Messiah? christmas music?

[aedrasteia]

(mods - put this wherever you think it should be, thanks)


Music makes Christmas for me.

Is anyone else attending or singing in a performance of Handels's Messiah?

Over the last few years I've just shut down from the canned and really bad "X-masmuzak" at every store Mall-etc. I'm listening less and less to current music - i seem to be going back in time, more medieval and early liturgical music, chant and Russian Orthodox music. i like popular stuff too but none of it moves my heart. the really older music seems to stop time for me.

Today was the rehearsal for the Community Messiah. The Choral Society forms the core - and anyone in the community can come, bring a score or pick up one of our extras and sit with each voice section. We do the Christmas parts and welcome everyone. Somehow it works and is truly beautiful. And today, for just a moment, i felt a tiny spark. The altos (my section) sit right behind 2 cellos in the small orchestra. They are so deep and rich - I almost missed entrances. Handel has been done and done but I never tire of this music.

Other than the popular tunes(Santa Claus and the contemporary christian), what music makes Christmas for you?

I'll start: Messiah, Stille Nacht (Silent Night sung acapella in German by candlelight) and the Play of Herod - a mystery play of the Nativity, probably first compiled and sung in 1000.

 

[exile]

Other than the popular tunes(Santa Claus and the contemporary christian), what music makes Christmas for you?

Bach's Christmas Oratorio and Magnificat, and Corelli's and Manfredini's so-called `Christmas Concerti'—concerti grossi that were early on associated with the Christmas season. And the Christmas carol `In the Bleak Midwinter', in Gustav Holst's setting, and just about any collection of traditional English carols by the choir of King's College, Cambridge. But the Christmas Oratorio is the bedrock of the season, musically speaking, for me.

 

[MBuzzy]

I've really gone the whole gamut, started as a kid with the christmas standards. As I progressed in my musical education, I began to like the more traditional, classical style music, then after YEARS of performing christmas music, I got burned out on both....once you play the same stuff 6 years in a row...CONSTANTLY (I contend that performing it on a regular basis is MUCH different than just listening), it gets a bit old.

Lately, I have found myself preferring newer takes on older music. I especially appreciate when artists create NEW christmas music. Use their own creativity to introduce a new musical idea. It is ok when they rework a standard, but I prefer if they add a new twist.

 

[FearlessFreep]

Bing Crosby for nostalgia but my tastes in music have changed so much that my Christmas music tastes are changing as well... grooving to a lot of Latin Jazz and Modern Jazz this year.

And "Carol Of The Bells" and "Nutcracker" for old school

 

[tellner]

I've always been a little puzzled by the Messiah as Christmas music. It really belongs with Easter.

Be that as it may, the music that makes the season for me is Klezmer, Sephardic Cantors and Chanukah songs.

 

[Tez3]

I've always been a little puzzled by the Messiah as Christmas music. It really belongs with Easter.

Be that as it may, the music that makes the season for me is Klezmer, Sephardic Cantors and Chanukah songs.[/quote

In the UK the Messiah is traditionally sung at Easter, not Christmas. Christmas is usually carols by the choristers of the Cathedrals here.

I'll go with the kletzmer and Chanukah songs though! Sephardi I'm unfamiliar with sadly as I'm Ashkenazi. Always thought of Sephardi as being more 'soulful' than we are.

 

[donna]

, Stille Nacht (Silent Night sung acapella in German by candlelight) .

This is one of my favourites. I particularly like the rendition by Boney M.

 

[elder999]

Gian Carlo Menotti's, Amahl and the Night Visitors.