EVERY GENRE PROJECT - December 24 - Christmas Music

Genre of the Day - Christmas Music

Album of the Day - The Nutcracker, composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky as performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker (2010)

Though it’s Christmas Eve, I send my articles out the morning after (usually due to my nature as a night owl) so this will be coming to your inboxes on Christmas Day. To all who celebrate, merry Christmas! Hanukkah also begins today, and I hope that the week ahead is lovely. Kwanzaa also commences tomorrow, and I send you all blessings and joy. I am not particularly religious, but I come from a vaguely Christian background on both sides and I do love attending evening mass on Christmas Eve, singing “Gloria” while watching the mystery of a candle’s flame. Though I don’t approve of listening to any until December (don’t get ahead of yourselves!!), I am also a fan of Christmas music, given the range of tunes this holiday inspires and seeing how different artists thematically approach it.

Whether Christmas music delights you or quickly exhausts your capacity (retail workers, I feel for you), a glimpse into its history might reinvigorate your appreciation. Though many of the festivities’ themes and symbols evolved from Pagan winter festivals, Christmas as the observance of Jesus’ birth was not actually established until well into the faith’s history. The first year Christmas was officially observed in the recently-converted Roman Empire was 336 Ce. St. Hilary of Poitiers of central France purportedly penned the first Christmas hymn in Latin, titled “Jesus refulsit omnium” (“Jesus illuminates all”). However, Hilary’s efforts to incorporate music into the holiday wouldn’t come to fruition until almost a millennium later. St. Francis of Assisi created the idea of a nativity scene, his Franciscan order practiced polyphonic vocals, and he composed pioneering joyful carols in Latin. Tunes like the French-language “The Friendly Beasts” is a 12th-century twee ode to the animals observing Jesus in the manger and an early entry into the canon of carols, evolving from the solemn Latin hymns that had previously characterized prior music. In researching non-Western traditions like those of Ethiopia, one of the first nations to convert in the 4th century CE, I found a tragic lack of results, but the song “Asina Bel Asina Genaye” is considered Ethiopia's most ubiquitous Christmas carol.

Certain carols like “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman” and ““Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” became more ubiquitous through the 17th and 18th centuries, and the 19th century saw classics like “Silent Night,” which has garnered almost 150,000 recordings, enter the rapidly increasing canon. Given this wealth of songs to sing at home, at church, or door-to-door, commercial Christmas music did not immediately emerge with the rise of the recording industry. In the 1930s, artists began releasing collections of Yuletide songs as an entertainment industry attempt to boost spirits amidst the Great Depression and World War II. Popular acts have long been willing or label-induced participants in the Holiday economy by penning or writing new Christmas classics, and the streaming era has laid people’s excitement for the holiday bare as streams for festive tunes rise into yearly highs for Spotify. Certain sonic hallmarks often signify the arrival of a Christmas tune—sleigh bells, glockenspiel, or celesta twinkle like falling snow, showy vocals joyously proclaim, and robust instrumental arrangements up the emotional oomph.

However, vocal music does not notch the top spot on the all-time Christmas charts as rated by fans—that honor goes to Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. It’s one of the best-known pieces in the world, accompanying the eponymous ballet that gorgeously elevates the holiday to high art that can veritably appeal to kids from 1 to 92. It’s one of those days that I have little to contribute to interpreting the album, but it was lovely to take in full for the first time—I’m not sure I’ve actually ever seen the ballet entirely. The sheer ecstasy of floating through the air of the first scene amidst gallivanting strings and flute, bouncing like tulle, and the riveting intensity and entrancing melodies of the multichromatic dances of the grand divertissement are, to use a rather unimpressive turn of phrase, gifts that keep on giving. I hope you all have a wonderful day; the gift of getting to write, and be joined in this musical journey by you lovely and thoughtful people, is one I cherish deeply.