 The English Dancing Master. It is a jig and most of the sources seem to agree that though found in many places, the tune is originally from Britain's country dances.

2. In the Bleak Midwinter
I know a few of you who mentioned this song the year that I did my first post. I found the history of this one quite interesting.

The song came originally from a Christmas poem by Christina Rossetti written in 1872 after a request from Scribner's Monthly magazine for Christmas poems. It was published after her death in 1904, and though it has been set to music many times, the most famous tune we know today is by Gustav Holst. Maybe if I wrote more poems to magazines I would become famous when I die... I was going to put on the Lower Lights version with Debra singing, but I am not smart enough to figure that out... sorry everyone!

3. Lo, How a Rose E're Blooming
I found this version by Feist pretty interesting.
http://youtu.be/WKdknla37js
This song was originally published in 1582 in Gebetbuchlein des Frater Conradus. In German the name is Es ist ein Ros Entsprungen which actually sounds a lot cooler:) It is a Catholic hymn about the mother Mary who is compared to the rose in the Song of Solomon 2:1, "I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys...". Other sources say a Monk from Trier was walking in the wood on Christmas eve, found a rose still blooming and put in in a vase before an alter to the Virgin. In 1609, the hymn was adopted by Protestants who changed the focus from Mary to Jesus, because Jesus is the bomb yo! The best known translation that we use today is by Theodore Baker who translated it in 1894.

4. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
I just prefer Enya, not sorry:)

I'm sure you've heard the text from the bible, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." This is probably the inspiration behind this ancient hymn. There is evidence that it dates as far back as an 8th century Gregorian chant! Though it was discovered in a religious Latin text, Psalteroium Cantionum Catholicarum by John Mason Neale while in Maderia (some islands off of Africa in the early 19th century). The tune comes from a 15th century French Franciscan convent of nuns who ministered in Portugal. What a mish-mash! Anyway it all came together, and then Enya sang it, and it was beautiful. The end.

5. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Sometimes I just need some classics among all my medieval music. Here is a classic from Disney!

This piece was of course composed by Tchaikovsky after it was commissioned to him in 1891. The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is the third movement in the piece; the pas de deux from Act 2, and is danced by the principal female dancer.

This is from the Imperial Ballet's original production around 1900

The choreographer wanted the fairy's music to sound like "drops of water shooting from a fountain." Tchaikovsky made use of the recently invented instrument, the celesta, which is like a tiny piano that sounds like bells. Tchaikovsky, being Russian, and strangely competitive, made his purchase of this instrument a secret and didn't want other composers using it before him. The ultimate hipster... But his hijinks paid off because this strange instrument's sound will forever live in our minds with the Sugar Plum fairy.

Well there you are. My fascination with research has reached a new level of weird. I hope you enjoyed the music and history. Now go enjoy some sugar plums or something less nasty for Christmas this year:)