One can hear centuries of celebration in Christmas and holiday music, from Handel’s Messiah or Bach’s Magnificat with its massive scope and joyous fanfare, all the way to the modern holiday tune. Humanity has never stopped celebrating the season that has come to mean so much to so many, that a kind of idyllic style comes to mind born so many generations ago.
Those joyous fanfares that came to epitomize so much sacred music always included brass, thanks to the resonant sound the instrument provides. The Santa Maria Philharmonic Society’s holiday concert this year features the Yuletide Brass, an ensemble of the Philharmonic Orchestra’s brass players, who are joined by guest organist Adan Hernandez and the Vine Festival Chorus at the Dec. 4 concert.
The guest maestro for the evening is Greg Magie, who conducts the Symphony of the Vines in SLO County and is a Santa Maria Philharmonic member. He will bring the Vines Festival Chorus along with him for the show, a group created just for the concert.
“I think brass makes a particularly bright, warm, and festive sound that goes well with the holiday season,” Magie said. “And for me, the sound of the pipe organ—that adds a real fullness to the sound of the brass that I just love.”
The evening begins with a throwback to an aged tradition enjoyed by brass ensembles—one that will work perfectly in the First United Methodist Church sanctuary—that began in the European cathedrals of the Renaissance. Antiphony, or antiphonal music, includes two separate ensembles performing together across an acoustical space.
In short, half the Yuletide Brass will be on stage while the other half is in the back of the room for a performance of “Canzon septimi toni No. 2” by Giovanni Gabrieli, the Italian organist and composer who died more than 400 years ago. This kind of performance was beloved in the vaulting cathedrals where Gabrieli and others performed the masterful music that resonated throughout the halls.
Later on in the show, Magie explained, the audience members will get to join in some holiday tune sing-alongs. In this way, the audience gets to be part of the antiphony.
“It’s sort of a communal feeling, your voice and everyone’s voices blending together, it just brings you together, gives you a feeling of including and connection to everyone there and the event itself,” he said. “Everyone loves to participate in Christmas sing-alongs because we all know the tunes, and everyone is singing them.”
Also on the program is a performance of “The Night Before Christmas,” which includes a reading of the poem with musical accompaniment. PCPA Pacific Conservatory Theatre executive director Mark Booher will lend his powerful voice in reading the iconic Christmastime poem.
The show will include some contemporary work, like John Rutter’s Gloria, Magie said. Magie is also excited about a piece called “Christmas Day” by Gustav Holst, which provides a medley of favorite carols, eventually mashing them together. With the familiar words sung by his chorus, and the solid harmonies of the brass and organ lending support, the show should take listeners for a ride that feels authentically celebratory of the holiday season.
“There’s a very human element to art that helps us connect with the better part of ourselves, to get out of ourselves,” Magie said. “We get to see the beauty that’s in the world, beauty that’s in sound, beauty that can’t be expressed in words, that only music can do—and honestly, only live music can connect in a way that recordings simply cannot. It’s a really important thing that helps us remain human and good and decent citizens.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne can be reached at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 3, 2015.
