The Christmas Song Thread

[Sue]

I know it's a bit late for christmas, but only now I found this on youtube. This are the german Westphalian Nightingales singing a pop-version of the carol "O du Fröhliche" ("O holy night" in UK?).

[youtube][/youtube]

[maartendas]

The poll you've all been waiting for: https://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/page.aspx?pid=1866
Vote for your favourite Christmas song from a list of 20 - the top 5 will be recorded by New College Oxford Choir and available in December as a free download from the Oxford Today website

Results so far:

187 votes so far.

The top three choices are:

In the bleak mid-winter
In dulci jubilo
A spotless rose

Make sure you vote for your favourite.

That should be 188 by now as I've voted for:

Stille Nacht
Adeste Fideles
Sussex Carol
Once in Royal David's City
The little road to Bethlehem

Mostly the popular ones that put me right in a Christmas mood. There were four or five I never heard of. Well, here's to counting down to Advent...

[Yorkie]

The poll you've all been waiting for: https://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/page.aspx?pid=1866
Vote for your favourite Christmas song from a list of 20 - the top 5 will be recorded by New College Oxford Choir and available in December as a free download from the Oxford Today website


That should be 188 by now as I've voted for:

Stille Nacht
Adeste Fideles
Sussex Carol
Once in Royal David's City
The little road to Bethlehem

Mostly the popular ones that put me right in a Christmas mood. There were four or five I never heard of. Well, here's to counting down to Advent...

Some strange choices indeed. The first four were easy for me to pick but the fifth took some choosing:

Bleak Mid-winter (I assume Maarten you overlooked this as it the Darke setting not the Holst)
Holly & The Ivy
The Sussex Carol
Lully, Lulla
I Wonder as I Wander

[JimmyRiddle]

Yes, I've not heard a few of these either.... Quem vidistis pastores??

Carol of the Bells, O Holy Night and a few more of my favourites are missing, but just going off their list, my top 5 would be..

Stille Nacht
In the bleak mid-winter
Ding, dong! Merrily on high
In dulci jubilo
The Sussex carol

...my all time favourite is 'Little Donkey'.. only because I got to sing this during a school christmas concert when I was knee high to a grasshopper

[Lumi]

Bleak Mid-winter (I assume Maarten you overlooked this as it the Darke setting not the Holst)
Holly & The Ivy
The Sussex Carol
Lully, Lulla
I Wonder as I Wander

That was my list exactly – until I changed the Sussex Carol to Once in Royal David's City right before clicking 'submit'. Just in the hope of hearing the solo sung by Jonty Ward. And there is, after all, an old recording of the Sussex Carol by them already available on Youtube.

[maartendas]

Bleak Mid-winter (I assume Maarten you overlooked this as it the Darke setting not the Holst)

Why do you assume that? Have I shown myself partial to the Darke setting in the past? Can't remember...

[Yorkie]

Bleak Mid-winter (I assume Maarten you overlooked this as it the Darke setting not the Holst)

Why do you assume that? Have I shown myself partial to the Darke setting in the past? Can't remember...

Maybe just my failing mind but I could have sworn you declared yourself as a Holst man Are you messing with me

[Yorkie]

Bleak Mid-winter (I assume Maarten you overlooked this as it the Darke setting not the Holst)
Holly & The Ivy
The Sussex Carol
Lully, Lulla
I Wonder as I Wander

That was my list exactly – until I changed the Sussex Carol to Once in Royal David's City right before clicking 'submit'. Just in the hope of hearing the solo sung by Jonty Ward. And there is, after all, an old recording of the Sussex Carol by them already available on Youtube.

Well you almost had exceptionally good taste. But then didn't.

[maartendas]

Bleak Mid-winter (I assume Maarten you overlooked this as it the Darke setting not the Holst)

Why do you assume that? Have I shown myself partial to the Darke setting in the past? Can't remember...

Maybe just my failing mind but I could have sworn you declared yourself as a Holst man Are you messing with me

I wouldn't dare! Maybe I said something like that in the past and forgot, I wouldn't put it past me Perhaps when confronted with the two settings, I once expressed my preference rather strongly. But that would've been a spur of the moment thing, since the carol is not very familiar to me, as opposed to carols like Stille Nacht/Silent Night and Adeste Fideles that I grew up with.

Btw all this is making me yearn for Christmas even more. Somehow all through 2012 Christmas carols and the theme of Christmas pop up in my life and I was hearing Christmas songs in my head all the way to choir practice last night. I can't wait for it to be the end of October when we'll start rehearsing our Christmas repertoire!!

[Yorkie]

The is the carol that caught my attention today


[BBvideo 425,350][/BBvideo]


Thanks to our old friend for uploading.

[Lumi]

One of my favourites, too. But for this one I think I prefer the warmer, more heavily blended sound of King's, 1993.

[BBvideo 425,350][/BBvideo]

I downloaded the free carol recordings by New College the other day... Some good ones, others... not so much. But it was a very nice idea from them, I hope it wasn't the last time they do it.
In the last part of the "Oxford in Voice" series there is also what sounds like a very recent recording of The Angel Gabriel by them... I wonder if that will be available anywhere.

[maartendas]

I downloaded the free carol recordings by New College the other day

I know I posted about this but I can't find the link anywhere, can you help? Thanks

[Lumi]

I downloaded the free carol recordings by New College the other day

I know I posted about this but I can't find the link anywhere, can you help? Thanks

They are available on the Oxford in Voice page. https://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/page.aspx?pid=2527

[maartendas]

Thanks I really love their version of In Dulci Jubilo.

[Lumi]

Thanks I really love their version of In Dulci Jubilo.

Yep, it's very nice. Although at the moment they have one older kid with a voice way louder than the others: whenever there are quieter parts (like the very start of IDJ) or the trebles sing two different parts, you can pretty much only hear his voice. Even at other times his voice defines their sound – and it just seems really curious to me that in a choir where all the trebles are of spectacular ability he has not been instructed to blend in a bit better. (I feel like I'm nowadays always just critizing everything everywhere but I mean it's pretty noticiable. Just listen how balanced the choir sounds when he is doing the solo in Lully, Lulla.)

Also interesting the fairly recent change into heavy vibrato, I wonder if that has to do with the kind of repertoire they have been doing in the past few years... Certainly fits Mozart, Haydn, but kind of weird for the music they otherwise do. I really like the treble soloist in In the Bleak Midwinter, but he too keeps breaking into vibrato and cuts the longer notes short.

I wonder if they made the recordings in a rush or something, I thought the Sussex Carol was going to be my favourite because it started off really well, but then something pretty catastrophic happens in the middle part. It's really worth listening their webcast from the Carol Service, I feel they did better there.