Favorite Christmas Music

[SalixIncendium]

What is your favorite Christmas music?

For me, it's Spike Jones Presents Xmas Spectacular. My parents had it on vinyl when I was a kid. I've recorded it onto cassette, burned it onto CD, and most recently have it added to you YouTube Music library. I've played it practically every year since childhood for me, my kids, and now grandkid.

Spike Jones Presents A Xmas Spectacular

A new music service with official albums, singles, videos, remixes, live performances and more for Android, iOS and desktop. It's all here.

music.youtube.com

 

[rocala]

A choir singing Silent Night will always put me in a state of awe.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I always liked Snoopy and the Red Baron by the Royal Guardsmen. The Christmas and regular versions.

 

[JustGeorge]

 

[Secret Chief]

Definitely 4'33" by John Cage. Especially the second movement.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Definitely 4'33" by John Cage. ...

 

[SalixIncendium]

Definitely 4'33" by John Cage. Especially the second movement.

.

 

[Eddi]

This is my favourite Christmas song:

 

[Secret Chief]

.

empty frubal

 

[RestlessSoul]

 

[exchemist]

What is your favorite Christmas music?

For me, it's Spike Jones Presents Xmas Spectacular. My parents had it on vinyl when I was a kid. I've recorded it onto cassette, burned it onto CD, and most recently have it added to you YouTube Music library. I've played it practically every year since childhood for me, my kids, and now grandkid.

Spike Jones Presents A Xmas Spectacular

A new music service with official albums, singles, videos, remixes, live performances and more for Android, iOS and desktop. It's all here.

music.youtube.com

Oh now you've got me started.

Bach Christmas Oratorio is great, esp. this opening chorus "Ehre Sei Dir Gott Gesungen" , the 1st 7 mins on this recording:

Bach at his best, full of rhythmic vitality and beautiful, strong harmonies which somehow make it hard to keep still. You can see in the faces of the musicians they love this.

But there's so much at Christmas. I also like this simple Tudor era hymn:

What makes it come alive for me is the syncopation between the parts, at the end of the line.

Or there's the well-known Basque carol "The Angel Gabriel" that we sang today at mass:

And by tradition at home we always listen to Benjamin Britten's "Ceremony of Carols" while we are decorating the Christmas tree.

 

[Rival]

I love Veni Emmanuel, but I won't listen to it anymore. Last Xmas I had it stuck in my head for months, it was actually starting to break me down. I don't know why this happens to me but sometimes I get songs stuck in my head for months and it actually becomes detrimental.

 

[Audie]

 

[exchemist]

I love Veni Emmanuel, but I won't listen to it anymore. Last Xmas I had it stuck in my head for months, it was actually starting to break me down. I don't know why this happens to me but sometimes I get songs stuck in my head for months and it actually becomes detrimental.

We had that one at mass this morning as well. It's c.15th French so no wonder it appeals to you. But yes earworms can get on top of you sometimes. My son told me this morning he got an earworm while running up and down Cairn Gorm earlier this year which, bizarrely and irritatingly, for him, was Gregorian Chant - Credo III.

I've always got something playing in my head, but it usually changes with what I've sung. It is generally not the last thing I sang but the one before. No idea why, but it's a common thing which one choir director used to use. He reckoned we rehearsed in our heads if he got us to practice a section for short while and then moved on to something else.

 

[Rival]

We had that one at mass this morning as well. It's c.15th French so no wonder it appeals to you. But yes earworms can get on top of you sometimes. My son told me this morning he got an earworm while running up and down Cairn Gorm earlier this year which, bizarrely and irritatingly, for him, was Gregorian Chant - Credo III.

I've always got something playing in my head, but it usually changes with what I've sung. It is generally not the last thing I sang but the one before. No idea why, but it's a common thing which one choir director used to use. He reckoned we rehearsed in our heads if he got us to practice a section for short while and then moved on to something else.

I'm going to Midnight Mass at the Cathedral tonight after work, so maybe it will be sung. I have never been to such a mass before so it should be quite exciting.

I wonder why these religious tunes get stuck in our brains? There must be something about the chanting.

 

[exchemist]

I'm going to Midnight Mass at the Cathedral tonight after work, so maybe it will be sung. I have never been to such a mass before so it should be quite exciting.

I wonder why these religious tunes get stuck in our brains? There must be something about the chanting.

Music is a very personal thing. That's why music played over a public address system in a shop or somewhere is so ghastly. It's someone else's taste, which invariably is not mine, and there's no escaping it.

But I've always loved Baroque (so Bach, Handel etc.) and I also have acquired a taste for Renaissance polyphony, and to some degree Gregorian Chant, having been taught to sing both in The Hague. Credo IV is beautiful, but you hardly ever hear it.

 

[RestlessSoul]

I'm going to Midnight Mass at the Cathedral tonight after work, so maybe it will be sung. I have never been to such a mass before so it should be quite exciting.

I wonder why these religious tunes get stuck in our brains? There must be something about the chanting.

I once had “In the Summertime” by Mungo Jerry in my head for, well, a whole summer.

Search for it on YouTube if you dare

 

[icehorse]

Lots of great stuff but:

Vince Guaraldi and below show how many different ways music can be great:

 

[rocala]

Credo IV

Yes, incredibly beautiful.

 

[rocala]

One of my earliest memories is of my great-grandmother singing this to me. It still can bring tears to my eyes.