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Advent 2019: Apple Tree Wassail

Continuing this weekend’s theme of “songs performed at the Madison Symphony Christmas concert, this Stephen Hatfield arrangement of the traditional Englosh carol “Apple-Tree Wassail” was performed a cappella by the Madison Youth Choir. (They never let the symphony chorus sing a cappella! I call ageism!) It’s fun, and wholly appropriate for a concert in Wisconsin (if not necessarily for a high school choir) because it’s about getting drunk on hard cider.

Oh lily, white lily, oh lily white pin Please to come down an’ let us come in. Oh lily, white lily, oh lily white smock, Please to come down an’ turn back the lock.

Our wassail, jolly wassail, Joy come to our jolly wassail. How well it may bloom, how well it may bear, So that we may have apples and cider all year.

Oh, master and mistress, how are you within? Please to come down an’ pull back the pin. Good health to yer house, may riches come soon. So bring us some cider, we’ll drink down the moon.

There was an old farmer an’ he had an old cow. Went out to milk ‘er, he didn’t know how. He put his old cow down in his old barn, An’ a little more cider won’t do us no harm. Ah, me boys, ah! A little more cider won’t do us no harm.

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Advent 2019: Mark Evanier’s Xmas Story

One of the songs performed at tonight's Madison Symphony Christmas concert was “The Christmas Song,” written by Mel Torme and Bob Wells and made famous by Nat King Cole. Comics and TV writer Mark Evanier has a charming story about that song, which you can read below. The first few paragraphs of it, at least. You’ll need to follow the link to read the whole thing.

= = =

I want to tell you a story…

The scene is Farmers Market — the famed tourist mecca of Los Angeles. It's located but yards from the facility they call, "CBS Television City in Hollywood"…which, of course, is not in Hollywood but at least is very close.

Farmers Market is a quaint collection of bungalow stores, produce stalls and little stands where one can buy darn near anything edible one wishes to devour. You buy your pizza slice or sandwich or Chinese food or whatever at one of umpteen counters, then carry it on a tray to an open-air table for consumption.

During the Summer or on weekends, the place is full of families and tourists and Japanese tour groups. But this was a winter weekday, not long before Christmas, and the crowd was mostly older folks, dawdling over coffee and danish. For most of them, it's a good place to get a donut or a taco, to sit and read the paper.

For me, it's a good place to get out of the house and grab something to eat. I arrived, headed for my favorite barbecue stand and, en route, noticed that Mel Tormé was seated at one of the tables.

Mel Tormé. My favorite singer. Just sitting there, sipping a cup of coffee, munching on an English Muffin, reading The New York Times. Mel Tormé.

I had never met Mel Tormé. Alas, I still haven't and now I never will. He looked like he was engrossed in the paper that day so I didn't stop and say, "Excuse me, I just wanted to tell you how much I've enjoyed all your records." I wish I had.

Instead, I continued over to the BBQ place, got myself a chicken sandwich and settled down at a table to consume it. I was about halfway through when four Christmas carolers strolled by, singing "Let It Snow," a cappella.

Continue reading at News from ME

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Advent 2019: 'Twas only joy the angel sang

Here's a card from the good old days, back before lib’ruls like me declared war on Christmas.  I'm sure that many people who genuinely believe that a war is being waged against Christmas think that cards like this were the norm back in the day, but nothing could be farther from the truth.  Religious cards such as this were very rare.  Sure, you'd see angels here are there, and churches, but explicitly religious scenes such as this one were hard to come by. No one really seems to know why, but my hypothesis is that people back then viewed religion as being too solemn and dignified to use on something as inherently frivolous as a Christmas card.  Regardless what the reason was, the fact remains that it's far easier to find a religious Christmas card today than it would have been in the first half of the 20th Century.

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Advent 2019: Christmas Homecoming

Norman Rockwell (1894–1978) Christmas Homecoming, 1948 Oil on canvas Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Mass.

If you know anything about Norman Rockwell, you would probably guess that this painting was created for Saturday Evening Post. During his career, he produced 321 covers for that magazine, so you'd think the odds are pretty good that any given Rockwell work would have been painted for Saturday Evening Post. But he did covers for a lot of other magazines too, including Look, Boy's Life, Country Gentlemen, not to mention a lot of illustrations for books and calendars and the occasional portrait. All told, he created more than 4,000 original works in his lifetime, so in the scheme of things his Saturday Evening Post covers were just a drop in the bucket. All that said, this one was for the Saturday Evening Post, specifically the December 25, 1948 edition, so if you did in fact guess that, good job.

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Advent 2019: Selections from the Bach Magnificat

The Madison Symphony Orchestra will be presenting its annual Christmas concert this weekend, and I will be taking part as a member of the MSO Chorus. We're part of nine of the pieces on the program, but our two showcase numbers are the above three selections from Bach’s Magnificat in D-Major and part of the last movement of Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang, which is not a Christmas work by any stretch of the imagination but has the word hallelujah in it, which is close enough for Maestro Demain. (My first Christmas concert with the MSO, we performed a selection for Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, which is isn’t even from the New Testament.) Magnificat is a Christmas work, though, and a cracking good one. If you’re in Madison, come see the concert this weekend! There are still two tickets available for Saturday, and nearly five times that many for Friday! Sunday is sold out, sorry.

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Advent 2019: Merry Christmas, you blockhead!

These comic strips ran on consecutive Sundays, December 17 and 24, 1961. The second one in particular is one of my favorite comics, and a veritable masterclass in pacing, storytelling, and layout. Keeping the first seven panels fairly small and tightly focused on Lucy really heightens the impact of the one long panel.

I’d also note that in true Peanuts fashion, Schulz has chosen absolutely the grimmest of all possible verses for Linus to recite. The prophecy in question refers to what known as the Massacre of the Innocents, when Herod the Great ordered the murder of every male child two years and under. What kind of crazy church do the Van Pelt’s go to that they include this in their children’s Christmas pageant?

Incidentally, most Herod biographers and Biblical scholars agree that the Massacre of Innocents never took place, and was probably inserted into the narrative to draw parallels between Jesus and Moses, and to strengthen the claim that Jesus was the Messiah by having him fulfill another prophecy. Par for the course, really.

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Advent 2019: Vivaldi Gloria (RV 588): “Gloria,” “Quoniam in tolus solus,” and “Cum Sancto Spiritu”

One can argue whether Glorias are really Christmas music, but my church choir presents a major choral work during Advent every year and this year it was the Vivaldi Gloria, so there you go. These two videos don’t present the entire oratorio, just the first and last two movements, which are my favorites. “Cum sancto spiritu” is particularly fun to perform. If you want to listen to the whole thing, here’s a fine performance by the University of North Texas College of Music.

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Advent 2019: Cocktail Slippers, “Santa’s Coming Home”

I heard this rockin’ Christmas tune for the first time about, oh, thirty minutes ago, at Culver’s. I wasn’t in a position to use Shazam or SoundHound or what have you to identify it, so I just tried typing the lyrics into Google, and let me tell you, I’ve rarely had so little success using that technique. It mostly just returned links to versions of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” which, no. I finally did track it down, obviously, by Googling “Santa is coming home christmas song,” That’s the great thing about Christmas music: there’s so much if it, you’re always stumbling over great new material you’ve never heard.

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Advent 2019: “Christmas in the Doghouse”

It was Christmas day in the doghouse, and no one had a bone, and one dog who was desperate was chewing up the phone-book, when suddenly to their surprise a canine Santa came and luckily they had no logs or he'd have been aflame.

Good news I bring the Santa said ('cos he knew how to speak) from now on I'll be visiting the doghouse once a week, we'll break the human habit they seem to hold so dear; good will to fellow creatures, but only once a year. It's true we tend to urinate around the Christmas tree, but we're fit to lead and not be led in spreading Christmas glee.

They didn't want a sermon though that's not why he was there they all piled in like vermin to his sack of Christmas fare, and they eated all the bones up and they treated Santa rough, and as he left the doghouse he said once a year's enough.

John Hegley (1953-)

I found this poem in The Young Oxford Book of Christmas Poems, which is a marvelous collection of seasonal poetry. 

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Advent 2019: Christmas Star, near Akron, Alabama

William Christenberry (born 1936) Christmas Star, near Akron, Alabama, photographed 2001, printed 2004 Chromogenic color print Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 

I quite like William Christenberry's photography. I saw an exhibit of his works at the Smithsonian American Art Museum some years ago that I enjoyed very much. What makes this a Christmas star particularly and not some other kind of star? Well, the photo was taken on January 1, so I guess he felt it was a safe bet.

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Advent 2019: “Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day”

This work by John Gardner is one of my favorite Christmas anthems. There’s so much to like about it, but the jaunty mixed meter, the percussion accompaniment, and the joyful exuberance of the final verse top the list for me. I’ve never had the privilege of performing it myself, but I’ve heard it performed, at Washington National Cathedral by the Cantate Chamber Singers back around the turn of the century. I need to talk my church choir director into letting us give it a try,

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day: I would my true love did so chance to see the legend of my play, to call my true love to my dance: Sing, O my love, O my love, my love, my love; this have I done for my true love.

Then I was born of a virgin pure, of her I took fleshly substance; thus was I knit to man's nature, to call my true love to my dance: Sing, O my love, O my love, my love, my love; this have I done for my true love.

In a manger laid and wrapped I was, so very poor this was my chance, betwixt an ox and a silly poor ass, to call my true love to my dance: Sing, O my love, O my love, my love, my love; this have I done for my true love.

Then afterwards baptized I was; the Holy Ghost on me did glance, my Father's voice heard from above, to call my true love to my dance: Sing, O my love, O my love, my love, my love; this have I done for my true love. For my true love!

Author unknown (14th century?)

There are another seven verses to the original carol, but these are the only Christmas-y ones.

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Advent 2019: Seasons Greetings

Holiday cards depicting Santa using a non-traditional form of transportation are among my favorite kind of Christmas cards. This one comes from the Greeting Card Collection of the Wisconsin Historical Society. Why does the WHS own a copy  of this card? Your guess is as good as mine.

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Advent 2019: “People, Look East”

British poet Eleanor Farjeon wrote "People, look East" to be sung to an ancient French folk tune called Besançon. This Christopher Steel setting of the text, which I performed with the Cathedral Choral Society in 2000, is not set to the original tune, but to my ear it takes some inspiration from it.

People, look East.  The time is near  Of the crowning of the year. Make your house fair as you are able,  Trim the hearth, and set the table.    People, look East, and sing today,    Love, the Guest, is on the way.

Furrow, be glad.  Though earth is bare,  One more seed is planted there: Give up your strength the seed to nourish,  That in course the flower may flourish.    People, look East, and sing today,    Love, the Guest, is on the way.

Birds, though ye long have ceased to build,  Guard the nest that must be fill'd. Even the hour when wings are frozen  He for fledging time has chosen.    People, look East, and sing today,    Love, the Bird, is on the way.

Stars, keep the watch.  When night is dim,  One more light the bowl shall brim. Shining beyond the frosty weather,  Bright as sun and moon together.    People, look East, and sing today,    Love, the Star, is on the way.

Angels, announce to man and beast  Him who cometh from the East. Set ev'ry peak and valley humming,  With the news, "The Lord is coming!"    People, look East, and sing today,    Love, the Star, is on the way.

Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965) © David Higham Assoc. Ltd.

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Walt Kuhn (1877-1949) & Brenda Kuhn (1911-1993) Christmas Greetings 1940, 1940 hand-colored photo-mechanical relief reproduction of an ink drawing Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Walt Kuhn was an American painter best known for his paintings of circus performers, and for his role in organizing the influential 1913 Armory Show, the first major exhibition of modern art in the United States.  In the 1930s and 40s, Kuhn designed a series of American West-themed Christmas cards, ten of which are part of the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  All nine are credited to both Walt Kuhn and his daughter, Brenda; Walt drew the pictures, and Brenda colored them. I chose this one because I liked the way it incorporated the traditional image of the Magi following the Star to Bethlehem into a Western context.

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78: Adams, El Nino: “Magnificat” and “Shake the Heavens”

I would love to take part in a performance of this oratorio, but I don’t think it’s the kind of piece the Madison Symphony Orchestra would choose to tackle in its entirety. (Choral Union, maybe?) I can sort of imagine them programming just the Magnificat for a Madison Symphony Christmas concert, but even that might be a little too out there.

MAGNIFICAT

And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior.

For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. For he hath showed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy;

He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever. 

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77: Duccio, Maestà

Duccio di Buoninsegna (c. 1255–1260 – c. 1318–1319) Maestà, a.k.a. Maestà with Twenty Angels and Nineteen Saints, 1308–1311 Tempera and gold on wood Museo dell'Opera Metropolitana del Duomo, Siena, Italy 

“Though it took a generation for its effect truly to be felt, Duccio's Maestà set Italian painting on a course leading away from the hieratic representations of Byzantine art towards more direct presentations of reality.”

Incidentally, I couldn’t find a reference mentioning all 19 saints, but here are ten of them if you care: John the Evangelist; Saint Paul; Catherine of Alexandria; John the Baptist; Saint Peter; Saint Agnes; Saint Ansanus; Saint Sabinus; Saint Crescentius; and Saint Victor.

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76: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

Glad is an a cappella CCM band from Indiana. This whole album is quite good, but this track in  particular I think is very special.