The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: What music is good to greet the Winter Solstice today?

By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has been waiting for this.

And now it is at hand,

Today we are about to turn the corner.

Today is the Winter Solstice (below), the first day of winter, when the days finally start getting longer and the nights shorter.

Officially, the Winter Solstice arrives at 5:03 p.m. CST in the Northern Hemisphere.

The Ear has even heard about quite a few parties being held to mark the event.

And parties need music.

Here are a few selections of classical music to get you in the right frame of mind to celebrate the Winter Solstice.

The composers include well-known works and composers like the Baroque violin concertos “The Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi; the Classical-era oratorios “The Creation” and “The Seasons” by Franz Joseph Haydn; a section of a Romantic symphony by Peter Illich Tchaikovsky, and a piano miniature by the Impressionist Claude Debussy.

But there are unknown ones too.

http://www.heraldnews.com/article/20131217/Blogs/312179869

But perhaps you have other favorites.

If so, please tell The Ear all about the music you listen to when you want to mark the Winter Solstice.

And here, in another version by Roger Norrington with the Handel and Haydn Society, is the “Winter” part of Haydn’s oratorio “The Four Seasons” that looks like it has been blocked from the link because of copyright infringement.