The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Here are playlists of the best classical music for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. What music would you choose?
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REMINDER: A well-edited one-hour excerpt of the recent Christmas concert by the Madison Symphony Orchestra will air on Wisconsin Public Television at 9:30 p.m. this Tuesday, on Christmas Night. The Ear saw the first airing of the broadcast and highly recommends it. Both the programming and the performing are top-notch. It is a perfect way to wrap up your holiday.
By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Christmas Eve and tomorrow is Christmas Day.
Some people celebrate tonight and some people celebrate tomorrow.
But no matter when you mark the holiday with gifts, gathering and special food, great music has an integral place in the celebration.
Indeed, music seems nothing less than a great gift to the entire world. As the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “Without music, life would be a mistake.”
To help you celebrate, here are playlists of the best classical music, from Medieval times through Baroque music up to living composers, for marking Christmas.
Here are two playlists, with a total of two hours of music, already compiled and available on YouTube. Be sure to hit SHOW MORE at the top to see the complete title, composer’s name and timing of the selections:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrFCdi7apV8&list=PLcGkkXtask_cCaCLkrmuDUfukHct9eut-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voIrzsxeE6w
And perhaps best of all, here are several lists in the same place from famed classical radio station WQXR in New York City. They not only have generous sound samples, but also allow you to choose what genre of music you prefer — say, choral music or brass music or piano music to string quartet chamber music:
https://www.wqxr.org/story/essential-christmas-recordings/
What music would you choose as favorite Christmas fare?
The Ear wants to hear.
Enjoy! And Merry Christmas to all!
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Classical music education: Before leaving for a festival in Scotland, the Madison Youth Choirs boy choirs will give a FREE send-off concert on Tuesday night. It features the world premiere of a new work by Madison composer Scott Gendel
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
This July, 55 members of Madison Youth Choirs’ boy choirs will travel to Aberdeen, Scotland to sing in the Aberdeen International Festival of Youth Arts, a new celebration of talented young performers from across the world. (Below is the Britten boy choir.)
The festival will continue the legacy of the Aberdeen International Youth Festival (below), a tradition which had been running nearly 50 years when it was cancelled in late 2017 after Aberdeen city councilors withdrew its funding, citing budgetary concerns.
A groundswell of local and global support for the festival led to the creation of a new event, hosted by the Aberdeen Multicultural Center, which will continue to offer world-class performing opportunities for young artists.
In order to ensure that every eligible singer, including those whose families face significant financial challenges, had the opportunity to participate in this extraordinary experience, MYC undertook a major fundraising effort for the Scotland Tour Scholarship Fund, led by a generous anonymous benefactor who offered to double every dollar donated up to a total of $10,000. In total, 107 individual donors contributed to the fund, raising $20,224 to support the young singers’ journey.
Prior to their departure to Scotland, the MYC boys will present a send-off concert on Tuesday, July 24, at 7 p.m. at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 5701 Raymond Road, in Madison. The concert is FREE and open to the public, but donations at the door will be accepted.
The concert will feature the world premiere of a new work by UW-Madison graduate and Madison composer Scott Gendel (below), “For That Alone,” which combines text from Thomas Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence” with text from a work that may have inspired it, the “Declaration of Arbroath,” written in 1320 to assert Scotland’s independence.
The full list of repertoire includes:
“Sumer is icumen in,” Anonymous, mid-13th century
“O là, o che bon echo” by Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594)
“No che non morira” (from Tito Manlio) by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
“Bar’chu” by Salamon Rossi (c. 1570-1630)
“Il est bel et bon” by Pierre Passereau (fl. 1509-1547)
“Hopkinton” by William Billings (1746-1800)
“The Pasture” (from Frostiana) by Randall Thompson (1899-1984)
“Gloria Tibi” (from Mass) by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
“II. Adonai ro-I” from Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
“For That Alone” (world premiere) by Scott Gendel (b. 1977)
“Chorus of Street Boys” from Carmen by Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
“Weevily Wheat,” American play-party song, arr. Krunnfusz
“The Plough Boy,” Traditional, arranged by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) You can hear it for solo tenor with piano in the YouTube video at the bottom.
“Rustics and Fishermen” (from Gloriana) by Benjamin Britten
“I Will Howl” by Timothy Takach (b. 1978)
“Fugue for Tinhorns” (from Guys and Dolls) by Frank Loesser (1910-1969)
“Bonse Aba,” Traditional Zambian
“Birdsong” by Heather Masse, arranged by Randal Swiggum
“Revelation 19:1” by Jeffrey LaValley
“Anthem” (from Chess) by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Tim Rice, arranged by Randal Swiggum
“Will Ye No Come Back Again,” Traditional Scottish, arranged by Randal Swiggum
For more information about the Madison Youth Choirs, including how to join them and how to support them, go to:
https://www.madisonyouthchoirs.org
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