#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalChristmas Week 4

For the past four years, the #ClassicsaDay team has adopted  Classical Christmas as its theme for December. And why not? We have a rich body of music related to the season dating back to the Middle Ages. A good deal of it is religious, but not all -- many works are simply inspired by the time of year. 

As always, I tried to select music that I hadn't shared before while avoiding the obvious (like Vivaldi's "Winter"). Here are my posts for the fourth week of #ClassicalChristmas

12/21/20 Alessandro Scarlatti - Christmas Cantata

Scarlatti is credited with developing this form. Unlike most music performed in the church, the Christmas Cantata was sung in the vernacular, rather than Latin.

12/22/20 Rimsky-Korsakov - Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a four-act opera Rimsky-Korsakov finished in 1895. In 1904 he created an orchestral suite from the opera's music.

12/23/20 Adolphus Hailstork - Christmas Everywhere

"Everywhere, Everywhere Christmas Tonight!" was written by Rev. Phillps Brooks in the 1880s. Hailstork set the poem in 1993.

12/24/20 John Knowles Paine - Christmas Gift, Op. 7

Paine composed this piano work in 1862. It's one of his earliest published works, written when he was 23.

12/25/20 Margaret Bonds - Ballad of the Brown King

Langston Hughes wrote the libretto for this 1954 cantata. It uses Balthazar to "reinforce the image of African participation in the Nativity story."


Ralph Graves

Ralph has been a classical music programmer and host at WTJU since 1982. He’s also a published author and composer. Ralph’s music is available on Fleur de Sol and ERM Recordings and Soundcloud.

https://the-unmutual.blogspot.com/
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New England Trios make a solid program

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Christian Friedrich Ruppe cantatas have broad appeal