Christmas Music (or Holiday music if you insist on PC)

mommiomommio
edited December 2011 in General
I can never have enough Christmas music.

I read a review (linked on Facebook) this morning, then bought the MP3 album at Amazon for $8.99 (Hybrid SACD-DSD is $18.59). This one is superb (in my humble opinion).

Amazon CD/MP3: On Christmas Night - Choir of St. John's College, Cambridge

Review: https://www.classicalmusicsentinel.com/collections/collection-christmas-night.html
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Comments

  • greggreg
    I've always wondered why it is called Holiday music in the States - now I know Mommio! Although the UK is a multicultural, multi religious country it is still Christmas music here
  • DoofyDoofy
    A free 'Holiday' song every day at Amazon this month.

    That St John's album sounds great, Mommio. The same choir has a wonderful album of Christmas carols, which I think was a Chandos freebie last year.

    I was searching for annual link to my favorite Christmas jazz collection, but it appears to be OOP!
  • kezkez
    Also, last year's free Christmas sampler from Paste can still be downloaded here.
  • BigD-BluezBigD-Bluez
    edited December 2011
    About 2/3's of the way down Page 5 of the 7digital thread are 4 big collection 100 Christmas yadda yadda links, of questionable taste and provenance. My inner question on the Denon assortment was always why is Swan Lake a Christmas selection - Nutcracker I get- but Swan Lake? Although Black Swan will be right up there with It's A Wonderful Life at our house this Christmas. Apparently I only have 99 Must-Have... and 99 Essential... in my collection thus far - that pesky 1%.
  • mommiomommio
    edited December 2011
    Mentioned by BigD on another thread -- the 7digital 2011 Advent calendar. Maybe a Christmas album will show up sometime during the month.
  • MrVMrV
    On a lighter note; Leon Redbone's Christmas album is five dollars at Amazon
    http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Island-Leon-Redbone/dp/B003UJPIQY/ref=sr_1_1_digr?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1322749919&sr=1-1

    Another favorite of mine is this Suzy Bogguss album (probably cheaper if it is still on Emusic) http://www.amazon.com/Have-Yourself-Merry-Little-Christmas/dp/B000QQTK86/ref=sr_1_1_digr?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1322750413&sr=1-1

    Also a 99 percenter for five dollars http://www.amazon.com/gp/dp/ref=pe_71760_21919710_pe_b1/B002S34S82
  • mommiomommio
    Can't help myself -- I tout this one every year. I am just as likely to listen to this one in June as in December. I have loved it since playing the vinyl LP for the very first time way back when.

    Sound of Christmas by Ramsey Lewis. I'm not bothering to check eMu, but it was there at one time.
  • Bad ThoughtsBad Thoughts
    This year (like last) I will be playing a dozen nights at assisted-living facilities, retirement homes, and hospitals where the people are too old, infirm or disabled to leave on their own and the facilities are too poor to hire entertainment. Although I'm a Jewish man who has no connection to mangers, mother and child, Santa Claus, etc., I'll play my heart out to make sure that the experience is as emotionally and spiritually uplifting as possible. Yes, it's all Christmas music. However, I believe that at the end of the day I will have contributed enough that I deserve a bland--PC, if you must--"Happy Holidays" without having to hear a polemic drawn from the War on Christmas.
  • GermanprofGermanprof
    I recommend Darkest Night of the Year by Over the Rhine (especially if you want a break from forced jollity or have become just a touch too familiar with the tune of Silent Night). Their other Christmas album, Snow Angels is worth a listen too, both for the standout opener "All I Ever Get for Christmas is Blue" (which gets me on its side with the line 'It would take a miracle/to get me to a shopping mall) and for almost rescuing "Jingle Bells" back into the realms of musicality. (And you stay out of this, Brighternow).

    And Bruce Cockburn, Christmas, which very successfully rescues several songs from kitsch purgatory, is an annual staple in our household.

    Might muster the energy to write about these and the like for the blog.
  • DoofyDoofy
    Good stuff, BT.
  • mommiomommio
    Really now! :) I always give a Happy Hanukkah wish to my Jewish friends. Is that not acceptable? Is Happy Holidays preferred?
  • Bad ThoughtsBad Thoughts
    edited December 2011
    I'll take a Happy Hannukah when appropriate. However, I also appreciate affirmation that allows people to share and that recognizes that some traditions are borrowed--Jultr
  • NereffidNereffid
    Two cents from this atheist: If someone takes offence at being wished a Happy Whatever, they're paying too much attention to the wrong part of the phrase.

    My childhood-memories Christmas choice: Joan Sutherland
  • GermanprofGermanprof
    edited December 2011
    Part of the irony of concern that Christmas is too Christian is that there were periods in the history of the Christian church in Europe when significant chunks of what we associate with Christmas were outlawed by the church for Christians because of its status as pagan borrowing.
  • Bad ThoughtsBad Thoughts
    Part of the irony of concern that Christmas is too Christian is that there were periods in the history of the Christian church in Europe when significant chunks of what we associate with Christmas were outlawed by the church for Christians because of its status as pagan borrowing.
    The festivals of each religion have their specific symbols, of course, but they are also built upon seasonal and perennial symbols that humanity holds in common. I guess you could say they borrowed Pagan rituals and symbols. I'd prefer to say the people of Northern Europe kept their traditions as they Christianized.
  • mommiomommio
    edited December 2011
    I am a Christian, and I connect church services, stories and hymns related to the Nativity, giving (Angel Tree, Food Banks) etc. as part of my faith tradition. I also recognize that its roots are Jewish. There is no one denomination that captures all my personal beliefs. I have left denominations because they were too confining and restrictive for my taste. I appreciate those that allow me to be who I am.

    Christmas trees, too many presents, Chevy Chase decorated houses, Jingle Bells, etc. are part of the holidays, but not connected to my faith.

    Nothing wrong with some of those pagan traditions. Aren't they part of our history, too? My inclination toward inclusiveness was a major reason that I was successful at my profession.

    Now, having said all that, Happy Whatever to all of you. Enjoy the music. Music IS good.
  • amclark2amclark2
    edited December 2011
    Lately I find myself missing the good old PC days. Not that I mind calling Christmas Christmas, but I'm finding a lot of incidents where people, from Facebook friends to public figures, say things that leave me cringeing and thinking "they can't say that on tv can they?" In the reaction against PCism, it seems we gave the green light to a lot of racism, sexism, culturism and other nasty isms.

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    So Happy Happy everybody.

    Oh, and Christmas music; Christmas music and I don't get along since working a few Christmases in retail establishments where the canned loop starts November 1, but I do love love love Low's Christmas EP.
  • greggreg
    I have Sikh friends who certainly celebrate Christmas, and some Muslim friends who tend to have a special meal, presents etc on 25th December. Most of the people in Britain who celebrate Christmas anyway cannot be regarded as Christians, as they haven't been in a church for years if ever other than to go to a wedding or funeral. I heard a mother in a supermarket last week say "If you don't behave you won't have your Christmas" totally taking the whole concept of what Christmas should mean wrongly.

    Enough sermonising! I am beginning to sound like our vicar.T wo albumns in particular that I like for this time of year are by Kare Rusby While Mortals Sleep and Sweet Bells . Both are inspired by the singers and brass bands that used to go round communities in her native Yorkshire in December when she was a child singing carols and other seasonal songs.
  • BigD-BluezBigD-Bluez
    edited December 2011
    Here's 99 Must-Have Christmas Classics currently $1.99 at Amazon - not bad for background, and that 99 Essential that MrV gave the link for above is the other I have - again very nice for generalized holiday listening.

    For serious Christmas vibe I like the Anonymous 4 albums at the top of my eMu Xmas list which apparently I can't link in here - all it provided was a black screen of nothingness, but if you're logged in there there's a newish Christmas music thread on the MB with a link to my list, and Spirit Of Downloads Future willing, I want that Waverly Consort album on there this year.
  • greggreg
    Mommio - 7 Digital UK have Classic Christmas Carols by Choir Of King's College, Cambridge. It'll be very similar to the St Johns Choir. It is 50 tracks long for £7.99. Normally 7 digital have the same things on both sites at similar prices.
  • GermanprofGermanprof
    edited December 2011
    Just for clarity, I wasn't coming out in favor of the byegone ban on borrowing things from existing culture - just making a random quizzical observation on the ironic historical roundabout whereby versions of the same festival are in one time and place viewed as too unChristian to be permissible for Christians and in others too Christian for other folk to be comfortable. (And "pagan" was a technical term).

    I'm with mommio, a lot of what currently manifests as "Christmas" has little real connection to "Christian" except as a loosely associated cultural memory, though obviously some of it does. I even doubt that most users of the word "Christmas" are particularly aware of its etymology when they use it. And @amclark2 I agree PC is a good thing if it helps restrain racism, sexism, and other verbally transmitted evils; the backlash often sounds like a reclaiming of the comfort of old bigotries. At the same time in an ideal world perhaps it ought to be that me naming my faith need not be received as a put-down for someone else. If a Muslim friend were perchance to wish me a happy Eid ul-Fitr I don't think that would offend me in any way; I would understand that I was being wished goodwill from within a frame of reference that I didn't share or agree with, and I think that if that happened - a real wish of goodwill from within a different frame of reference and set of commitments - that might be worth celebrating as a good thing in the world. Goodwill across differences is worth more than attempts to homogenize.

    @ Greg, do you know Kate Fox's book Watching the English? I thought it was a great read on British cultural behaviors, and more sociologically grounded than a lot of stuff in that genre. She relates (I'm recounting from memory, so expect/forgive inaccuracies) a conversation that went roughly as follows:
    Teenager in doctor's waiting room filling out form: "It says 'religion' - what shall I put?'"
    Mother: "Put 'Church of England'"
    Teenager: "Is that a religion?"
    Mother: "I dunno, it's just what you put on forms."
  • Dr. MutexDr. Mutex
    amclark2: I hear you about looped canned Holiday Music (if anything deserves that label, that overplayed schmaltz does). I can barely stand to listen to the radio at any time of the year, but the month of December is hopeless until 6 p.m. on the 25th, when Radio suddenly goes, "What Christmas? Never was Christmas" (some quit even earlier in the day).

    I also would like to write an article on my favorite Christmas music if I can make time for it. I wish I could find the old thread about favorite Christmas albums, because I wrote a nice blurb for several of my favorite albums, and more in the discussion. I fear it was on mixtaper.org, and has vanished along with the other great stuff that was there.
  • Bad ThoughtsBad Thoughts
    My inclination toward inclusiveness ...
    Will you then omit the digs against "PC" in the future? They don't suggest inclusiveness, rather a critique of efforts to help people of different culture and beliefs find their place in American society.
  • kezkez
    edited December 2011
    For those interested, Pilgrim's Way, a current nominee for the horizon award of BBC Radio 2's Folk Awards, has released a Christmas single "Magic Christmas Tree," a re-do of the song "Chinese White" from the '60s by the Incredible String Band. The Christmas single has been released on a new EP entitled Shining Gently All Around. Besides the Christmas single, the EP includes two additional tracks that will be included on their next album due out in 2012. I downloaded the EP and like it.
  • Bad ThoughtsBad Thoughts
    Kez: I'm anxiously awaiting your blog post!
  • kezkez
    edited December 2011
    Thanks, BT. Are you going to write a Christmas article for the blog? I hope so. (If you don't already have your plate full enough working on the next installment in the English folk music series - which I thoroughly enjoyed. EDIT: Woops, sorry - it is Greg who is doing that folk music series. It's so easy for me to get you mixed up with Greg because both of you are so knowledgeable of folk music. Your Hillbilly Continuo article was great!)

    By the way, I changed the reference to "Irish flute" to "Irish whistle" in the blog piece. Do you think that is an accurate enough description, or do you think I should add the word "tin"? (I also just figured out that another name for the tin whistle is penny whistle - duh!)
  • DoofyDoofy
    edited December 2011
    My favorite "PC" story: I'm a writer, and a few years ago I was covering a story on a health issue affecting black people in Canada. In the editing process (unreviewed by me!), my phrase "Black Canadians" got changed to "African-American Canadians." Some uproar ensued, with conservative bloggers getting hold of the article and bewailing "African American Canadians" as the worst example of political correctness they had ever encountered. So we had the two extremes of over-anxious caution on one end, with semi-hysterical overreaction on the other end. Silliness, is what it was...

    The one Xmas album I've thought of adding to the collection this year...Only because I know my daughter would love it. Quincy Jones leading a mega-all-star ensemble.

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  • mommiomommio
    BT, my apologies. It was my feeble attempt at sarcasm. I dislike "political correctness," and I think it has done more harm, resulted in more anger at those who do not "have stars upon thars." In the area where I live it feels phony, and in no way implies a genuine attempt to understand other cultures, other races, other faiths.

    I think acceptance, rather than inclusiveness, would have been a better choice of words in my earlier post. I worked with such a variety of people (clients/patients), and I always looked for -- and almost always found -- the good in others. The more fellow employees were forced into multicultural diversity training, the more resentments I observed. Perhaps it was the way management presented it, but I am turned off by the Political Correctness concept. Acceptance, inclusiveness -- I much prefer those terms.

    Yes, it is all semantics, but the words we use do make a difference. You have just demonstrated that to me. I will try to keep my snark gene under control.
  • GermanprofGermanprof
    @Doofy, we have and enjoy that album.
  • greggreg
    @GP - no I don't know the book, I'll look out for it in my work library, thanks. I did sociology as part of my degree, so it ought to be interesting to me. Yes a very English statement. The C of E actually suffers from being the 'state religion' in the UK IMO

    @Kez - look out maybe later today. If I get time today something is already in my head, just needs a couple of hours to research and write it!
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