Traditions of Christmas: The Music

[poltr1]

Now that my belly's full of yummy Christmas Eve lasagna, and that the sun is setting, it is time for the Great Machine we call Life to shout down for a day. That's what Christmas Eve feels like to me. There's an incredible silence out there, like the background hum that's there the rest of the year is missing.

Some of you are sick and tired of the same old Christmas carols. Since I'm a bit of a radio snob and don't listen to anything but NPR, I was spared the incessant playing of holiday music on some of the "Christmas 24/7" stations.


Here are my favorite Christmas music CDs.

Mannheim Steamroller, "A Fresh Aire Christmas". Released in 1988, this is my favorite of the 4+ Mannheim Steamroller Christmas CDs. Chip Davis and friends do a tremendous job integrating the antique with the modern. I love "Veni Veni" -- a Gregorian Chant redering of "O Come O Come Emanuel" (as it was originally done hundreds of years ago) and "Carol of the Bells". [Added 12/25 0:20] I love the "materialization" sound 20 seconds into the piece.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra, "Christmas Eve and Other Stories". I fell in love with "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" the first time I heard it. A full rock orchestra with guitars, trap set (drums) and synths. What's not to love?

The Caroleers, "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town". I mentioned this album last year. (Now I can't find the tape of the album I made last year! Argh!)

Vince Guaraldi Trio, "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Music to accompany the classic 1965 TV special. Includes the catchy "Linus and Lucy". (I can play the two hands separately, but not together.)

The Hampton String Quartet, "What if Mozart Wrote 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus'?". I found out about this group from a friend and her brother. They both used to work in a record store. They found a copy of "What if Mozart Wrote 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus'?" in the store, and played it on infinite repeat in an effort to maintain their collective sanity. (Unfortunately, it's out of print.)

[Added 12/25 0:20] The Glenn Miller Orchestra, "In The Christmas Mood" and "In The Christmas Mood vol II". In the few short years that the big band sound was in its heyday, they never recorded a Christmas album. That changed in the early '90s, when the surviving members of the big band -- past and present --- got together and recorded 2 CDs worth of Christmas music.

I'm sure there are others in my collection, but I can't remember what they are until I come across them.


What are your favorites?

Comments

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

I have the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and the Vince Guaraldi albums, the latter of which may be the pinnacle of 20th century western civilization.

Dave Brubek put out a christmas album a few years ago that is absolutely sublime.

My tastes in Christmas music fall largely into two catagories: uber-traditional (Crosby, Torme, Sinatra) renditions of timeless songs, or very twisted parodies such as Bob Rivers does. I have about 3.5 gigabytes of holiday music on my hard drive. :)

[billroper]

I found the Bryan Setzer Christmas Album for daisy_knotwise last year. It's a lot of fun.

[poltr1]

Sounds like fun. I saw one by the Manhattan Transfer but haven't picked it up yet. And I found my Glenn Miller Christmas CDs (as evidenced by the updated entry).

Xmas carols

[celticferret.livejournal.com]

My tastes aren't very traditional. I like Xmas parody songs. We have a Dr Demento Xmas album. A rock band called the Rugburns (my favorite in rock bands) have a song called "I hate fucking Xmas". I find the song hiliarious and it totally represents my views about Xmas shopping. Most Xmas shoppers are rude and have no idea what they want or the sizes people they are shopping for wear.

In the past I used to work the Xmas holidaze thorugh a temp agency to get cash to pay for Xmas. I used layaway a lot. We never use credit cards for Xmas.

KG

Re: Xmas carols

[poltr1]

There are plenty of Christmas songs that I like as well that didn't get mentioned, mostly because they're either singles or album cuts.
- The Kinks, "Father Christmas, Give Me Some Money"
- Greg Lake, "I Blieve In Father Christmas"
- Stan Freberg, "Green Chri$tma$" (even back then, there was a backlash against the mercantile/material nature of the holiday)

In the past I used to work the Xmas holidaze thorugh a temp agency to get cash to pay for Xmas. I used layaway a lot. We never use credit cards for Xmas.

While that's a noble goal -- as is paying them off every month -- not everyone is in a position to do that. Some do it to keep better track of their finances (instead of keeping a ledger for their cash expenses). And if I'm doing online shopping -- much referable to in-person shopping, in my opinion -- not using credit cards is not an option, unless you want to fork over your checking account info to Paypal.

BTW, I notice you abbreviate the holiday as "Xmas" and not "Christmas". I'm reminded of a fellow in my former Toastmasters club who took great offense at that, despite the fact that X (or the greek letter "chi") was the first letter of the Greek word for Christ. I've also seen the word "Christians" abbreviated to "Xians" or "Xtians", which seems to me like it's a slur against people who practice the religion. Was this your intention?

[mrlogic.livejournal.com]

I love Christmas with Chanticleer featuring Dawn Upshaw as guest soloist.