Would there be snorts of derision if I started a thread on unsung Christmas carols and other Christmas music?
What, in this context, is unsung?
I would hazard a guess that the majority of members on here are from English-speaking countries. The canon of English-language carols, sung year after year and well loved, are known to most. But I am very curious to know what their equivalents are in other countries with a Christmas tradition. And moreover if they would have the same resonance to our ears as they do in their home countries.
I don't think I could name a single French, Italian or Spanish carol. Or German, apart from Stille Nacht. I do know some Ukrainian ones and find them very beautiful.
I don't think downloads are necessary as I am sure most carols, if they are popular in other countries, will be on youtube - so I suggest just posting up youtube links. And of course links to lesser-known English-language carols are most welcome too if anyone thinks they are unjustly neglected.
I think Vaughan Williams' Hodie is unjustly neglected.
Ukraine
"Shcho to za predivo" ("Oh what a miracle") - music by Vasyl Barvinsky (1888-1963)
- a capella version - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ8TTw7IEdc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ8TTw7IEdc)
- with orchestra - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6anVr0jln0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6anVr0jln0)
"Nova Rada" ("A New Joy") - traditional - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTm5N8rS-4c (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTm5N8rS-4c) - sung here by the incomparable Ivan Kozlovsky.
"Dobri vecher tobi, pane gospodaryu" ("Good evening to you, sir host) - traditional - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_FVTmoFbCs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_FVTmoFbCs)
"Po wsemu swetu" ("All over the world") - traditional - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyETGQDKP7c (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyETGQDKP7c) (from 2m30s to 4m56s)
"Mnogaya leta" ("May you live for many years") - traditional - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dk71J1Wc2rg (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dk71J1Wc2rg)
French: two beautiful ones--"Il est né, le divin enfant" and "Un flambeau, Jeanette, Isabelle" (Bring a torch, Jeanette, Isabella).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwGm2vtYB_Q (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwGm2vtYB_Q)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7r8o477iT4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7r8o477iT4)
One of my personal favorites is In the Bleak Midwinter by Gustav Holst. Not unsung in Great Britain I'm sure, but in the US it was very rarely performed until suddenly it started popping up everywhere. It's now even used in an advertisement for the ASPCA. I don't know what caused the surge of popularity. Two years ago I made an arrangement for chamber orchestra and many players commented on what a beautiful tune it is and that they had never heard it before.
Two of my favorite French carols...
A LA NOËL, A LA MINUIT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuxVR4xRvqc
Entre le boeuf et l'âne gris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIBYxkG2yX0
Every year - around Christmas time - I try to find additional French carols that I've not heard before... I wish I had asked my grandfather back when he was still alive (originally from Quebec).
How about one by French composer Augusta Holmes, TROIS ANGES SONT VENUS CE SOIR (is it known outside of French-speaking countries? - kolaboy, I'm in Quebec City btw, so if you need help let me know!).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a2h-czxJO8s (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a2h-czxJO8s)
Thanks, Simon. I sent you a personal message :)
Thank you MartinH. Is your arrangement available anywhere to listen to? It would be very interesting to hear it. The other setting is by Edwin Darke isn't it?
There are three charming French Christmas songs in the ancient style by Respighi (mezzo-soprano and piano) entitled "Noël ancien" I and II, composed between 1904 and 1912, on ancient French texts. I've arranged them for a wind group including flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon and trombone. To the alternate version of one of these (with totally different music) I have set a new text of my own (also in the old French style).
Given the time of year, I thought I would re-open this thread. I really liked the pieces that were named two years ago and they are now firmly in my ipod, and I wonder if people might have discovered more unsung Christmas carols/music, particularly from non-"Anglo" countries, since then.
Yes, indeed... a Christmas or so ago I discovered the excellent album "Sacrum Mysterium" by Apollo's Fire, which is full of traditional Celtic carols from both the British Isles and the Breton region. I can't recall hearing any of them in the usual caroling context, or at holiday concerts. Well worth a listen.
The largest collection of (mostly unsung) traditional Christmas and Winter Solstice music I've come across are those performed by the Christmas Revels, originally from Cambridge, MA, and since spread far and wide to many cities. These were given as live stage performances, often using local choruses. I found the performance quality always good, and usually grouped by region: Scandanavian, Celtic, E. European, S. American, etc. Highlights of each year's Revels used to be broadcast by NPR stations in the U.S., but not, I regret, for the past few years. But I've found numerous excerpts on YouTube, and their albums are readily available.
A p.s. (it is Christmas, after all.)
Since French carols were mentioned, I can recommend a compilation, "Les Plus Beaux Chants de Noel", which sounds as if it were mostly recorded in the 1940's and '50's. It features wonderful singers of the time: Jean Lumiere, Tino Rossi, Georges Thill, etc. It's a mix of traditional French carols and vintage songs you could well have heard on French radio in that era. One of my favorite Christmas albums.
Joyeux Noel!
At the " Christmas Concert" held in Teatro Regio Torino some days ago was performed Lullaby from Vaughan Williams "Hodie" for treble chorus and orchestra.
BTW the other works for the same medium were by John Rutter and Leroy Anderson.
Quote from: Christopher on Sunday 04 December 2016, 20:32
Thank you MartinH. Is your arrangement available anywhere to listen to? It would be very interesting to hear it. The other setting is by Edwin Darke isn't it?
The other setting is by Harold Darke. I live near Exeter in Devon and Darke dedicated his setting to a friend of mine's grandmother in 1909. He still has the manuscript. My friend told me, " In the first published edition, verse three says "a heart full of mirth" to prevent my grandmother grabbing her smelling salts if the correct words "a breast full of milk" had been used. Subsequent editions used the correct words. Harold, a most delightful friend, subsequently dedicated twenty-five further compositions to my grandmother and her children."
In the U.K. Darke's setting is as well known as Holst's though it is less suited to congregational singing. It is, perhaps, an even more beautiful melody.
I once had a recording of Arthur Somervell's beautiful Christmas Cantata ( 1926).
I'd love to hear it again.
Ina Boyle composed a Christmas carol that she quoted in the finale of her violin concerto (although a case can be made that she based the principal theme of the first movement on a motive from that carol.)
Apparently the quintessential Ukrainian Christmas carol is "Boh predvičnyj narodilsja" ("Eternal God Born Tonight"/"Бог предвічний народився"). It is here in an arrangement by Stanyslav Lyudkevych (1879-1979) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWhuJh5DGl0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWhuJh5DGl0)
From wikipedia: Boh predvičnyj narodivsja" (from Ukrainian: Бог предвічний народився) is a Ukrainian Christmas carol, which is translated into English as "Eternal God Born Tonight" or sometimes "Pre-eternal God Was Born." It focuses on the incarnation in the story of the nativity. One of the most famous carols in Western Ukraine and the amongst the Ukrainian diaspora, it is customary to sing this carol before the traditional Twelve-dish Christmas Eve supper is served in many parts of the historic region of Galicia. It also sung in churches at the end of the Divine Liturgy from Christmas Day until Candlemas. "Boh predvičnyj narodilsja" is in the "Bohohlasnyk" - a Ukrainian anthology of pious songs, which was published in Pochayiv Monastery during the late eighteenth century. The poet Ivan Franko considered this the best of all Ukrainian church songs, calling it "a pearl among carols." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boh_predvičnyj_narodilsja (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boh_predvi%C4%8Dnyj_narodilsja)
Very beautiful - but, remembering that carols are hymns of worship, we need to know what is being sung, so here are the words translated:
God eternal is born tonight.
He came down from above
To save us with his love
And he rejoiced.
He was born in Bethlehem,
Our Christ, Our Messiah,
The Lord of creation
was born here for us.
The tidings came through an angel,
Shepherds knew, then the Kings
The watchers of the skies
Then all creation.
When Christ was born of the Virgin,
A star stood where the Son,
And Mother, the most pure,
Were sheltered that night.
You three wise men, whither go you?
We go to Bethlehem,
Bearing peaceful greetings,
We shall then return.
Returning through, a new way they chose,
The malicious Herod,
The evil wicked one,
They wished to avoid.
Ring out the song: "Glory to God!"
Honour to the son of God,
Honour to our Lord,
And homage to him.
Re not being able to think of any French carols: maybe if you try to think of some "noëls", which is their usual name :) (... hrm, on second thought, I don't recognize the most famous ones either. I thought I would. Hrm!!) The Spanish ones are called villancicos, I believe.
"Quelle est cette odour agreable" - a beautiful French Carol I learned at school.
Quote from: eschiss1 on Thursday 12 December 2019, 05:05
Re not being able to think of any French carols: maybe if you try to think of some "noëls", which is their usual name :) (... hrm, on second thought, I don't recognize the most famous ones either. I thought I would. Hrm!!) The Spanish ones are called villancicos, I believe.
Obviously the opposite of unsung, but there's Adolphe Adam's 'Cantrique de Noel' -- in English it goes by the title 'O Holy Night'. Pretty crazy if you've never heard it.
On this site - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christmas_carols (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christmas_carols) - there is a list of the most popular carols in the following countries/languages:
1 American
2 Arabic
3 Catalan
4 Chinese
5 Croatian
6 Czech
7 Danish
8 Dutch
9 English
10 Filipino
11 Finnish
12 French
13 Galician
14 German
15 Greek
16 Hungarian
17 Irish
18 Italian
19 Latin
20 Norwegian
21 Occitan
22 Polish
23 Portuguese
24 Romanian
25 Scottish
26 Spanish
27 Swedish
28 Ugandan
29 Ukrainian
30 Welsh
Does Christopher or any other members know if there is a recording available of Lysenko's opera " Christmas Night"?
There's a somewhat crackly recording here (1h43m) - https://classical-music-online.net/en/production/44100 (https://classical-music-online.net/en/production/44100) - though on the whole I believe that's a website of which we don't normally approve. It sounds like a recording from a radio broadcast. A present speaks for the first 6:40 minutes.
Anyway, as Alan would rightly say, back to unsung Christmas carols...
Thanks, Chris. Actually, I found quite a good recording on Youtube minus the crackles. Sparkling opera btw.
PS. Doesn't this work qualify as " other ( Christmas) music "?
Lysenko's opera "Christmas Eve" is here on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoXb696Kads).