#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalChristmas Week 5
By Ralph Graves
December is a time of traditions. And the Classics a Day feed is no different. We continue our tradition of making Classical Christmas our December theme.
The challenge is to post music related to the season. So sacred works for Advent and Christmas, secular works about winter, or even just music written and/or premiered in December.
Here are my posts for the fifth and final week in December.
12/26/22 Arnold Bax: Mater ora filium
Bax didn’t write much choral music. But in the early 1900s, he did set this traditional text, that celebrates the journey of the Three Kings.
12/27/22 William Crotch: Lo! Star-led Chiefs
This choral piece is often sung in Anglican churches during Epiphany. It was originally part of William Crotch’s oratorio “Palestine,” published in 1818.
12/28/22 Peter Cornelius: Three Kings from Persian lands afar
In the mid-1800s, Cornelius was a renowned opera composer in his native Germany. In England, he was a one-hit-wonder. And that one hit was this tune from his Op. 8 Weihnachtslieder.
12/29/22 Jacobus Clemens non Papa: Magi veniunt ab oriente
Most of Clemens’ output was sacred music. This would have been sung at a Feast of the Epiphany service, marking the Magi visiting the Christ child.
12/30/22 Jacob Handl-Gallus: Omnes de Saba
The text is one of the graduals for Epiphany. Handl first published his setting in his 1586 collection Opus musicum.
Next month:
