by Grania
Here’s a little something from my favorite a capella group Pentatonix, a young group of talented singers from the States who not only arrange compositions in delightfully creative ways, but also do incredibly inventive things with very modern, nightclub-sounding tracks.
Here’s the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies
and Carol of the Bells
but do search their playlist on Youtube for more their Christmas fare, or if you prefer more modern music check 0ut tracks like their Daft Punk medley; or their cover of Belgium’s artist Stromae’s Papaoutai or their original track Love again.
Oh, and please share your favorite Solstice songs with us.
They did a great cover of “Radioactive” with violinist Lindsey Stirling. (Better than the original, imho.)
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Oh, & this is, of course, the Solstice song: “Ring Out, Solstice Bells” from Jethro Tull’s Songs from the Wood.
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Oh, love that album!
This is more traditional: “Gaudete” (this version from the Mediæval Bæbes Salva Nos.
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* Link fail:
Love the Steeleye Span version ..
Oh, yes. I should add that to my playlist. (Although it /was/ Alan Partridge’s favourite…)
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Progressive and traditional? This: “In Dulce Jubilo” by Mike Oldfield.
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Then you should also like Tull’s Christmas Album, which not only includes Solstice Bells but alo a nicely jazzed-up instruental renditions of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.
I do; and it’s certainly in my Christmas playlist! (See?)
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And finally (for now!) something “classical”: Arvo Pärt’s “Sieben Magnificat Antiphonen” for SATB chorus; here.
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Great album. Great group.
Another “better than the original” IMHO
Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., an’ Kalamazoo!
Nora’s freezin’ on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!
Etc
eTC
IS MY FAVOURITE
Pentatonix is really cool, they’re new to me.
I’ve really been enjoying Kenny Burrell’s “Have Yourself a Soulful Little Christmas”. Here’s a sample:
Oops sorry didn’t mean to embed.
Don’t worry about that, it’s an embedding sort of a thread. 🙂
If you make your’s embed, you must lie in it???
Um.
I’m going to go with a conditional yes.
Unless you find better bedding elsewhere.
Like this!! Saw him live at Toronto Jazz Festival maybe 10 years. Middle of summer, so no yuletide music.
Man, that sounds nice.
The guy with the beard has an incredible range to his voice!
That’s Avi Kaplan.
You haven’t heard anything yet. Besides having a very impressive range, he knows how to throat sing.
His version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight
🐾🐾
Cool! The two tracks also make an interesting cacophony when simultaneously played. 🙂
Well, in that case you should definitely add Love again to the mix. :p
Thanks, Grania! 🙂
Some years ago, a Neopagan choral group called Mothertongue did a collection called This Winter’s Night that has a nicely primitive feel to it. That and Jethro Tull’s Christmas Album are my favorites. Of more modern songs, Eartha Kitt’s Santa Baby is good. Seattle DJ Bob Rivers did a collection of parody Christmas music on three Twisted Christmas CDs that provide a good antidote to the annual earworm infestation.
A lot of traditional sacred music is good as long as it’s either in a language I don’t understand, it’s instrumental or I ignore the lyrics. The Catholic parish in which I was raised was Polish, and when I was a kid, the midnight mass was preceded by an hour of carols sung in Polish. I loved the music, partly because I couldn’t understand a single syllable.
Two pieces of music … one traditional
Veni Veni Emmanuel (in Latin !)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zG4ejg49xQ
Not strictly a Christmas song but an Advent one …
The other is Greg Lake’s “I believe in Father Christmas” which is a somewhat cynical look at the commercialisation of the festival:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXCEdrnaFlY
Love “I believe in Father Christmas” – this version sounds a little different than that on ELP Works Vol 2.
Yes… The original had the full orchestra playing Prokofiev’s Troika at the end…
Yes I love it too, particularly the way “Troika” is interwoven.
“I Believe in Father Christmas” (aka The First Atheist Christmas Carol) is also my favorite solstice song.
A few years ago my best buddy at the office (he’s culturally Greek Orthodox, and about as religious as anyone else on this list) and I were asking each other what our favorite Christmas song was; I mentioned this song, and then added “unless you count Lennon’s Imagine as a Christmas song.” He responded with one of my favorite lines ever, “Imagine is worth a holiday of its own.”
His favorite, by the way, is Lennon’s “Happy Christmas (War is Over).”
My favourite is Riu, Riu Chiu, by Chanticleer:
Charlie Brown: Silent Night. Awesome.
Although not formally a Christmas Song, and not written specifically about Jesus but this song is a gem:
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/tool/eulogy.html
So long, and thanks for having humanity celebrate the birthday of a schizotypal maniac for 2000 years.
Oh, I have to add Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo. It has nothing at all to do with Christmas, but the third movement has always sounded like the embodiment of Christmas to me.
Always loved Concierto. Thanks for the reminder:-)
The Christians and the Pagans – Dar Williams – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_KiHRHwaAs
Carol of the bells. Mormon style. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oos7tkWrKyY
Come on Santa. Heroine-chic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvsZFO2j_dY
My favorite Winter Solstice music is an instrumental piece by the pianist-composer Nobuyuki Mizuoka: On a Snowy Night.
I got a 404 not found error when I tried to find this.
Here it is:
http://youtu.be/sZ0-GLBAv6E
Very pleasant. Thank you!
The Swingle Singers would be proud! Very well done.
b&
As tired as I get of The Nutcracker, I really liked this rendition🐱
Here’s the best recording of the Nutcracker ever made:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfHXkq7y0So&index=2&list=PLL7h86fKhGSjbX6eKLa2nmbt9AGU8Psc2
b&
Video not available??
Strange…I just clicked on it in the email and it opened fine. Try this…?
b&
The human voice really is an astounding thing and these people are exceptional.
Thanks to everyone who has suggested something, I’m gonna have a great time listening to all that lot. 🙂
I can’t resist injecting a satirical note on the commercialisation of Christmas: Stan Freberg and
Tom Lehrer
Well, I was going to introduce Jethro Tull’s “The Christmas Album”, but I’ve been beaten to it by both Ant and E.A. Blair.
In my circle of friends and acquaintences, I have not met a single other JT fan, so it’s nice to meet a couple here.
But, although it’s not really my style of music, I have to admit Pentatonic is pretty good at what they do.
A friend with an older brother in college (who was an avid fan) got me started on Jethro Tull back in the pre-Aqualung days. The first album of theirs I heard was their second, Stand Up; in those days, they were making a transition from blues (their first album) to rock.
My first rock concert was Jethro Tull at Milwaukee’s Performing Arts Center. The warmup act was Curved Air. This turned out to be the first North American performance of the music from Aqualung. In a later radio interview, Ian Anderson said that Milwaukee, Madison and Iowa City were his favorite US stops.
This is weird.
My first introduction to JT was through a college friend of my younger brother. But it was the “Thick as a Brick” album. He was not a fan of JT but liked this particular album. I have bought them all from before and since.
I have never attended a concert. They perform here rarely and, on each occasion, births deaths and marriages have conspired against me attending.
Don’t forget about The Snowman. Walking in the air!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ubeVUnGQOIk
Sorry, I am not making this easy(but I am new to this type of posting)try the King College Cambridge version of the Holy and the Ivy.
Best pegan/ Christian carol, and my all time favourite….
This one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7eHtDtZ7hs
~Grania
Thank you, brings back very gentle and kind memories of being rescued, cold and half a bottle of Blue Nun later, by a choir student who made us tea and invited us to evensong… I have always had a very special love for the Kings College Chior since that very cold night in December 1973.
A very Stan Rogers first Christmas on Her Own..
Happy Happy N.
That’s a lovely story! Thanks for sharing it 🙂
~Grania