#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalHoliday Week 4
By Ralph Graves
Traditionally, #ClassicalChristmas has been the December theme for Classics a Day. This year, it’s changed slightly — #ClassicalHoliday.
The idea was always to encourage folks to share works composed for performance in December. The pieces could be either sacred or secular. But the hashtag #ClassicalChristmas suggested music only for one faith tradition. So new hashtag, same concept. During the month of December post works that were meant to be performed in the wintertime.
Here are my posts for the fourth and final week of #ClassicalHoliday
12/20/21 Gaetano Maria Schiassi – Concerto in D major Pastorale per Natale
Schiassi, born in Bologna, spent most of his career at the Lisbon royal chapel from about 1735 to 1754. This Christmas concerto is one of his few compositions to survive.
12/21/21 Giuseppe Valentini – Pastorle per Il Santissimo Natale, Op. 1, No. 12
Corelli retired as concertino director at Rome’s San Luigi dei Francesi. Valentini replaced him and remained for over thirty years.
12/22/21 Frederick Chopin – Etude Op. 25, No. 11 Winter Wind
Critic James Huneker wrote, “Small-souled men, no matter how agile their fingers, should avoid it.”
12/23/21 Morten Lauridsen – Mid-Winter Songs
This cycle of five songs is based on five poems of Robert Graves. They were published in different volumes, and Graves never considered them a group. Lauridsen saw commonalities, and used them to create this song cycle.
12/24/21 Arthur Sullivan – It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
In America, this hymn is known by a very different melody than Sullivan’s. David Willcocks’ arrangement of this version is probably the best known (in Britian).
12/25/21 Anon. 9th C. – Reno erat Rudolphus
The earliest known example of a very famous seasonal song. (Actually, it was Eyolf Østrem having a bit of musicological fun.)
Next month:
