#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalChristmas Week 2
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 second week in December.
12/05/22 Arnold Bax: Winter Legends
Bax described this large-scale work for piano and orchestra as “a northern nature piece full of sea and pine forest and dark legends.”
12/06/22 William Billings: Boston
Billing’s “Boston” is one of America’s earliest original Christmas hymns. It was published in “The Singing Master’s Assistant” of 1778.
12/07/22 Johann Kuhnau: Wenn ihr fröhlich seid an euren Festen
Kuhnau was the kapellmeister at St. Thomaskirche, Leipzig for 18 years. Upon his death, Johann Sebastian Bach was hired as his replacement.
12/08/22 Louis-Claude Daquin: Noel VI
Daquin’s 1757 publication Nouveau livre de noëls is standard repertoire for organists. It features his settings of traditional French carols.
12/09/22 Georg Philipp Telemann: Cantata am Feste der heiligen drei Konige from Harmonischer Gottes-Dienst
I could do the entire month of posts with Telemann Christmas cantatas. We’ll settle for this one from 1726 — for now
