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“December will be magic again!” or How music reviewer Retropath2 and chorister Teutonic Tim are saving my Xmas.

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This is thread for you to share you Yuletide favourites with us. I’d like to hear about all the music that you will be listening to, or perhaps even performing yourselves, that will enhance your enjoyment of the festive season,

If you are a singer, professional or amateur, December is probably the busiest time of the year for you. The Church of Sweden has a splendid programme of concerts in the churches of Stockholm throughout the year. But at Lucia (St Lucy’s Day) and at Xmas they really excel themselves in the programme that is available. Stockholm has some very magnificent churches so there is no shortage of venues
My pal, Teutonic Tim, sings in two choirs. Today he will be performing in two consecutive Servies of Nine Lessons and Carols at the English Church in Östermalm. And then on Wednesday, he will sing with the Swedish choir at his local church in Aspudden. And I really hope to able to attend that concert.
That second choir tend to be a little more adventurous in their choice of material which is why he stays with them.
He, @Duco01 and I had a curry together on Thursday and Tim was telling us about the very broad range of Xmas music there is and named Berlioz and Poulenc, as two composers whose work he’ll be singing in the days to come.

I was interested to discover that Sweden probably has the largest number of choirs per capita than anywhere in the world.

And then there are the new Xmas albums. I am sure many of you will groan with pain at the prospect of new Xmas releases. But @Retropath02 has tipped me off about two new folk music releases, both of which really appeal to me. I’ll post his reviews in the comments.

A Midwinter’s Night by Jackie Oates and John Spiers

“Simple and straightforward, two artists at the peak of their unadulterated skills, and all the better for that. Neither, too, are these the songs of desperation and cliche, trotted out by supermarket shelf favourites. Like fellow acolytes of the tradition, The Unthanks and the estimable Janice Burns and Jon Doran, they have dug deep, finding songs that may have dropped, over the centuries, from any Christingle playlist. So then, tradition in a far purer sense than shortbread and Santa.”

Great Joy to the World by Janice Burns and Jon Doran
“Jan and Jon embrace the seasonal baton with relish and it is anything but a turkey, vegetarian or otherwise. Hallelujah!”

I confess, I haven’t Tigger-tested these two albums yet. But on first listen, I knew that they would be joining my seasonal favourites like Ron Sexsmith, Sufjan Stevens, Nick Lowe, Ella Fitzgerald, the De Paur Chorus, Davitt Sierson, John Prine, Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band, Yellowman, Odd Nordstuga and Sissel, Wizzard, Triakel, Bob Rivers, Aimee Mann, Slade, The Vince Guaraldi Trio, Half Man Half Biscuit,Majortuen, Sofia Karlsson etc,

What about you?

How many of you will be singing in a choir or going carol singing?

And your listening?
What’s it to be?
Xmas Old. Xmas New. Xmas Borrowed. Xmas Blue?
What will be dusted off and given a listen? Or what will be torn from the postie’s hand to be placed immediately on the turntable?

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Comments

  2. A Service of Nine Lessons and Carols is such a big Xmas tradition in the UK, I wanted to find out where it all started. The most famous is the one from Kings College, Cambridge.

    “A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is the Christmas Eve service held in King’s College Chapel. The service was introduced in 1918 to bring a more imaginative approach to worship. It was first broadcast in 1928 and is now broadcast to millions of people.

    The service includes readings from the Bible. The opening carol is always ‘Once in Royal David’s City’, and there is always a new, specially commissioned carol. It is distinct from Carols from King’s, which is a carol service pre-recorded for BBC television, also broadcast on Christmas Eve.”

    https://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/chapel/a-festival-of-nine-lessons-and-carols

    Here’s a little more about the history:

    “A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was first
    held on Christmas Eve, 1918. It was planned by Eric
    Milner-White, who at the age of thirty-four had just
    been appointed Dean of King’s. His experience as an army
    chaplain had convinced him that the Church of England needed
    more imaginative worship.
    Although imaginative, the 1918 service was, in fact, adapted from
    one drawn up by the then Bishop of Truro, later Archbishop
    of Canterbury, E.W. Benson. The first Truro service took place
    in 1880 in the large wooden structure affectionately known
    as a ‘shed’, which then served as Truro Cathedral. It wasn’t an
    afternoon service but took place at 10.00 pm, and was intended
    to draw people away from the teeming public houses”

    https://mediaspace.kings.cam.ac.uk/pages/download.php?direct=1&noattach=true&ref=30&ext=pdf&k=5e82fb6f49

    Wikipedia adds this.

    “Up to the late 19th century, the singing of Christmas carols was normally performed by singers visiting people’s houses, and carols — generally considered to be secular in content — had been excluded from Christian worship. In the Victorian era, the rising popularity of hymnody encouraged church musicians to introduce carols into worship.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Lessons_and_Carols

    • The King’s carols was a Christmas Eve ritual on the radio (sorry, wireless) in our house right through my childhood and teens. Nothing said IT’S CHRISTMAAAAASS quite like it.

      • I suppose, given the song’s subject matter, it’s not surprising that most of the “classic” versions of it are melancholy. I was specifically looking for an upbeat version.

        • Quite amusing to read Wiki about that, @Mike_H.

          “In 1957, when Frank Sinatra approached Martin to record the song, he asked him to revise the lyrics to promote more positive themes; he particularly pointed out the line “until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow,” saying “the name of my album is A Jolly Christmas. Do you think you could jolly up that line for me?”[9] Martin’s revised lyric was “hang a shining star upon the highest bough.”

          Personally, I think many of the best Xmas songs have a certain melancholy about them. Not least Ron Sexsmith’s eautiful Maybe this Xmas which has become a standard up here in Sweden.

  8. I’ve a great fondness for Xmas music from all over the world. This morning I stumbled across Björk’s rather marvelous song about the terrifying Icelandic Yule Cat: Jólakötturinn!

    Heaven help the poor child who does not have new clothes at Xmas.

    “Jólakötturinn” (“The Christmas Cat”) is a beast that, according to Icelandic folklore, eats children who don’t receive new clothes in time for Christmas. The song is Björk’s contribution to the `Hvit Er Í Borg og BÒ’ Christmas compilation, issued on the Hljóðaklettur label in 1987. “Jólakötturinn” is one of few real Icelandic Christmas songs in which the song and lyrics are both performed and written by Icelanders. The lyrics were written by the Icelandic poet Jóhannes úr Kötlum and the song is by Ingibjörg Þorbergs.”

    https://grapevine.is/music/2013/12/19/six-icelandic-christmas-songs-that-dont-suck/

    Here’s an amusing article about this terrifying giant moggy and its vigilant fashion policing.

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/each-christmas-icelands-yule-cat-takes-fashion-policing-extreme-180961420/

    “This is the kind of message Icelanders like to send out in their folklore,” Haukur S. Magnússon writes for the Reykyavík Grapevine. “If you do not have the money or means of acquiring new items of clothing before the festival of lights, you will be eaten by a gigantic cat.”

    It’s Xmas, Jim, but not as we know it!

    • I was looking for this song on Så-potify and found a wonderful song : “The sows they melt the soonest”

      For a second I thought I’d discovered a sizzling piece of porcine erotica. What a disappointment to discover it was simply a typo.

  10. And my favourite seasonal album, Horslips’ Drive the Cold Winter Away, which actually includes also a version of the song above this post.
    Here’s the title track:

  11. I’ve seen Thea play this live at Christmas and it was magical, so any flimsy excuse to post it here is welcome. As for real choirs, nothing beats the choir of King’s College, and little beats their rendition of the Coventry carol.


  16. I’m biased but this track written, performed and produced by my son (Steve Simmonds) and sung by Georgina White, is rather lovely. Steve and George are both currently appearing in panto in North Wales.
    The song has been part of my life since September whilst listening to every single one of the hundred ish tracks it took to build it. (Ok I do provide some bv’s that Steve has expertly managed to hide) We were a little late in getting it out but its getting a fair bit of radio play around the world.

    • What a splendid addition to our exploration of Xmas music, @Martin_S. I’m very chuffed that we have a song which one of us has a very personal connection to.

      Georgina delivers it with great panache. It’s a movie soundtrack smash hit just waiting to happen. I hope it works out for your son. The world of pop music is an eccentric, quirky, unpredictable one where things rarely go as planned.

      Talking of which, here is a fine song from 2011 which many of us here on the Afterword will remember fondly.

      For all you New Kids on the Afterword block, Disappointment Bob, who wrote and performed it was a regular contributor to the site, back in the day. It still sounds excellent in 2024.

      • Ah yes, I remember Bob from back in the day. I too used to be a regular in the old place and indeed this one. Life changed and for no reason I can fathom, I’ve barely been here for a few years. Back now I’m happy to say.

    • You are on a roll @exilepj!

      I posted Choppersaurus on my Spotify Xmas list and got a very apprecíative comment.

      And now this gem! Billy Mackenzie singing (what I just discovered is ) a Nat King Cole song. That really hit the spot.

      I really like Saint Etienne and their uncertain, melancholy , M25ish, cover of Driving home for Xmas is superb. There are a lot of mixed feelings at Xmastime!

      And you’ve just added a Wicked Xmas. In 2024, you could not be more topical!
      I do have a spot soft for Ariana!

      Merry Xmas to you and yours!

  18. I’ve only just discovered that there’s an English version of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear and an American one, when I couldn’t make the chords I’d been given for our Xmas care home gig fit with the tune I knew. Here’s the English.

    And here’s the American (sorry about the scary Mormons). Also preferred in Oz, strangely.

    Turns out the words were written by an American and the American tune is the original. Who knew?

  19. YouTube just suggested that I give this piece, A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten, a listen.

    What a vey good idea!

    He wrote it at sea.

    “A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28 is an extended choral composition for Christmas by Benjamin Britten scored for three-part treble chorus, solo voices, and harp. The text, structured in eleven movements, is taken from The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems, edited by Gerald Bullett. It is principally in Middle English, with some Latin and Early Modern English. It was composed in 1942 on Britten’s sea voyage from the United States to England.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Ceremony_of_Carols#:~:text=A%20Ceremony%20of%20Carols%2C%20Op,Poems%2C%20edited%20by%20Gerald%20Bullett.

    Well I never! He was on a Swedish cargo vessel!

    “After three very successful years in America, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears boarded a Swedish cargo vessel, the Axel Johnson, on the 16th March 1942 for their return to Britain. It was a long and boring journey that took nearly a month. U-boat activity was at its height so it was probably rather frightening too. At this time Britten had started ‘Hymn to St. Cecilia’ and a piece for Benny Goodman. He intended to finish these on board but customs officials confiscated the manuscripts on the doubtful proposition that they could be a secret code. (Britten managed to restart and finish ‘Hymn’ but as far as I know the Goodman Piece was lost forever). During the voyage they berthed at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Britten came across a book of medieval poems and some of these he set during the voyage as the ‘Ceremony of Carols’. It is an unusual setting for boys choir and harp. Britten had intended to write a harp concerto and so had been studying the instrument. Humphrey Carpenter * regards the work’s title as rather odd as it is neither a ceremony nor is it a narration of the Christmas story. I find this view unsubstantiated.”

    https://www.musicweb-international.com/britten.htm

    Talking of the Middle Ages, let’s have some Yuletide Bardcore!

  20. This afternoon, I stumbled across this splendid Joni cover in Swedish by Kraja and Iris Viljanen.

    Up here we actually have rivers and lakes that you can skate away on in the winter, so it sounds just right in Sweden,-

    Just realised that I haven’t posted a single track from the two albums I mentioned in the O.P.

    Must put right. First, Janice Burns and Jon Doran.

    The brass in this one is excellent.

    And now Jackie Oates and John Spiers.

    Oh to be in England! And sitting in the snug of a crusty, country pub listening to these two.

  21. This is my favourite Christmas song (as I say every year). Tracy Thorn did it on her Christmas album but she can’t get near Rosemary. I can hardly wait to watch “White Christmas”.

    PS I did a little pub gig with the blues band in which I play bass and I sang “Lonely this Christmas” in full Elvis mode. Predictably the whole pub sang among and it was great fun.

  22. Not many people know that dept… White Christmas renditions always omit Irving Berlin’s preamble, which makes sense of the whole thing.

    The sun is shining, the grass is green
    The orange and palm trees sway
    There’s never been such a day
    In Beverly Hills, L.A
    But it’s December the twenty-fourth
    And I am longing to be up North…I’m dreaming etc.

  24. Late to this thread but this contribution seems to fit. RTE the national broadcaster in Ireland do a Christmas Carol show every year that I’ve come to really look forward to. There are always highlights. This is from a recent one.

    • Oddly enough, @Bamber, your timing is perfect.

      Yesterday evening I finally went to see my pal Tim’s choir do their Xmas concert at the Uppenbarelsekyrkan (Revelation Church) in the suburb of Aspudden and they finished spectacularly with that very song.

      And they gave it some serious welly!

      A choir with over 40 voices, organ, a piano, a wonderful flautist and a fine soprano soloist who was singing her heart out. It was magnificent.

      But it’s a wonderful contrast to today enjoy this very restrained, but equally beautiful version.

      One thing I learnt from the concert was that although a Xmas audience may be keen to hear some new carols, it does also expect a few of Xmas’s Greatest Hits. We got Silent Night, Adeste Fideles, Jul, jul, strålande jul and Veni, veni Immanuel which was the first piece they sung.

      The choir was out in the foyer ( a rather remarkable room that looked like a Jungle Greenhouse at Kew Gardens) so we could hear them but see nothing. And they sounded magnificent. Tim is one of eight bass voices. That’s a mighty sound.

      Another favourite for me was this Swedish carol: Now that Xmas time is coming.

      It’s a large church and it was almost full. There was lovely atmosphere: a really local event. There were several children in the audience who ran up to the stage after the performance to give mum a big hug.

      There was a break in the middle of the concert when it was time for refreshments.
      And did that audience want fika! Lots of home-baked cake led to a real Fika Feeding Frenzy.

      I was standing there observing all this when one of the teachers from my daughter’s school ( who to my shame I didn’t immediately recognise) came over with his teenage daughter and said hello. A small friendly chat which really added to my enjoyment of the evening.

      I am a hardcore pagan ( they had to ask me to leave my bloodaxe and Viking helmet in the cloakroom) but I am a total sucker for this beautiful Xmas music. That is very confusing.

  25. From those sublime Xmas carols to the rather dodgy excesses of Euro-pop Xmas hits.

    https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/dec/18/mariah-european-christmas-bangers-anthems0festive?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&fbclid=IwY2xjawHSBaVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHVdwOUe7UmIFQd0hFkjQHZdifWLEZv-gx2_zfAkbtJfFtE7B9a6pKNptFQ_aem_L_sHREhvInsPFs28yB5ygw

    This article could have been especially written for me.

    I rather like this German hit Holz (Wood)

    Our French Afterworder, @PizonBros, was rather taken aback that they’d chosen Dalida’s version of Petit Papa Noel for their playlist rather than Tino Rossi’s.

    Tino was Mr Xmas in France.

    His version of Petit Papa Noel sold 30 million copies worldwide

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tino_Rossi

    • I was amused by your bafflement around the realisation that the devil doesn’t after all have all the best tunes. I am similarly heathen to you but some rustic folk Christmas tunes and Alabammy gospel always sneaks into my likes at this time of year, just don’t tell Aleister!

      • Mum’s the word @retropath2! But I will have be very careful what I say at the next meeting of the Hellfire Club.

        The truth is that at this time Old Nick is seriously outclassed by Saint Nick. There are so many gorgeous carols and , here in Sweden at least, so many superb choirs to sing them.

        How popular is choir singing in the UK? I must delve deeper.

        The London Vocal Project who @Mike_H mentioned are superb.

        • There are zillions of choirs, along with TV programmes about them. Most are pretty anodyne schmalz to appeal to cosy oldsters, my particular hate reserved for Rock Choirs and their ilk. But catch me in the right frame of mind and the right material.
          Forgive an old favourite, featuring the Scottish Band and, I believe, The Glasgow Islay Gaelic Choir:

          This is a slightly different live version to one I usually post, with Bruce Guthro on lead vocals, rather than his earlier incumbent, Donnie Munro.

  26. I joined a choral society this autumn and we had our Christmas concert 2 weeks ago.

    We started with Berlioz’s Shepherd’s Farewell, a lovely tune and fairly straightforward: 3 verses with just a few dynamics to watch for. Our conductor kept banging on about how sad the words are, being about the holy family’s flight into Egypt to avoid Herod’s massacre of the innocents.

    The longest piece we did was Respighi’s Laud to the Nativity, certainly the least well-known of the three. This was a real baptism of fire for my first time in a choir, it’s a complex piece and not immediately catchy. It wasn’t only me that found it difficult, at each rehearsal there was someone griping about it. It takes many listens to sink in, but there are some nice passages in it. There’s one bit that goes completely bonkers (around 20mins into the clip) and it feels like you’re clinging on until the next easier bit comes along.

    Finally we had Vaughan Williams’ gorgeous Fantasia on Christmas Carols. This is great fun to do, but you have to concentrate because there are a few places that are surprisingly tricky.

    • Thanks for telling us a little about what it’s like being in a choral society @Malc.

      “There’s one bit that goes completely bonkers” – that was an excellent description!

      Having a good conductor is obviously very important, not least because they need to choose pieces that their choir can master. And of course, a programme that will get bums on seats. That is not so much of a problem in December as many people want to hear Xmas music.

      Hats off to them! The Swedish Church put on a lot of excellent, free concerts all year round.

      • That version is relatively slow. This one on Spotify is much faster (the bit in question is from 17mins in to about 19mins). Feels like the heavenly host is getting so excited that they’re on the verge of chaos, before veering off into something like the theme from E.T. We just sounded chaotic.

        It must be hard for the conductor, working with a choir whose talents are naturally more variable than they’d like, finding pieces that are at the right level – challenging enough without being too much of a slog.

  30. Reading about your choral society @Malc made me curious. I didn’t really know exactly what a choral society was and how it differs from a choir.

    It turns out that they date back all the way to the Handel Celebration of 1784 and during the 19th century and during the 19th century were enormously popular.

    https://ernie.uva.nl/viewer.p/21/56/object/122-229524

    “The scale and impact of choral-orchestral activity is clear from studies of music festivals and events across the period, institutional histories of organizations such as the Bach Choir and Huddersfield Choral Society, and the transformational agency of the Tonic Sol-Fa method developed by Sarah Glover (1785–1867) and, following her, by the congregational minister John Curwen (1816–1880). Choirs could belong to the social elite (e.g. Bradford’s Liedertafel, based, as the name suggests, on a German model), or were drawn from industrial clubs, or formed to serve the music festivals in centres including Birmingham, Leeds, Norwich and Bradford. The infrastructures that produced such large numbers of musically educated people able to contribute usefully to a chorus were gradually embedded in the routines and expectations of work, faith, education and purposeful leisure and self-improvement. With the advance of industrialization and urbanization came a greater cosmopolitanism. Various influences were at play in helping to improve musical literacy. The rise of Methodism and evangelical faiths led to an increased involvement in hymn-singing within these denominations. The publication of hymnbooks and associated music theory and Sol-Fa material was incorporated into the extensive activities of Sunday schools and mechanics institutes. Educationalists and social reformers led what was described as a “mania” for choral sight-singing. This widening of access to printed music originated in London in 1841 with the pioneering work of both Joseph Mainzer (1801–1851; Singing for the million) and John Hullah (1812–1884; Wilhem’s method of teaching singing). Glover’s and Curwen’s Tonic Sol-Fa method (Singing for Schools and Congregations, 1843) and the Tonic Sol-Fa College, which opened in 1879, served to instil choral singing among the lower and middle classes.

    Oratorio rather than opera was the dominant feature in English musical life. Festivals commissioned choral works such as the lastingly popular Elijah by Mendelssohn (Birmingham, 1846), Sullivan’s The golden legend (Leeds, 1886) and Elgar’s The dream of Gerontius (Birmingham, 1900). Improvements in the economies of music publishing allowed the pioneering Novello Company to disseminate cheap copies of sacred works in a clear and accessible format. This deeply embedded oratorio culture, founded on Handel’s Messiah, was a source of pride, community and nationwide involvement.”

    That jogged my memory. In Scotland there are several Gaelic choirs. An enjoyable way to keep the language alive.

    https://www.gaelicchoirs.org.uk/choirs/

    The combined Gaelic Choirs singing “Gleann Bhaile Chaoil” (Ballachulish Glen) conducted by Raymond Bremner. This was outside Perth Concert Hall on Saturday 22nd October 2022 and marked the end of the Royal National Mòd in the City of Perth this year.

    And naturally, there is Gaelic choir singing in Ireland too.

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