The Stories Behind the Christmas Music
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This is based on the song on a Peter Pan 45 RPM single; like "Winter Wonderland", "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", "Baby It's Cold Outside", etc., it does not mention Christmas specifically but is merely about winter. I did not find out about this song until 1984. |
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I heard this song (Gene Autry version?) at the now-discontinued ZooLights at the Baltimore Zoo in December 1999, and I was impressed by the middle part being the melody again, in a different key (The Beach Boys had a similar idea in their version of "Ten Little Indians"), so I arranged this from memory, with a somewhat different bass line. |
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I transcribed this from sheet music, using clarinet where voices would have appeared. |
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I did this from memory based on yet another Peter Pan 45 RPM single version. |
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I had heard the chord progression (at beginning and ending of the version you are reading about) at the end of (Mitch Miller & gang?) rendition of "Frosty the Snowman" on the sound system at the Christmas Village in Bernville, Pennsylvania (about 12 miles NW of Reading), but I had already done a version of "Frosty the Snowman" (discussed further down on the page you are reading). So I worked it into the beginning and ending of this (new) version here, and at the ending you can imagine Santa and the sleigh and the reindeer heading off into the horizon. There is bell ringing heard underneath (f your sound card is good enough), and I used harmonies similar to what I have done elsewhere on this site when I occasionally try to imitate the Four Freshmen, and there is a whole new middle part too. |
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When Christ Came Down to
Earth
When Christ Came
Down to Earth
Transcribed from sheet music, using only a Hammond organ waveform. |
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Christmas Is the Season of
the Bells
Christmas Is the
Season of the Bells
This is based on the Jo Stafford version. |
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This is a brass-quartet arrangement, which I decided on after hearing a brass quartet during a Festival of Trees at the Maryland state fairgrounds in Timonium. |
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This is a new, harmonized "standard pop" treatment of this song. |
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This was used in the "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" TV program. However, the short version used here is done from memory of hearing it in a walk-through display at a miniature golf course along Pennsylvania route 741 somewhere near Lampeter, in Lancaster County. |
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Like "Hark the Herald Angels Sing", I did a brass-quartet treatment of this. |
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This is based on what Percy Faith & His Orchestra did, but because I had to do it from memory, this is slightly different. |
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Most Wonderful Time of the
Year
Most Wonderful Time
of the Year
Based on me following closely the recording by Andy Williams. |
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This
is another winter-theme song, like I already wrote w/r to "Snowflake
Song", and this version is a relatively-short 1:07 long.
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Mel Torme did a well-known version of this song. The version here is a new one, with me going back to "trademark" style of doing melody and harmony squashed together on one staff, here using Hammond-organ waveform, which I often use for this purpose, in imitation of harmony of the Four Freshmen. I was attending an Edgar Allan Poe presentation on November 12, 2006 on the Pennsylvania Renaissance Fair grounds (in other words, a wrapping-up of my going to "haunted" attractions that year) when I thought of doing this (including the style). |
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At the time and place cited just above for "Christmas Song", I thought of doing this. So I used a Frank Sinatra CD and transposed 6 half-steps up. |
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I heard this (from "light" radio on sound system) at the now-discontinued ZooLights at the Baltimore Zoo in December 1999, and rushed back there on 2 January 2000 to hear it again before the season ended. When I originally put this onto this site (observing that this sounded somewhat like Beach Boys long after they did "Little Saint Nick"), I erroneously referred to this as "All I Want for Christmas Is You", taken from the lyrics (and turns out NOT to be the Christmas song of that name). Some years later, on Christmas Eve, I discovered the correct name (and that it was done by the Manhattan Transfer) when I found it on WVLT-FM 92.1 (Vineland, New Jersey). |
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I
wrote (see above regarding "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town") of
having already done the version you are reading about (it is based on the
Peter Pan 45 RPM single version).
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I
had to do this excerpt from memory of many years earlier. Was this done
by the Mills Brothers?
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This is from 1963 instrumental by Bert Kaempfert; I did this from memory. |
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This is based on memory of the Drifters' version, but I also used an ending like that of "Snowflake Song" (see above). |
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Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Have
Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Like "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (see above), there is a whole new middle part added. The harmony here is not from Hammond-organ or clarinet waveform, but from flute waveform. |
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One Christmas Eve, I heard a (string-quartet?) version of this on TV, and so it's arranged like that here. I tacked on an ending from something done as part of the high school music program during 2nd half of 1960s (from "Christmas Festival"?). |
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This is based on Leroy Anderson, but this is a slower version in F major. |
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This is based mostly (not entirely) on the Nat King Cole version. |
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This is based mostly (not entirely) on the Frank Sinatra version. |
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A version played on sound system at the Christmas Village (Bernville, PA) -- the Andy Williams version? -- got my attention, although the version presented here is a new one. |
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This is the same story posted among those of the selections on this site's Beach Boys page: The song originally was on the Beach Boys Christmas album, and later, the backing appeared on “Stack-o-Tracks”. And like I already did for 2 other Beach Boys selections, I transposed ˝ step down. |
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Like "Sleigh Ride", this is a slow-jazz version in F major; however, the key shifts to G major later. |
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This Is the Day When Christ
Was Born
This Is the Day When
Christ Was Born
Transcription, which is using clarinet for the voices (along with the Hammond organ waveform for the other music). |
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God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/Take 5 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/Take 5 This is a medley, because I heard "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" done in this style one year on the 2nd Sunday before Christmas, and was able to tune it in again one week later on the last Sunday before Christmas. |
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This relatively-short arrangement is based on memory of the Steve Lawrence / Eydie Gorme recording. |
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Sing We Now of Christmas
excerpt
Sing We Now of
Christmas excerpt
I heard this in a 3rd-floor display at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania in January 2006 at the end of the season for that museum's Chrismas exhibits, and put it on this site as "unknown chant" , but then I identified it 11 months later when I heard it at a "Living Christmas Tree" performance at Oak Grove Baptist Church in Bel Air, Maryland. |
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There were 2 ideas involved in doing this arrangement: Furnishing the less-often-heard "... together" introduction, and also a new "bridge" (middle part). |
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The most prominent place I remember for this song live is Rodney Square, Wilmington, Delaware ("Caroling on the Square"), although I then listened to a CD before deciding on the style I have used here. This again is an imitation of children's records of 1950s vintage. |
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When Christmas Comes to Tudortown
When Christmas Comes
to Tudortown
I found this music playing at the Tudortown exhibit (part of the National Christmas Center, a museum in Paradise, Pennsylvania, along U.S. 30 between Lancaster and Gap). So I took notes in order to do the arrangement you are reading about The Tudortown exhibit, had previously been at two places in Delaware, one of which was Christiana Mall. |
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This is a slow-jazz version of "Jingle Bells". |
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The intent of the making of this version is to incorporate the J-I-N-G-L-E opening and closing found in the Frank Sinatra version. I have used the right-hand piano part of my previous version and changed its key, tempo, and instrumentation, in incorporating it in the version you are reading about. |
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This is a new arrangement; the melody is recognizable but the
instrumentation is different (ends up being like that of “Yesterday”, which
is credited to The Beatles), and there is an introduction (partly repeated at
the end) which I did NOT compose but which I arranged by ear and adapted from
the instrumental opening of the Four Freshmen version of “It Could Happen to
You” (I noticed that that version started in E major, the same key as “Believe”). I did, however, compose a middle section
which is just a variation of the main theme. |