Program Notes for December 17, 2022
written by Kevin Jensen
Leroy Anderson
A Christmas Festival
This famous work by Leroy Anderson sets the gold standard against which all other Christmas medleys are judged! Written for Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops in 1950, the work is a concert overture built on favorite Christmas songs. Anderson elevates and celebrates traditional music with his arrangements of “Joy to the World” • “Deck the Halls” • “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” • “Good King Wenceslas” • “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” • “The First Noel” • “Silent Night” • “Jingle Bells” • “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”
The Christmas Song
Robert Wells & Mel Tormé
It may be surprising that this song, with images of Jack Frost and carolers bundled against winter's chill, was written during a sweltering patch of weather in the summer of 1944. Composer (and jazz singer) Mel Tormé was inspired by a few lines he saw jotted down on a pad by his friend and lyricist Bob Wells. They began writing the song as a way to temporarily distract themselves from the heat. It was finished in 45 minutes and quickly became a timeless classic.
Festival of Alfred Burt Carols
Hawley Ades
American composer Alfred Burt was born in Michigan in 1920. He displayed an early interest in music and began playing cornet at age of 10. He would eventually learn to play several instruments, including piano and drum set, but spent most of his life playing trumpet and cornet, with a special interest in jazz. His father, an Episcopal minister, kept a tradition of creating an annual Christmas card for family members and parishioners that included a short original verse. In 1942, after Burt earned a degree in music from the University of Michigan, his father asked him to set the family Christmas card verse to music. A partnership was born. Burt continued the tradition after his father's death, with lyrics written by a family friend and church organist, Wihla Hutson. After 12 years, in early 1953, Burt complained of a persistent virus and fatigue. Eventually agreeing to see a doctor, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He finished the last of his carols, “The Star Carol,” on February 5, 1954. Less than two days later, he died at the age of 33. “The Star Carol” would be used on the final Burt family Christmas card that holiday season. During the time Burt was writing his Christmas cards the family's mailing list grew from 50 to 450 names, but none of the carols were ever recorded or performed outside his immediate circle of friends during his lifetime.
A professional recording was in the works during the final months of his life. He was able to attend some of the sessions in a wheelchair, but it would have been difficult to imagine that his music would go on to be recorded by hundreds of artists, including Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Simon and Garfunkel, Andy Williams, Kenny Loggins, Kenny Rodgers, Alison Krauss, and numerous others. John Williams wrote two medleys of Alfred Burt's works for the Boston Pops Orchestra. Eighty years after they began, these simple and charming songs have become ageless.
Raymond Scott
The Toy Trumpet (featuring Mark Baldin, trumpet solo)
Raymond Scott (born Harry Warnow) was an American composer, band leader, pianist, record producer, and inventor of electronic instruments. Though Scott never scored cartoon soundtracks, his music is familiar to millions because it was adapted and used in more than a hundred Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Road Runner, Daffy Duck, and other Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. One of his best-known tunes, The Toy Trumpet, was famously sung by Shirley Temple in the 1938 film Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and versions by The Boston Pops and Al Hirt are classics.
Morten Lauridsen
O Magnum Mysterium
This text is drawn from the Matins of Christmas meant to be recited during the darkness of the early morning. The specific origins of this medieval chant are not clear. It's early; dating back to before the tenth century. The text, which describes the nativity scene, has been set to music by numerous composers, but perhaps the best known is this haunting 1994 setting — originally for an unaccompanied choir — by American composer Morten Lauridsen.
English translation
O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the newborn Lord,
lying in a manger!
Blessed is the virgin whose womb
was worthy to bear
the Lord, Jesus Christ. Alleluia!
Latin text
O magnum mysterium,
et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,
iacentem in praesepio!
Beata Virgo, cujus viscera
meruerunt portare
Dominum Iesum Christum. Alleluia!
Robert W. Smith
Yes Virginia There Is a Santa Clause (featuring Chris & Imogen Brady, narrators)
In 1897, eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote The New York Sun to ask a simple question: Is there a Santa Claus? The editor Francis Church's response was a stirring defense of hope, generosity, and the spirit of childhood. His essay has been reprinted countless times since, and the phrase "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" has become part of American Christmas lore.
Gustav Holst
In The Bleak Midwinter
This poem by the English poet Christina Rossetti is commonly performed as a Christmas carol. Its five stanzas detail the circumstances and meaning of the Christmas story but the first verse, with expressive descriptions of stark winter weather, is easily the best known. The text of this Christmas poem has been set to music many times. The most famous setting was composed by Gustav Holst in 1906. Arranger Robert Smith has created a remarkable setting of that beautiful Holst melody. After a majestic opening, the melody is sounded by a haunting single voice. The promise of springtime and renewal leads the music to a stunning climax. A final restatement of the austere solo theme reminds us that the cycle continues.
Lucas Richman
Hanukkah Festival Overture
Based on the traditional tunes that mark the celebration of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, this work by Lucas Richman has been performed by over 300 orchestras since 1994. The rousing melodies of “Hanukkah, O Hanukkah“ • “S'vivon” • “Hanukkah“ • “Dreidle Song” • “Mi Yimalel“ • “Candle Blessing” convey both the joy and reflection of Hanukkah with colorful scoring and expressive writing.
Leroy Anderson
Sleigh Ride
Just like “A Christmas Song,” Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride was conceived during a sweltering summer heat wave. Like “Jingle Bells,” it is not technically a Christmas song. Instead, it is an orchestral tone poem, constructed using classical forms and structures. Anderson used the resources of the full orchestra to recreate the soundscape of an actual winter trek — jingling bells, clip-clop of hooves, cracking whip, and the famous horse whinny.
The instrumental version of Sleigh Ride was an instant hit. Years later it was suggested that lyrics would help to make the piece more popular. Mitchell Parish had written the lyrics for "Stardust" and other songs. He had a reputation for being able to write very good lyrics for an existing composition. The fact that people around the world can sing his words to Sleigh Ride from memory is a testament to his success
Adolphe Adam
O Holy Night
This well-known Christmas carol is based on a French language poem (original title Cantique de Noël) set to music by composer Adolphe Adam in 1847. The English version is by John Dwight. Due to its long phrases and wide range, “O Holy Night” is considered to be deceptively difficult for singers to perform. Nonetheless, the alluring melody has charmed listeners for generations.
Lara Hoggard
Personent Hodie
This Christmas carol was originally published in the 1582 Finnish Book of Medieval Songs with Latin texts. An earlier melody found in a 1360 manuscript from Germany is highly similar, causing some scholars to place the carol's origin in the fourteenth century. The four stanzas present a straightforward telling of the biblical Christmas story.
The carol is more prominent in England, where it is often used as a processional hymn in church and cathedral services. Tonight, the RSO and Nielsen Chorale are presenting Lara Hoggard's popular arrangement of the carol, subtitled Festival Procession that features a brass introduction, organ, and a climatic "Gloria in Excelsis Deo."
Noel Regney & Gloria Shayne
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Lyrics by Noël Regney and music by Gloria Shayne. The pair, married at the time, wrote “Do You Hear What I Hear” in October 1962 as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The song is a perennial Christmas favorite; it has been recorded by hundreds of artists. Emily Crocker's setting for choir and chamber orchestra has a refreshing quality about it with creative changes of style, key, and time signatures.
Chad Berguelin & Matthew Sklar
Elf – a Medley from the Musical (featuring Chris Brady)
Elf the musical is based on the 2003 motion picture starring Will Ferrell with a score by Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin. The musical ran on Broadway in the Christmas seasons of 2010/2011 and 2012/2013, in the West End in the 2015/16 season, and has also toured extensively, often during the holiday season.
It is the story of Buddy, a human raised by Santa's elves who learns about his origins and heads to New York City to meet his biological father. Faced with the harsh reality that his father is on the naughty list and his half-brother doesn't even believe in Santa, Buddy is determined to navigate the modern human world, win over his birth family, and help New York City remember the true meaning of Christmas.
Kevin Jensen
The Angels Sing
This Christmas song by Kevin Jensen was written in 1987 and published by Alfred Publishing Company, Inc. Presented tonight by the RSO and Nielsen Chorale in an expanded version with a new orchestral accompaniment written and arranged by Jensen. The text for The Angels Sing was inspired (in part) by two traditional carols: “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” and “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks.”