Wolcum Yole

This is the first movement (following a chant-style prelude) of Benjamin Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols”.  Britten’s work is based on verses (and some melodies) from 14th-century Britain, so the lyrics utilize Middle English, which may sound a bit strange to our ears.  The Chorus performed the entire Ceremony on its third concert, in December 1977, and also performed it in 1988, 1995, and 2010.

Advent Motet (2nd Movement, Entrance)

This undated work, here in English translation, is the work of Gustav Schreck, a professor, teacher, and composer, born into a poor German family in 1849.  He first became a teacher, but at 19, he began studying music at Leipzig Conservatory.  He then taught music for four years in Finland but later returned to Leipzig to compose; after successful performances of two of his oratorios in Leipzig, he was invited to teach at the Conservatory (founded, by the way, by Felix Mendelssohn).  In 1892 he was selected as Thomaskantor — i.e., music director for Leipzig’s St. Thomas Church –, thus becoming a successor to J. S. Bach, who held that post at his death in 1750.  Prof. Schreck continued to teach at the Conservatory but kept his position at the Thomaskirche, and even organized, in 1912, a 700th-anniversary concert for the Thomaschule, utilizing exclusively compositions by previous Thomaskantors, beginning over a century before Bach.  In 1900, Prof. Schreck helped found the New Bach Society, which still holds festivals in Leipzig.  He retired in 1917 and died in Leipzig in 1918.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Hugh Martin /Ralph Blane, arr. Mark Hayes: Martin and Blane wrote this song for Judy Garland in the 1944 movie “Meet Me in St. Louis”.  Martin remembered throwing away an early version, but at Blane’s insistence, they recovered it from the wastebasket; it was intended to be an upbeat song, although it was sung by Esther, Garland’s character, in a sad scene.

Let It Snow

Jule Styne / Sammy Cahn, arr. Hawley Ades:  Styne and lyricist Cahn wrote the song in Hollywood in July 1945, in the middle of a heat wave, both of them hoping for cooler weather.  The first recordings were by Vaughn Monroe and Woody Herman, and Monroe’s version reached #1 on the Billboard Magazine chart by January of 1946.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

This is believed to be a traditional carol, attributed to the English ‘West Country’, where it is thought to have originated before 1800; but it had nearly vanished from that venue, and was unknown elsewhere, until it was rearranged and recorded in 1935 by Arthur Warrell.  Extant verses are enormously varied; the song was undoubtedly sung by strolling carolers or mummers, and “figgy pudding” suggests the rewards that such singers sought…

Most Wonderful Time of the Year – Pola /Wyle (1963)

Written by Edward Pola and George Wyle for an Andy Williams Christmas” TV special, the second of those annual programs.  It was on the Andy Williams Christmas album released in October ’63 (but ‘White Christmas’ remained the album theme!).  It became #5 of Billboard’s Top 10 Holiday Songs in 2009.

Mack the Halls

Everyone knows “Deck the Halls”; but what if its joyous Welsh tune (‘Nos Galan’) were lost? Could one sing it, say, to a tune by Kurt Weill, “Die Moritat von Mackie Messer”?  Weill’s tune, known in the US as “Mack the Knife”, is itself a parody — an upbeat setting of a “murder ballad”. Weill’s 1928 “Threepenny Opera”, to which “Moritat” belongs, was based on the “Beggar’s Opera” by John Gay, produced exactly 200 years earlier.  Ironically, the original Beggar’s Opera became so popular that it effectively killed grand opera in London, much to the dismay of then-opera-impresario George Friederich Handel — who, in desperation, started writing oratorios.  Including “Messiah”…

My Favorite Things

Richard Rodgers wrote this song for “The Sound of Music” in 1959, and it was originally sung by Mary Martin in the role of Maria; most productions have relocated the song from its original spot in the play, however, a practice which was also followed in the film version starring Julie Andrews (who had previously sung the song on a TV special).  The last line is actually borrowed from another Rodgers song.

I’ll be Home for Christmas- Gannon & Kent, 1943

This song was written for a Bing Crosby 78 rpm disc (the flip side was his version of >Danny Boy=), and it obviously represents the view of a soldier serving away from home.  Decca Records released the single in October 1943, and it hit the top of the charts within a month. Curiously, it was banned to British troops overseasB their leadership felt it would be demoralizing.  Buck Ram, who wrote for the Platters, claimed in court that the song infringed one he had written with similar material, and eventually he was listed as a co-writer.

Up On the Housetop

Although this song is often associated with movie cowboy Gene Autry, it is actually very old:  Benjamin R. Hanby, a young Ohioan, wrote it in 1864, seven years after “Jingle Bells”, which is considered the oldest secular US Christmas song.  The original lyrics have been much modernized, but Santa’s reindeer landing on a roof is an image obviously derived from Clement Moore’s 1822 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, a/k/a “The Night Before Christmas”.

White Christmas

Written for the 1942 film “Holiday Inn” (which, by the way, is on stage in Oak Brook this season!), where it was sung by Bing Crosby, with his co-star Marjorie Reynolds (but her voice was dubbed by Martha Mears!). Crosby’s recording became the best-selling single of all time, with more than 50 million copies sold.  The version the Chorus uses on this concert begins with a verse which explains why the composer (Irving Berlin) misses the titular weather…

J.R FAncher (2021)