ESSAYS & REVIEWS

EXPLORING MUSIC

Getting the Lowdown on Christmas

Getting the Lowdown on Christmas

Author
David M. Greene

Publication
MHS Review 211 Vol. 1, No. XIII October 17, 1977

Listen

EXPLORING MUSIC Getting the Lowdown on Christmas

David M. Greene

 

Somewhere in my ill-arranged library I thought I had something like the Home and Hearthside Book of Christmas, which would give me the real scoop on the carol from which this record takes its title. All I could find, however, was a dubious collection of "folksongs," which tells me that it is Provencal (no period given, and what was Isabella doing in Provence anyhow, when she should have been peddling her Jewells prior to her performance of "Goodbye, Columbus.") To add harm to hurt, the annotator (or blurbist) calls it a torch-song(!!!), in making some mysterious allusion to a Feast of Lights analogous to Hannukah.

 

The proper date for Christmas is a problem. December 25 is not even mentioned in a reliable source until more than 300 years after the Crucifixion, and - not accepted until 100 years after that. January 6 (the Feast of St. Nicholas was Dec. 6!) was a favorite candidate, but April 19, May 20, and Nov. 17 all had their adherents. It is said that the Romans opted for Dec. 25 on the symbolic grounds that it was the sun's birthday and Christ was the Sun of Righteousness. (By Dec. 21 it looks as though the sun is fading out for good.) This date, by odd coincidence, coincides with the Roman Saturnalia (Dec. 19-26), dedicated to the corn-god Saturn, and in the middle of the Italian sowing season. The postoffice, banks, and liquor stores closed, people shouted "Io Saturn­alia" to each other, and exchanged dolls and candles. Originally they were supposed to make human sacrifices ("give phota [or men] to Saturn") but when someone figured out that phos also meant light, they trotted out the tapers (or so it is said), and that is why Bethlehem, Pa. is lighted up like a Christmas tree at Yuletide (the "time of merry speech" or the Germanic solstice observation). None of which, I suspect, has much to do with Jeannette or Isaballa, who are exhorted to bring their torches so's to see the Baby in the Manger, Con Edison not having extended its ministry to outbuildings at that time.

 

The Jewell Chorale was founded in Detroit fifteen years ago by Kenneth Jewell, a noted choral conductor, and Chairman of the vocal department at the Academy at Interlochen. A year ago Dr. Jewell retired and was succeeded by Erich Freudigman, who also incidentally sings and plays jazz piano.

 

The Chorale's Christmas program is a deliberately catholic one (and I hope that everyone takes note of the lower-case "c .. ! ) There are just such traditional carols (of the ilk ignored by the emporian muzaks) as "Bring a torch," arranged by Robert Shaw (whose 1947 album of Christmas songs revealed to me that choral singing could actually be verbally intelligible). There are Renaissance and Baroque motets by Vittoria, Schutz, and Sweelinck. There are folksongs, such as the Nova Scotian version of "The Cherry­Tree Carol" and the Jamaican Black spiritual "Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy." And there are modern Christmas songs by Derek Holman and William Dawson (whose "Negro Folk Symphony" Leopold Stokowski once recorded), as well as three of Francis Poulenc's lovely Christmas motets, and Gustav Holst's chilly "Mid­Winter Carol." A bit out of the ordinary, I'd say.

 

 

Getting the Lowdown on Christmas

Getting the Lowdown on Christmas

Author
David M. Greene

Publication
MHS Review 211 Vol. 1, No. XIII October 17, 1977

Listen

EXPLORING MUSIC Getting the Lowdown on Christmas

David M. Greene

 

Somewhere in my ill-arranged library I thought I had something like the Home and Hearthside Book of Christmas, which would give me the real scoop on the carol from which this record takes its title. All I could find, however, was a dubious collection of "folksongs," which tells me that it is Provencal (no period given, and what was Isabella doing in Provence anyhow, when she should have been peddling her Jewells prior to her performance of "Goodbye, Columbus.") To add harm to hurt, the annotator (or blurbist) calls it a torch-song(!!!), in making some mysterious allusion to a Feast of Lights analogous to Hannukah.

 

The proper date for Christmas is a problem. December 25 is not even mentioned in a reliable source until more than 300 years after the Crucifixion, and - not accepted until 100 years after that. January 6 (the Feast of St. Nicholas was Dec. 6!) was a favorite candidate, but April 19, May 20, and Nov. 17 all had their adherents. It is said that the Romans opted for Dec. 25 on the symbolic grounds that it was the sun's birthday and Christ was the Sun of Righteousness. (By Dec. 21 it looks as though the sun is fading out for good.) This date, by odd coincidence, coincides with the Roman Saturnalia (Dec. 19-26), dedicated to the corn-god Saturn, and in the middle of the Italian sowing season. The postoffice, banks, and liquor stores closed, people shouted "Io Saturn­alia" to each other, and exchanged dolls and candles. Originally they were supposed to make human sacrifices ("give phota [or men] to Saturn") but when someone figured out that phos also meant light, they trotted out the tapers (or so it is said), and that is why Bethlehem, Pa. is lighted up like a Christmas tree at Yuletide (the "time of merry speech" or the Germanic solstice observation). None of which, I suspect, has much to do with Jeannette or Isaballa, who are exhorted to bring their torches so's to see the Baby in the Manger, Con Edison not having extended its ministry to outbuildings at that time.

 

The Jewell Chorale was founded in Detroit fifteen years ago by Kenneth Jewell, a noted choral conductor, and Chairman of the vocal department at the Academy at Interlochen. A year ago Dr. Jewell retired and was succeeded by Erich Freudigman, who also incidentally sings and plays jazz piano.

 

The Chorale's Christmas program is a deliberately catholic one (and I hope that everyone takes note of the lower-case "c .. ! ) There are just such traditional carols (of the ilk ignored by the emporian muzaks) as "Bring a torch," arranged by Robert Shaw (whose 1947 album of Christmas songs revealed to me that choral singing could actually be verbally intelligible). There are Renaissance and Baroque motets by Vittoria, Schutz, and Sweelinck. There are folksongs, such as the Nova Scotian version of "The Cherry­Tree Carol" and the Jamaican Black spiritual "Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy." And there are modern Christmas songs by Derek Holman and William Dawson (whose "Negro Folk Symphony" Leopold Stokowski once recorded), as well as three of Francis Poulenc's lovely Christmas motets, and Gustav Holst's chilly "Mid­Winter Carol." A bit out of the ordinary, I'd say.

 

 
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