As I have mentioned several times before, I am the Precinct
Representative of the building in which Susie and I live in this Continuing
Care Retirement Community, or CCRC. This
is the only thing I have ever been elected to, and I won in a landslide because
no one else wanted the job. On Sunday afternoon,
our building will hold its annual Christmas tree trimming party, and I have
made the fateful decision to entertain my fellow housemates, while they trim the
tree, by playing Christmas carols on my viola.
Yesterday, I opened the viola case for the first time in five years or
more, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the instrument was in tune. I had no idea whether I would be able to play
at all, but I discovered that I actually could.
What is more, I had forgotten what a beautiful tone the instrument
has. Since I have no music, I am limited
to carols I know by heart and can play without difficulty. Here is my tentative play list. I hope I do not make a total fool of myself.
Playlist
Silent Night
Good King Wenceslas
Jingle Bells
Adeste Fidelis
Jingle Bells
We Three Kings of Orient Are
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Joy To The World
Ding Dong Merrily On High
Go Tell It on the Mountain
The First Noel
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
21 comments:
Please!---not, "Jingle Bells", twice. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is always a favorite, notwithstanding the lyrics.
Couldn't you include something Jewish in honor of Hanukkah and something secular and inspiring like Beethoven's Ode to Joy?
I was thrown out of 4th grade for leading a rebellion of the Jewish kids in the class against
singing Christmas carols. When we reached the line of silent night, "Shepherds Quake", I loudly sang "Shepherds Quack" and that set the rebellion off. I guess I haven't changed all that much since 4th grade.
If you're taking requests, may I ask for Praetorius's "Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen"? Play in German or English, as you prefer.
You could throw in the Internationale. And dreidel, dreidel. (Actually my favorite Yiddish melody is Hine ma tovu manayim or (gosh it's hard to find a good version) הנה מה טוב ומה נעים
To play 'Jingle Bells' once Professor Wolff may be regarded as a misfortune; to play it twice looks like carelessness.
David,
Surely you're making fun! HIneh ma tov umanayim is Hebrew not Yiddish.
Now Ravel wrote a pair of songs he called Deux melodies hébraïques neither of which is Hebrew: one is Aramaic (Kaddish) and one Yiddish (Die alte kashe).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ9ZTCyjFko
Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer ought to be on that list. Rudolph served the greater good and got accepted for it. Win-win. –Fritz Poebel
Dr. Wolff, that's a good set list. I was going to say 'knock 'em dead,' but given the venue maybe not. Have fun!
I'm glad you have rediscovered the tone of your instrument. Good luck with the project; you are adventurous.
David, Warren,
re: HIneh ma tov umanayim
The actual Hebrew meaning of those words is “behold how good it is – the sitting of brothers together”. Its broader interpretation (and it is from Psalm 133) is something like “how good and how pleasant for people to live in unity”. [We may all color it with our own rainbow of inclusiveness.] HALEVAI!
So David – you sure picked a lovely but very Yiddish, minor key, rendition for this upbeat thought. I grew up with this one, but also another, more jazzy melody which I cannot seem to find right now.
Can Suzie videotape your performance?
God forbid, Chris!
@Warren, I was thinking of the melody (which my mother sang beautifully) which to my ear is typically yiddish minor key. (Mildly a propos: When, decades ago, I would try to get my mother to like the music I was listening to she would unerringly pick the most yiddishe tunes. E.g., "Paint it Black" or "Girl".
@david, decessero. The traditional melody for Hineh ma tov may be of Hasidic origin; at least Chabad claims it is (well, they would, wouldn't they). I never felt its Yiddishkeit, possibly because the groups with which I sang it surrounded it with other Zionist songs. It was adopted by Zionists, who took the "brethren dwelling together" as referring to the ingathering, although I too prefer decessero's interpretation.
I wonder if the jazzy version decessero refers to is this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt_dL_9fQtg
Fortunately my memories of it predate its colonization by the Zionists.
@Warren, well, no, not that one. I guess I misspoke when I said "jazzy". It was not in a Yiddish setting, no "colonization", no "Zionists". It was ever so many decades ago, long before Israel, in a classroom in Tel Aviv. Possibly the melody [ironically the Hebrew word for which is "nigun" (yes, also "manginah) - now taken to mean "a Jewish religious tune"] was written by our composer-teacher. It was fun to sing it.
I regret not checking the blog over the weekend. There are some superior versions of several of these songs, as well as others, here. I grew up with these versions, in part for being Jewish, in part because my family was visiting close friends of my fathers in Berkeley at this time 45 years ago. More information can be found here
Aach! The link is not linking. Here it is, unveiled.
https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=free+speech+movement+christmas+carols&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
And of course "45 years ago" s/b "55 years ago".
Christmas Tunes:
Charles Brown, "Merry Christmas Baby"
Babs Gonzalez, "BeBop Santa Claus"
Billie Holiday's, album "Lady in Satin"
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