The Christmas and holiday season is known as a time of festive merriment and reuniting with friends and family. Besides the steady flow of food, drink, and gifts, music making explodes during the holidays, yielding a cornucopia of performing ensembles. Bands add a couple of familiar holiday tunes to the repertoire, orchestras schedule holiday-inspired programs, and of course carolers converge to sing their praises to the festivities, season, or their creator.
The most popular form of Christmas music is the carol. The idea of the carol came about in medieval England, when groups of revelers would sing and dance in a circle. Many of the earliest carols were in Latin, but when they were translated into vernacular languages, they took off. Some carols still reflect the old Latin influence and are macaronic, in that they include two languages. “Angels We Have Heard on High” is a perfect example: The refrain “Gloria in Excelsis Deo (Glory to God in the Highest)” has become famous thanks to Edward Shippen Barnes’ (1887-1958) composition that sets the word “Gloria” in a rising and falling emblematic style.
Carols are based on the four-part hymnal style of writing, but also were heavily influenced by the madrigal, a secular polyphonic form from the Renaissance. Madrigals often use vocables, or nonsense syllables used to express an emotion, a technique adapted to carols as well with the most obvious example being “fa la la la la.” The four-part polyphonic style is what gives carols their distinct spirit and has been a cultural craze across the western world since the middle ages. The typical group of street carolers is an iconic image of the Christmas season.
Many composers have been inspired to compose music for the advent of Christmas. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), as part of his duties at Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Germany, presented Christmas music yearly. Some of his compositions included the Christmas Oratorio and Magnificat. Though these works may not be synonymous with the holiday, they are very beautiful and capture the essence of the season. A contemporary of Bach’s, George Frederic Handel (1685-1759), originally wrote his oratorio Messiah for Passiontide in England, but the piece—especially the “Hallelujah Chorus”—has become synonymous with Christmas. Parts of the Messiah were actually adapted by later composers to the hymn carol “Joy to the World,” which has many hallmarks of Handel’s style. The most famous setting of “Angels We Have Heard on High” is attributed to Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), though he didn’t compose the tune for this text. He set the words to the secular tune by William H. Cummings in 1855, and the song has become hugely popular since.
The modern bent on the season has much to do with the Americanization of the holiday. American songwriters and composers have been setting traditional hymns and carols for centuries and adding their own holiday tunes to the lexicon. Tin Pan Alley put out some famous tunes that signify the joy of the season, rather than a religious or sacred connotation. “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin comes to mind, as does “Sleigh Ride” by Anderson and Parish and “Winter Wonderland” by Bernard and Smith. Rock-n-rollers even got into the swing of the season with songs like “Jingle Bell Rock” by Beal and Boothe, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Johnny Marks, and “Blue Christmas” by Hayes and Johnson, but best known for Elvis Presley’s interpretation.
These days, holiday music can be heard on the radio and in department stores barely after Thanksgiving—and usually before. A Christmas album is still one of the most profitable endeavors a signed recording artist can engage in. Theories or rants on commercialism aside, the music is a reminder and a reflection of what the season means to most people: reuniting with friends and family, sharing, and reveling in festive activities.
Santa Maria will be offering plenty of music for the week of Christmas. The Santa Maria Town Center at Main and Broadway in Santa Maria will include live piano music for shoppers and onlookers by local pianists Andrew Barnick and myself Dec. 23 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Dec. 24 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Macy’s Court Stage.
Many local churches will be offering musical entertainment as part of their services. Some of these include New Life Christian Church offering a Christmas Eve service with contemporary Christian Christmas music on Dec. 24 at 6 p.m. at the church, 2400 Skyway Dr., Santa Maria. More info: 928-9490.
St. Louis DeMontfort, at 1190 E. Clark Ave. in Orcutt, includes a Dec. 24 Children’s Mass including music at 4 p.m. and a Midnight Mass including church choirs. More info: 937-4555.
First Christian Church offers a family service including music Dec. 24 at 5 p.m. and a candlelight service including classic Christmas carols and soloist Joanna Jones at 7 and 11 p.m. at the church, 1550 S. College, Santa Maria. More info: 922-8479, Ext. 110.
Contact Calendar Editor Joe Payne at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 22-29, 2011.
