Christmas stories and music

Continuing the Christmas theme, a recollection of the Christmas recordings of my childhood: just two, both on 78s. There’s the sentimental celebration of secular Christmas, Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, in a recording with Lionel Barrymore playing Ebenezer Scrooge. And a sentimental celebration of the religious holiday, Charles Tazewell’s The Littlest Angel, in a version read by Loretta Young. Both originally from radio performances.

On the music front, I have a ton of Christmas music on my iTunes (a surprising amount for someone whose celebrations of the holiday have been minimal for some years):

folk, shapenote, and early American music: the Chieftains, the McGarrigle Family, the Columbus Consort, the Boston Camerata (2 albums)

choral settings of (mostly) carols: Andrew Parrott/Taverner Consort (2 albums), the King’s Singers

varied traditions: Anonymous 4 (3 albums), Chanticleer (4 albums)

hard to classify: Inner Voices, the Roches, Patty Loveless

impossible to classify: Brave Combo’s “It’s Christmas, Man!” (polka, samba, cha cha, and more)

 

6 Responses to “Christmas stories and music”

  1. Chris Ambidge Says:

    I’m sure YOU know the difference, but to an outsider, at first glance there isn’t a whole lot of difference between “hard to classify” and “various traditions”

    rather like those who have two filing drawers, labelled “assorted” and “miscellaneous”.

    • arnold zwicky Says:

      A consequence of my posting in haste. Anonymous 4 and Chanticleer are primarily singers of “classical” music, though they branch out into other traditions. Inner Voices, the Roches, and Patty Loveless come from other traditions.

      Originally, I was going to give an unorganized list, but then I thought some grouping might be a good thing.

  2. Tané Tachyon Says:

    Have you heard this version of Rudolph to the tune of Northfield yet?
    http://www.afolksongaday.com/2010/12/22/rudolph-the-rednosed-reindeer/

  3. Christmas music update « Arnold Zwicky's Blog Says:

    […] year on Christmas Eve I posted about this music on this blog. Here’s an […]

  4. 2012 Christmas music bulletin « Arnold Zwicky's Blog Says:

    […] in my collection of Christmas music (much of which is decidedly odd). The 2010 bulletin is here, the 2011 one here. What’s new this year: the hyperkinetic Clubbing Christmas 2008, found by […]

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