post youtubes of your favorite Christmas music here

[franksolich]

Some years ago someone—I forget who—posted a thread in which members of conservativecave were asked to post their favorite youtubes of Christmas music, religious and secular.  It grew into a pretty long thread, although at the time I wasn’t paying attention to it, not having the means to “hear” anything on the internet.

However, since then I’ve gotten some means; the sound’s far far far from perfect, but it’s the best I’ve ever been able to “hear” in my life.  So this Christmas season, I’d like to resume that thread, asking that anyone who’s interested post youtubes of his or her favorite Christmas music.

I’ll start off with the carol that traditionally opens Christmas services in England; I can’t really make any commentary on the quality of the music, but I spent three Christmases as a teenager and college student in England, during which time I was fortunate to attend (and front-row seats, too) two Christmas Eve services at Canterbury Cathedral and one at York Minster.

Of course, I got nothing from the music, but the spectacle was awesome; inspiring.

https://youtu.be/8xeZOnW2v6k

- - - - - - - - - -

This is from Westminster Cathedral in London.

Westminster Cathedral is not to be confused with the more-famous Westminster Abbey, which is also about a thousand years older.  Westminster Abbey, originally Roman Catholic, is of the Church of England, the Anglican Church, while Westminster Cathedral, built circa 1905, is the premier Roman Catholic cathedral in England.

Among the listener comments on youtube:

You can tell it's Westminster Cathedral - the choir is excellent but most of the congregation stand there mute and not singing the hymns. Why won't Catholics sing - even a traditional hymn at Midnight Mass? Pathetic.

Yeah, that’s not an unfair comment, but hey, we can’t help being ourselves, so it’s cool.

[franksolich]

Another feature I remember--vaguely--from that long-ago thread was that it included youtubes of holiday movies.

This is something I found today; not strictly a holiday film, but close to it:

https://youtu.be/iFQoUK4G7j0

A two-and-a-half minute excerpt from Die Trapp Familie, a movie made in 1956, three years before The Sound of Music became a hit on Broadway, and nine years before the movie.

[Eupher]

Some years ago someone—I forget who—posted a thread in which members of conservativecave were asked to post their favorite youtubes of Christmas music, religious and secular.  It grew into a pretty long thread, although at the time I wasn’t paying attention to it, not having the means to “hear” anything on the internet.

However, since then I’ve gotten some means; the sound’s far far far from perfect, but it’s the best I’ve ever been able to “hear” in my life.  So this Christmas season, I’d like to resume that thread, asking that anyone who’s interested post youtubes of his or her favorite Christmas music.

I’ll start off with the carol that traditionally opens Christmas services in England; I can’t really make any commentary on the quality of the music, but I spent three Christmases as a teenager and college student in England, during which time I was fortunate to attend (and front-row seats, too) two Christmas Eve services at Canterbury Cathedral and one at York Minster.

Of course, I got nothing from the music, but the spectacle was awesome; inspiring.

From my vantage point, there is no more pure form of voice than that of a boy. When a boy's voice rises into the altissimo or countertenor range, it's especially glorious.

Then all that testosterone hits and mucks it up for everybody...

[franksolich]

From my vantage point, there is no more pure form of voice than that of a boy. When a boy's voice rises into the altissimo or countertenor range, it's especially glorious.

Then all that testosterone hits and mucks it up for everybody...

I notice there's a lot of discussion about this, the English custom of boys' choirs, and why that is.

I'm sort of worried the women's-libbers are going to jump into this and get either the boys' choirs disbanded, or integrated with girls.  I have nothing against girls, but I guess their voices just aren't as good as boys', at that time in their lives.  It has nothing to do with patriarchial sexism; it's purely from the way genetics forms us, evolves us.  And try as they can, the women's-libbers are never going to alter the ironclad laws of genetics.

[franksolich]

Eupher's comment about boys' singing voices reminded me of this one:

https://youtu.be/l4MWOpEXe5w

"Good King Wenceslas" as sung at York Minister in 1995.

I think it moves along nicely until towards the end, when whoever arranged the music ruined it with extraneous frippery not found in the original music.

York Minster, in northern England, was my favorite cathedral, although Canterbury remains the cathedral about which I'm the most fond.

Of all the churches, cathedrals, and secular structures I've seen in my life, York Minster is the closest to the perfect design, symmetry, order, and proportion.  There can't possibly be another edifice in the whole world nearly as aesthetic. 

The first photograph is York Minster in good weather, which I never saw.  The second is York Minster in winter time, when and how I always saw it (six times in three trips, at least a whole day each time).

[BlueStateSaint]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5n6X9sUznI[/youtube]

O Holy Night done by the choir that Sir John Rutter is affiliated with.

Anything that Sir John Rutter is involved with turns out awesome.  I'd love to meet him--hey, host him when we build our new church (scheduled groundbreaking for just after Easter of 2016).

[franksolich]

Good morning; time to introduce others to one of my very best friends; in fact, probably one of the very best friends for all those who can't hear.

Printed lyrics.

https://youtu.be/iPQ3iDPam3A

''Lo! He comes with clouds descending,
Once for favoured sinners slain;
Thousand thousand saints attending,
Swell the triumph of His train:
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
God appears on earth to reign

Every eye shall now behold Him
Robed in dreadful majesty;
Those who set at naught and sold Him,
Pierced and nailed Him to the tree,
Deeply wailing, deeply wailing,
Shall the true Messiah see.

The dear tokens of His passion
Still His dazzling body bears;
Cause of endless exultation
To His ransomed worshippers;
With what rapture, with what rapture
Gaze we on those glorious scars!

Yea, amen; let all adore thee,
High on thine eternal throne;
Saviour, take the power and glory;
Claim the kingdoms for thine own:
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Thou shalt reign, and thou alone.''

Given a gross unfamiliarity with how sounds are supposed to sound, unless there's clues, one's at sea.  This is why generally I prefer instrumental music only, as I don't have to bother with trying to figure out what's being said.  The human voice, when added to the sounds of instruments, makes a fine muddle.

That is, unless one already knows the lyrics.

Fortunately, due to decades of "listening" and reading, I know the complete lyrics to Handel's Messiah by heart, and also Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado, so I'm able to "hear" those with virtually no effort at all.  However, try me with Handel's Saul or Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, and.....well, forget it.

Since it's important that I already know the lyrics to something before "listening" to it, this means the range of music to which I "listen" is rather narrow in scope; I imagine four-year-olds recognize far more music than I do.

Ely Cathedral in winter, which is the way I saw it, the one time I saw it.  I never attended any service there, though.

 

[franksolich]

https://youtu.be/LDPwNPAV6tA

In the various documentaries about the selection, training, and lives of choir boys that are available on youtube, it's mentioned quite often that they're coached very carefully to not show off for the cameras.  In fact, a choir boy looking into a camera is a pretty good guarantee that the shot won't be used.

But one wonders if there weren't a couple of surreptitious attempts to ape for the camera in this film, at 2:07 where one kid tries to eat his finger, and at 2:42 where a chubby one makes wildly exaggerated facial expressions.

The new St. Paul's Cathedral, again in winter as I always saw it, built after the Great Fire of London of 1666; below that, the old St. Paul's Cathedral.  I like the style of the old one better.

 

[Eupher]

I notice there's a lot of discussion about this, the English custom of boys' choirs, and why that is.

I'm sort of worried the women's-libbers are going to jump into this and get either the boys' choirs disbanded, or integrated with girls.  I have nothing against girls, but I guess their voices just aren't as good as boys', at that time in their lives.  It has nothing to do with patriarchial sexism; it's purely from the way genetics forms us, evolves us.  And try as they can, the women's-libbers are never going to alter the ironclad laws of genetics.

We're talking quality of sound versus whether that sound is "good" or "not so good". I choose the word "pure" and all its forms to denote the voice of a boy as part of a boy's choir. I note that Wikipedia calls these young lads "trebles" which probably equates to "trouble", but I digress. 

I think there's some historical data that suggest that in some cases boys were emasculated so that they could "keep" their voice, upon pain of losing their 'nads. There's a special place in hell for those who did that, and I don't want to dwell on that.

The word "pure" conjures up all kinds of synonyms, some of which probably include "innocent", "virginal" (invoking behavior and attitude), but also "light" and "clear" which are textural in nature. It's kind of hard to "see" a voice that's light and clear, but I can certainly hear those nuances and when a boy's voice is raised in song within a relatively cavernous and "live" setting like a stone cathedral or abbey, those qualities are somehow amplified.

In music, there are additional qualities beyond pitch, rhythm, harmony. These involve depth of sound (some may call that quality "heavy" when that depth involves the lower overtones) vice an absence or reduction in those overtones, which lend a more bell-like or clear quality. This is what my ear tells me about the quality of a boy's voice when singing. Of course, to be effective, the lad needs to be able to sing in tune and articulate in the vocal manner. Or even sounds like "Oh" are effective when sung in tune; no lyrics are required necessarily as they are another art form all by themselves -- poetry.

[Eupher]

https://youtu.be/LDPwNPAV6tA

In the various documentaries about the selection, training, and lives of choir boys that are available on youtube, it's mentioned quite often that they're coached very carefully to not show off for the cameras.  In fact, a choir boy looking into a camera is a pretty good guarantee that the shot won't be used.

But one wonders if there weren't a couple of surreptitious attempts to ape for the camera in this film, at 2:07 where one kid tries to eat his finger, and at 2:42 where a chubby one makes wildly exaggerated facial expressions.

BSS can certainly talk better about the vocal training methods better than I can, but I'd suggest after looking at this clip that many of the kids are making what we'd call "wildly exaggerated facial expressions" simply because that's the way they're coached.

The boys' mouths and nasal cavities are not fully developed, therefore they don't have that sonorous quality that trained adult singers have, therefore they're told to form their vowels and consonants by dropping jaws and other types of manipulation. We saw a lot of that in this tape, not just the kid at 2:42.

As for the kid eating his finger, he probably had a booger on it. 

[franksolich]

This isn't, strictly, Christmas music, but since I was a teenager, I always associated it with the month of December, the one month out of twelve that I've attended more family funerals than any other three or four months put together.  That's all long behind me, and there's no melancholy about it; I just tend to be more "churchy" than I usually am during this particular month.

https://youtu.be/OM2yUH3E4JA

If anyone's heard a better version of this aria than what's here, I'd like to know of it. 

This one's from 1991, and Eupher probably knows of the trumpet-player.

[franksolich]

Serious question for Eupher:

Have you ever seen this sort of trumpet before?  I've never myself, either in real life or in a photograph.

Does its longer tube make it sound much differently from a regular trumpet?

This is the Spanish Television Orchestra, taped fairly recently.

https://youtu.be/LkBEEJi_igo

[Ptarmigan]

This isn't, strictly, Christmas music, but since I was a teenager, I always associated it with the month of December, the one month out of twelve that I've attended more family funerals than any other three or four months put together.  That's all long behind me, and there's no melancholy about it; I just tend to be more "churchy" than I usually am during this particular month.

https://youtu.be/OM2yUH3E4JA

If anyone's heard a better version of this aria than what's here, I'd like to know of it. 

This one's from 1991, and Eupher probably knows of the trumpet-player.

December makes me feel more nostalgic and sentimental.

[franksolich]

Although many people don't, how is it possible to not like bagpipe music?

https://youtu.be/UM5CdViA61E

The music is wonderful, but I can't hear it well enough to identify the tune; is it really Christmas music?

[franksolich]

My God.

I am awed.

Talk about an out-of-the-thin air serendipitous discovery that moves a grown man to tears, it's so wonderful.

Welcome to the inside of franksolich's skull, because according to professional audiologists, the sound replicated here, as heard by hearing people, very closely matches what's "heard" by me through conduction of sound through the bones.

https://youtu.be/hPRYZ8eAW34

The "sound" of music boxes, of course.  When I was a little lad, the parents use to visit an elderly woman who in her bedroom kept a large collection of antique music boxes.  While the grown-ups were chitchatting in the living room, as soon as I could, I wandered into the bedroom, where I sat on the edge of the bed, playing the old music boxes, "hearing" them by pressing them firmly against my forehead, or under my chin against my throat.

This bothered the parents for two reasons; first of all, it was inappropriate for me to go into a private part of someone's else's home, and secondly, they were bothered by my insistence of "listening' to something over and over and over again, for hours if I could get away with it, thinking this sort of compulsive behavior betrayed a mental disturbance.

Which of course was nonsense; I was merely trying to "imprint" the sounds into my head for future reference.  To this day, decades later, it creates an awkward social situation when out with others, and I encounter music boxes.  I immediately forget who I'm with and what I'm doing, just to sit there, "listening" over and over, to the exclusion of all else that's going on around me.

Most people, including even best friends, consider this excessively bad manners, but I say to myself, "**** you--you can hear at will, on whim, and when convenient, while I'm compelled to take every opportunity given me--and it's not given often." 

[Eupher]

Serious question for Eupher:

Have you ever seen this sort of trumpet before?  I've never myself, either in real life or in a photograph.

Does its longer tube make it sound much differently from a regular trumpet?

(Spanish orchestra snipped)

Both Philip Smith in the first Youtube (at the time he was principal trumpet with the NY Phil, who accompanied bass Samuel Ramey in that glorious interpretation of James Levine); and the gentleman in the second Youtube are playing piccolo trumpets.

They are of different design, but provide the clarion sound most associated with the Baroque era. Smith's horn has more of a classic shape, but is smaller to coincide with the nature of the piccolo trumpet. I'm guessing Smith's horn is a piccolo trumpet in F, but that's just a guess. He played the piece beautifully.

The trumpeter in the Spanish rendition is also playing a piccolo trumpet, but it's more typical of a standard piccolo. The 4th valve allows the player to reach notes in the tessitura that he wouldn't be able to.

The sheer amazing thing is Händel wrote this piece for natural trumpet, with no valves. That forces the player to use different crooks (lengths of tubing) to be able to play in the key of the piece. And to play all the notes in the tempered scale like that requires immense strength and an accurate ear to play in the upper register of the instrument itself.

Here's a link which shows some typical piccolo trumpets. Keep in mind that they come in all different sorts of shapes and sizes and keys, ranging from the lowest of the "piccolo" trumpets, that one pitched in D/E-flat. Wynton Marsalis recorded the CBS Sunday Morning theme on an Eb trumpet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_ZuxYxxT60

http://www.trumpetherald.com/marketplace.php?task=detail&id=82291

[BlueStateSaint]

BSS can certainly talk better about the vocal training methods better than I can, but I'd suggest after looking at this clip that many of the kids are making what we'd call "wildly exaggerated facial expressions" simply because that's the way they're coached.

The boys' mouths and nasal cavities are not fully developed, therefore they don't have that sonorous quality that trained adult singers have, therefore they're told to form their vowels and consonants by dropping jaws and other types of manipulation. We saw a lot of that in this tape, not just the kid at 2:42.

As for the kid eating his finger, he probably had a booger on it. 

Our choir director has us drop our jaws and use those "other types of manipulation" to get 'dark' sounds at certain times.  I'm trying to impart that knowledge to my daughter.  It's a slow process.

[franksolich]

Okay, I've finally gotten to where I was headed; at the risk of overgeneralizing, for the deaf, the simpler, the more primitive, a musical instrument is--and forget all about voices--the easier it is to "hear" it.

This consumes absolutely no pains of concentration to "get."

https://youtu.be/Bq1XEjq82lo?list=PLLSnm86ifoZjeMepHaSfa7c8gW-sQ6t0g

[Big Dog]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1jrV8hgy50[/youtube]

"Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin'"

Now Mama's in the kitchen cookin'
And her children are fast asleep
It's time for Santa Claus to make his midnight creep 'cause

Santa Claus wants some lovin'
Santa Claus wants some lovin'

I know there's something real pretty
Underneath that Christmas tree
But I ain't had no lovin' and it's wearin' me 'cause

Santa Claus wants some lovin'
Santa Claus wants some lovin'

Now I been trying to fix this old bicycle
Can't seem to find my pliers
Halfway watchin' Mama for that sleep in her eyes 'cause

Santa Claus wants some lovin'
Santa Claus wants some lovin'

I don't want no turkey
Don't care about no cake
I want you to come here Mama 'fore the children wake 'cause

Santa Claus wants some lovin'
Santa Claus wants some lovin'

Now Christmas is for the children
And I want them to be real pleased
But right now Mama it's Christmas Eve
Come make your Papa happy please

Santa Claus wants some lovin'
Santa Claus wants some lovin'

[franksolich]

Some joker sent me this link, daring me to post it.

https://youtu.be/10mMDtpfcQM

I'm vaguely familiar with it; I guess it was a big deal in its time.

[catsmtrods]

https://youtu.be/ynIbhZQMxOg

[franksolich]

Not strictly Christmas music, but still appropriate for the season;

https://youtu.be/Wa2vzx-aNrw

I must say this woman trumpeter, who has lots and lots of youtubes of her performances, is truly exceptionally good, awesome.

[Zathras]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t039p6xqutU[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTGlUMvbhSw[/youtube]

[franksolich]

https://youtu.be/ynIbhZQMxOg

Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer, of numerous genres and television personalities, particularly of light entertainment.

Como was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. He was a seventh son of a seventh son, being the seventh of the 13 children of Pietro Como (1877–1945) and Lucia Travaglini (1883–1961), who both immigrated to the US in 1910 from the Abruzzese town of Palena, Italy. Perry was the first of their children born in the United States.

Despite his musical ability, Como's primary ambition was to become the best barber in Canonsburg. Practicing on his father, young Como mastered the skills well enough to have his own shop at age 14. One of Como's regular customers at the barber shop owned a Greek coffee house that included a barber shop area, and asked the young barber whether he would like to take over that portion of his shop. Como had so much work after moving to the coffee house, he had to hire two barbers to help with it. His customers worked mainly at the nearby steel mills. They were well-paid, did not mind spending money on themselves and enjoyed Como's song renditions.

Perry did especially well when one of his customers would marry. The groom and his men would avail themselves of every treatment Como and his assistants had to offer. Como sang romantic songs while busying himself with the groom as the other two barbers worked with the rest of the groom's party. During the wedding preparation, the groom's friends and relatives would come into the shop with gifts of money for Como. He became so popular as a "wedding barber" in the Greek community that he was asked to provide his services in Pittsburgh and Ohio.

[franksolich]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t039p6xqutU[/youtube]

Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, songwriter, parodist, record producer, satirist, actor, music video director, film producer, and author. He is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts, original songs that are style pastiches of the work of other acts, and polka medleys of several popular songs, featuring his favored instrument, the accordion.

Al's first accordion lesson, which sparked his career in music, was on the day before his sixth birthday. A door-to-door salesman traveling through Lynwood offered the Yankovic parents a choice of accordion or guitar lessons at a local music school. Yankovic claims the reason his parents chose accordion over guitar was "they figured there should be at least one more accordion-playing Yankovic in the world", referring to Frankie Yankovic, to whom he is not related. Yankovic said that "[his] parents chose the accordion because they were convinced it would revolutionize rock."

Yankovic attended California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo where he earned a bachelor's degree in architecture.