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A Jew Sings Christmas Carols
I was touched by @qoumidan’s post on attending plays at Christmas time. It reminded me of the times I was in the school choir and we learned Christmas carols in preparation for the Christmas concert.
I love to sing. I have a fair voice and loved singing in the middle of a group of my friends in school. But Yuletide was always awkward, especially the first time we had a Christmas concert. I was probably around 10 years old. I wanted to sing and I wanted my parents to attend, of course. Only we were going to be singing Christmas songs; some were secular but some of them were clearly religious. I guess Jewish parents were supposed to be comforted by a Chanukah song like “I Have a Little Dreidel.”
I remember asking my mother to allow me to go, and I wanted her to attend (my father worked nights); her hesitation and discomfort were apparent, which on reflection was readily understandable. Should she allow me to participate? Should she attend? I don’t remember our discussion about the options, but I’m sure my only goal was clear: I wanted to sing these beautiful songs. Any religious message was lost to me in the beauty of the music.
So I sang. And she went. I never did ask her how she felt about it.
Published in General
Is Hava Nagila not an authentic Jewish song, even if not religious?
I remember learning that song as well as Shalom Chaverim. And Adeste Fideles in Latin. Of all the things we can culturally appropriate and share, music is the best (my opinion)
All my life I have loved the tonal flavor of the modal music associated with the Jewish traditions.
While I’m here, back to the OP (sorry for digressing, Susan). Like you and iWe, I sang in choir starting in high school and on through grad school. End of fall semester was always Christmas music. That’s where I learned to love some and hate some. I’ve also done Handel’s Messiah several times, including once with a 200+ voice choir and Bach’s Magnificat with something like 25. I love(d) Magnificat! I do find myself walking down store aisles singing along when they’re the good ones. The bad ones, which seem to be played far too often since they’re the insipid, “inoffensive” ones, make me want to run screaming from the place.
Good music really is transcendent and unavoidable.
Are any of these are appropriate for sharing outside of the sacred service?
I am always looking for authentic tunes and source music that is appropriate for children, and young people, especially for stringed instruments.
The modern pop Christmas catalogue is probably the fault of another Jew you may have never heard of, a record executive by the name of Jack Kapp.
Kapp worked for Brunswick Records in the mid-1920s to the early 30s where he signed artists like King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Cab Calloway, the Mills Brothers and Mildred Bailey. Oh, and some wing-eared kid named Bing Crosby. When Kapp left Brunswick to help form American Decca, Crosby followed.
Bing generally recorded whatever Kapp wanted him to but in 1935 he balked at Jack’s insistence that he record Silent Night. A devout Catholic, Crosby was uncomfortable with the idea of a pop singer cashing in on singing a solemn religious hymn. The song was recorded but not released until 1938 when Crosby relented to it if the profits were donated to Chinese war relief agencies. It became Crosby’s largest selling single of the decade.
By 1942, of course, Irving Berlin came up with a little ditty called White Christmas. Crosby’s versions* account for one third of the song’s 150 million units sold. In 1955 Decca issued Bing’s LP “Merry Christmas” which has never been out of print – transitioning between vinyl, tape, CD and digital downloading. As a single it continues to make the Billboard Holiday Top 10, including the #1 spot in 2008. Since Billboard started its “Hot 100” chart in 1958 Bing’s version of White Christmas has shown up in 88 different weeks across the decades.
*I say versions because the demand was so great Decca wore out the master pressing in just 5 years. They had to reassemble the talent (Bing, The Ken Darby Singers, and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra) again in 1947 to recreate the original. Now, with digital technology the 1942 version has been reissued.
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EJ, interesting stuff. Thanks for your response.
I was only barely exaggerating when I said I disliked all Christmas songs. I’m almost 80 years old, so I’ve heard those “Christmas classics,” let’s see: 10 times or so a year times 80 is 800 times. So I’ve heard “White Christmas” about 800 times. That’s enough to drive a person loony. My wife never tires of them, but 800 times! If I had a time machine, I’d go back and put a hit out on Irving Berlin.
Kent
This is my favorite version of one of the most stirring parts of the Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur service. This video includes English subtitles and is intercut with film from the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Not really for children, but I think it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard, especially by this soloist–the IDF Chief Cantor, Shai Abramson. I’ve never heard it like that in a synagogue service.
This version includes a description of the liturgical origins.
Berlin’s contributions are not without controversy. In his semi-autobiographical book Operation Shylock, novelist Philip Roth writes the following:
Certainly, I hope not the view of most American Jews.
Edit: You’ll notice that there’s a silly automatic redaction in there. I choose to leave it in as it is a direct quote. It is intellectually dishonest to so otherwise.
I’m loving all of the comments, Caryn! It’s so much fun. So digress away!
I had an unexpected encounter with a Christmas carol earlier this year. I
rented an apartment in Salzburg Austria for a month (doing research) at No. 29 Steingasse Lane. I opened my bedroom window every morning to No. 31 – which I quickly learned was the birthplace in 1792 of Joseph Mohr – the lyricist of “Stille Nacht” which we all know as “Silent Night.”
While he was serving as priest at a small church in Obendorf, a village just north of Salzburg, Mohr handed the church organist Franz Gruber a “little poem” he had written several years earlier, hoping Gruber would be able to set the poem to music. The piece was composed in several hours and performed by the church choir and solo guitar on Christmas Eve 1818 at the midnight mass. A simple beginning for a simple song.
I have always felt “Silent Night” speaks to the longing of the human spirit for a divine peace – a quieting of the spirit – no matter what one’s religious affiliation or lack thereof. Some carols seem to transcend the season. This is one.
“Stille nacht! Heil’ge nacht!
Alles schlaft, einsam wach.”
Sounds like true love to me!
@percival, don’t forget “Wonderful Christmastime.” Perhaps the least artistic earworm ever conceived for the season.
Thank You @caryn so much! I had never heard this before. It is beautiful.
First off, I love Faure’s Requiem, and performed it in concert.
That Elbaz video is great fun, thanks, Caryn!
But the unetane tokef is, in my opinion, dreadful because the words and music are entirely incongruous.
Jules, I have some music for you… PM me your email address?
https://youtu.be/Ox6l2zsR5gA has one of the great easy Jewish choral pieces.
For a more modern choral piece see https://youtu.be/mznRlglxhDc it can be sped up for a lot of fun…
I have the music in 4 parts for both.
Thanks iWe.
Because my birthday was always on the last day of school, and my mother always provided the cake for the end of school parties, I thought Christmas was all about me.
One of the neighbors used to call me Angelina Tangerina, so even the fruit traditionally associated with Christmas was, yes, all about me.
And all those songs about angels, angelorum, you name it, it was obviously all celebrating me.
This is too cute, doulalady! How sweet! When did you finally figure out that it wasn’t?
I like both, and the Adon Olam is favored by my ear for this pair. I can hear how it would be fun to do it fast too.
This Adon Olam is lovely–with just the voices. My favorite of the 3 iWe shared.
Irving Berlin and Harry Lillis Crosby are a secular musical match made in Heaven, to me. (As well, Danny Kaye, in the eponymous film, helps make days merry and bright for me during the Festive Season.) Sacred music is in no way the *only* way to celebrate, even though it is my favorite. @iwe, are you familiar with Charles Krauthammer’s organization dedicated to “Musica Hebraica”? (Forgive my possibly errant spelling.)
To my surprise, I was not! Thank you!
I was involved in a few recordings for the Mike Milken Archives .which focuses on American Jewish music. Neil Levin, Shimon Craimer, Moshe Haschel, … I am really fond of Naftali Herstik, with whom I have sung numerous times.
I specifically LOVED singing in the choir for this recording. The conductor was a fraud, but his assistant (who taught and phrased the music, etc.), was a simply incredible musician.
If it weren’t for Jewish songwriters, we would have almost none of our modern Christmas songs. Of course, if it weren’t for Jewish songwriters, we wouldn’t have the Great American songbook at all.
My earliest recollection of hearing classical music of any kind was on a compilation Christmas record (LP) my mother had bought in a department store. As a 5-6 year old I was drawn to the Hallelujah Chorus (and still am). I also recall the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria being sung by Barbara Streisand. A Jewish woman singing a song about a Jewish woman to a tune written by a German and adapted by a Frenchman. What could be more perfect. Or more American. Perhaps Julie Andrews singing Silent Night in German? After all this was the early 70’s.
Fifty years ago, I was one of two (nominal, non-practicing) Jewish members my then-wife’s Episcopal choir. Spouse #1 had been a child prodigy with a religious bent, who became organist and choir director at age 12! Well before that she could sight-read Bach preludes and fugues on the organ! The other Jewish choir member was a paid professional (Morris, who happened to be the mailman in the neighborhood where I grew up). I thoroughly en-joyed Christian sacred music. That is to say, chronically short on whatever chemicals in the brain translate into feelings of joy or happiness (the medical term is anhedonia), singing Christian sacred music – especially Christmas music – literally gave me chills. At times I was so moved I could not get the words out.
I had similar chills when I first learned that J.S. Bach signed every composition “Soli Deo Gloria.” A quick Christmas treat is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGMoGOFQULU (sorry can’t make the link)
“Remember O Thou Man” by Thomas Ravenscroft. Sublime.
It would be even more betterer if the sweater has a Nativity scene!
This footnote is such an awesome bit of information. I had no idea… Thanks!
But Gruber’s tune is actually quite difficult for the average singer to sing well due to its wide melodic range. (an octave + a 4th)
A Jew singing Christmas Carols written about the birth of a Jew, many of the recent ones written by Jews….?
Harmony?
Love it! The more cultural appropriation, the better….