Welsh composer Ralph Vaughan Williams composed two major works for Christmas. Neither is neglected, though they haven’t achieved the same level of popularity as the A-list of holiday Art Music. The first is the Fantasia on Christmas Carols, which is on the B-list because the carols selected are not top-40 (perhaps 41-80?)
The second is the oratorio Hodie, which includes biblical texts along with poetry and hymns – not unlike Bach’s own Christmas Oratorio and the cantatas of Protestant Germany. Today I’ve selected the first movement of the oratorio – the movement after which the complete work gets its name. This piece absolutely tickles me, because it is the closest to Leonard Bernstein that Vaughan-Williams’ music ever gets (though it doesn’t get very close …). Vaughan-Williams composed in a very conservative style, so a movement like this with changing dance rhythms and meters is about as wild as he can get. How wild? Like wearing a tuxedo and … unbuttoning your jacket! Or maybe wearing an country suit to a city supper.
If you go to an orchestra concert during December, there’s a small chance you’ll get to hear the suite from Rimsky-Korsakov‘s opera, Christmas Eve. Usually one movement (the Polonaise) gets programmed in an attempt to get some variety into the program, and to balance out things like Sleigh Ride.
But before you get the hot cocoa and snuggle up by the Christmas Tree, you should be aware that this is not your lovey-fuzzy Christmas Nutcracker. Like any good Russian opera, this tale has devils, a witches’ Sabbath, and a fantastical plot that is bizarre, even for an opera. Or, on the other hand, go ahead and get the cocoa and snuggle up; just blissfully ignore all the dark subject matter and enjoy the music!
The witches’ Sabbath in this piece is fairly tame. By this time this piece was written, the subject had already been overdone – the trend was started by Berlioz nearly half a century before. I suppose Rimsky-Korsakov knew he couldn’t outdo his good friend‘s more famous setting of the same subject!
Amid a sea of Nutcrackers, Messiahs, and TV specials, one of the best Christmas pieces gets lost in the mix. Bach‘s Christmas Oratorio is a piece which, while not ignored, does not get the recognition it deserves. It is overshadowed even by Bach’s own Advent & Christmas music (namely, Wachet Auf and the Magnificat.)
The Oratorio is actually six different cantatas strung together into one longer work. The six cantatas were not originally performed all at once; instead, they were spread apart and performed as part of six separate church services marking the important feast days of the Christmas season. Nowadays, they are almost exclusively heard as one large concert work.
Here is the opening chorus, “Jauchzet, frohlocket!” Merry Christmas!
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