1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:12,900 [music: theme; Mozart, Symphony No. 24 (K. 182), 2nd mvt.; Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of London, Leinsdorf] 2 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:25,100 Hello there, I'm Peter Schickele, and this is Schickele Mix, a program dedicated to the proposition that all musics are created equal, or as Duke Ellington put it, if it sounds good, it is good. 3 00:00:25,220 --> 00:00:35,540 Our bills are paid by the American Public Radio Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and also by this radio station. 4 00:00:35,540 --> 00:00:46,840 And especially during this season, it behooves us to express our profound gratitude to those givers, as well as our hope that we ourselves are giving at least as much as we receive. 5 00:00:47,900 --> 00:00:58,300 Today's program is called Christmas Presence, but it's not what you think, you see, because presence is spelled P-R-E-S-E-N-C-E. 6 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:05,700 It's like the presence of Christmas on three continents, North America, South America, and Europe. 7 00:01:06,420 --> 00:01:17,440 Oh, all right. I guess a title that you have to spell out to understand isn't really ideal for a radio show, but as it turns out, the title is more apropos than I thought it would be, because I haven't... 8 00:01:17,820 --> 00:01:23,580 You see, the thing is, I'm not one of these people who says Christmas has gotten too commercialized and we shouldn't give presents, 9 00:01:23,580 --> 00:01:29,580 Although that idea in that movie, Running on Empty, of only giving things you've made or found, is pretty attractive. 10 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:32,560 But anyway, I love giving Christmas presents. 11 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:37,600 I'm one of those annoying people who has an eye out all year round for just the right presents. 12 00:01:37,960 --> 00:01:41,700 But that doesn't mean that I don't get hung up just before Christmas like everybody else. 13 00:01:42,420 --> 00:01:46,540 So what I was going to say is that I'm a little backed up here in terms of wrapping. 14 00:01:46,980 --> 00:01:50,820 And the way my life is now, if I don't get it done by the end of this hour... 15 00:01:50,820 --> 00:01:55,240 But don't worry, it won't affect you at all. I mean, the mics are off during the music. 16 00:01:55,800 --> 00:02:01,080 Well, so, let's get right into our first lots of music on the show today, folks. 17 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:04,140 Our first little suite here, or song cycle. 18 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:12,800 It's called An International Christmas, and it has three numbers, the middle of which is in Spanish, and tells the story of the three kings. 19 00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:15,420 I'll see you in a little over eight minutes. 20 00:02:18,220 --> 00:02:19,540 Where is that scotch tape? 21 00:02:19,600 --> 00:04:23,500 [music: Gregorian chant, Introit "Dominus dixit" (Midnight Mass for Christmas); Choir of Monks of the Abbey of St. Pierre de Solesmes] 22 00:04:26,300 --> 00:08:21,400 [music: Juan de Araujo, "Los coflades de la estleya" (Christmas in the New World); The Western Wind] 23 00:08:23,900 --> 00:10:15,200 [music: Luther arr. Schickele, "Away in a Manger" (Noel); Joan Baez] 24 00:10:16,750 --> 00:10:31,890 An International Christmas began with the Choir of Monks of the Abbey of St. Pierre de Solesmes singing some Gregorian chant, an introit, Dominus dixit, for the Midnight Mass for Christmas. 25 00:10:31,890 --> 00:10:42,100 Then we had a delightful piece from an album called Christmas in the New World, performed by the vocal group Western Wind. 26 00:10:42,820 --> 00:10:53,380 This was called Los coflades de la estleya by Juan de Araujo, and according to the notes, for Christmas celebrations in the Baroque era in the New World, 27 00:10:53,540 --> 00:11:02,440 Mexican composers largely abandoned Latin liturgical texts and instead drew upon the enormous literature of villancicos. 28 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:04,960 Written in Spanish by local poets. 29 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:15,040 Now, one of the liveliest of all Baroque villancicos, if I'm saying that correctly, written in Latin America, is Juan de Araujo's Los coflades that we just heard. 30 00:11:15,400 --> 00:11:20,160 It was composed for a Negro Corredia [sic], a brotherhood in Peru. 31 00:11:20,460 --> 00:11:26,920 He became, sometime around 1680, he became the maestro at the Cathedral of La Plata, Sucre, Bolivia. 32 00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:30,800 That was once the largest city in the New World. 33 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:37,420 Apparently his fiery temperament often offended Peruvian officials and endangered his professional career. 34 00:11:37,700 --> 00:11:46,180 But this piece is in a black dialect, and it tells the story of the three kings, and includes a nonsense refrain, 35 00:11:46,700 --> 00:11:51,420 Galumba, Galumba, which certainly sounds more African than Spanish. 36 00:11:52,540 --> 00:11:56,960 And where is my third album? 37 00:11:56,960 --> 00:12:06,520 The third piece was from Noel, Joan Baez's album, which I had the pleasure to be the arranger on, and that was, of course, Away in a Manger. 38 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:10,940 I can remember when we recorded that in 1966, I think it was. 39 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:16,620 Of course, to get a record out by Christmas, you really have to have it ready to go to the stores by September or October. 40 00:12:17,320 --> 00:12:22,380 And so we recorded this in July, I think it was, and I remember coming out of the sessions. 41 00:12:22,460 --> 00:12:26,160 We did them in a ballroom of a hotel on Broadway in New York. 42 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:38,100 And I'd come out this hot, sweltering July day, and I'd be walking down the street going, [whistles "Away in a Manger"] and people turning around giving me weird looks. 43 00:12:40,300 --> 00:12:44,820 Okay, I'm Peter Schickele, the program is Schickele Mix on APR. 44 00:12:47,830 --> 00:12:53,610 All of you are hearing a bunch of great music, and I am getting my Christmas present wrapping done. 45 00:12:54,610 --> 00:12:55,390 Everybody's happy. 46 00:12:56,350 --> 00:12:58,230 Next, we'll have an American Christmas. 47 00:12:58,230 --> 00:13:14,150 Although the text of the first of these three numbers is an anonymous medieval poem that likens the purity of the virgin birth to the blossoming of a fair rose, the music is less than fifteen years old and very American. Three numbers, I'll be back in about ten and a half minutes. 48 00:13:14,500 --> 00:18:04,800 [music: Robert Dennis, "Of a Rose" (Christmas in the New World); The Western Wind] 49 00:18:11,000 --> 00:21:34,300 [music: Robertson, "Christmas Must Be Tonight" (To Kingdom Come); The Band] 50 00:21:44,600 --> 00:23:07,140 [music: Trad., "Christ Church Bells" (Kentucky Christmas); Jean Ritchie, Jonathan and Peter Pickow] 51 00:23:07,510 --> 00:23:12,110 Although those are actually English bells. I'll talk about that in a minute. 52 00:23:12,290 --> 00:23:16,030 First we heard, I'll get these presents out of the way. 53 00:23:16,030 --> 00:23:19,730 I can't tell the presents from the albums for the show. 54 00:23:20,350 --> 00:23:23,370 Another cut from the Western Wind album. 55 00:23:23,670 --> 00:23:27,710 This one was a beautiful piece by Robert Dennis called Of a Rose. 56 00:23:28,370 --> 00:23:35,210 And in addition to the vocal ensemble, Western Wind, there was a violin, as you heard, and also hand bells. 57 00:23:36,050 --> 00:23:43,410 Then the second piece was a number by the band that I must say I was unaware of until recently. 58 00:23:44,290 --> 00:23:59,870 The song is called Christmas Must Be Tonight, and it's from an album of theirs that didn't do so well called Islands, but it's been collected on To Kingdom Come, the definitive collection, as it's called, of band material on CD. 59 00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:10,220 Then we ended that suite with something from a nice Christmas album by Jean Ritchie and her family and friends. 60 00:24:10,220 --> 00:24:24,340 That was a little round called Christ Church Bells, which Jean Ritchie says she learned as an instrumental round, playing it on recorders, and so she decided to put words to it, and since it was Christmas time, she put Christmas words to it. 61 00:24:24,340 --> 00:24:33,540 That was Jean Ritchie and her sons, Jonathan and Peter Pickow, singing, and the bells during the song were synthesized. 62 00:24:33,620 --> 00:24:43,980 Jean Ritchie is certainly one of the most authentic, although that's sort of a noxious word, folk singers around, but she's not against change at all. 63 00:24:44,100 --> 00:24:52,540 And this album has instruments that predate her time, old viols and stuff like that from centuries ago, and also synthesized bells. 64 00:24:52,540 --> 00:24:58,760 But the bells you hear at the very end there are from the church ringers of Eppingham [sic], Rutlandshire, England. 65 00:24:59,380 --> 00:25:03,820 The Ritchies visited them and recorded them and used them on this album. 66 00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:09,760 You know, I was wondering, do people still have Santa visit? 67 00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:13,260 Except, you know, I don't mean after midnight when the kids are asleep. 68 00:25:13,360 --> 00:25:19,540 When I was young, we used to often get together on Christmas Eve or the night before that with friends. 69 00:25:19,540 --> 00:25:25,760 And very often, particularly when there were young kids in some of the families, somebody would arrive as Santa Claus. 70 00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:28,680 I certainly was Santa Claus a couple times myself. 71 00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:32,640 I remember one time my brother being a modern, up-to-date Santa Claus. 72 00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:35,660 He had a little pencil mustache and very dashing. 73 00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:38,780 I don't know. I don't hear about people doing that anymore. 74 00:25:39,990 --> 00:25:43,390 Now we're going to hear some instrumental music associated with Christmas. 75 00:25:43,490 --> 00:25:49,370 And this brings up the question, is there such a thing as instrumental music that is inherently Christmassy? 76 00:25:50,150 --> 00:25:53,450 If you didn't know what the piece is called, would you know that it's Christmas music? 77 00:25:54,010 --> 00:25:59,350 Our next suite has three pieces arranged in descending order of inherent Christmasness. 78 00:25:59,930 --> 00:26:03,270 The first is a brief setting of one of the standard Christmas carols. 79 00:26:03,630 --> 00:26:08,030 The second has a lot of bell music in it, and many people associate bells with Christmas, 80 00:26:08,210 --> 00:26:13,510 although to say that this piece reflects a very personal view of Christmas is an understatement. 81 00:26:14,110 --> 00:26:28,400 But the third piece, as far as I can tell, has no Christmas association whatsoever, aside from its subtitle. It is, however, beautiful music. So here's an instrumental Christmas. It lasts about ten and a half minutes, after which I'll be back. 82 00:26:29,600 --> 00:27:47,500 [music: Trad. arr. Schickele, "Angels We Have Heard on High" (Noel); Joan Baez] 83 00:27:50,900 --> 00:32:01,900 [music: Messiaen, Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus, No. 13, "Noël"; Michel Béroff] 84 00:32:04,600 --> 00:37:20,800 [music: Corelli, Concerto Grosso in G minor, Op. 6, No. 8 ("Christmas Concerto"), 5th mvt.; Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Jeanne Lamon] 85 00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:46,450 A little instrumental interlude off that same Noel album by Joan Baez that we heard from earlier, Angels We Have Heard on High, and that's the last of the standard Christmas carols you'll hear on this program. 86 00:37:46,450 --> 00:38:12,810 I love those carols. We used to go caroling in Fargo, North Dakota when I was young. I even went caroling once or twice in Brooklyn as an adult. Now I usually go to a friend's house. He has a whole bunch of people over a week or two before Christmas and we sing all sorts of stuff including carols. I do love them. But it is true that during the Christmas season you tend to hear them so much, what with Muzak everywhere and everything, that it's nice to hear some other stuff too. 87 00:38:12,810 --> 00:38:29,110 Then we heard a section from one of the most amazing works ever written for piano, the Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus by Messiaen, Twenty Looks or Regards or Aspects of the Infant Jesus. 88 00:38:29,710 --> 00:38:38,790 This is a huge piano piece, here played by Michel Beroff, and Messiaen is one of these composers who thinks in terms of color. 89 00:38:38,790 --> 00:38:45,550 He also is an extremely, or was until he died, an extremely devout Roman Catholic. 90 00:38:45,630 --> 00:38:53,470 And I'd like to read you his note on the number we heard, which was number 13 of the Vingt Regards, called Noël. 91 00:38:54,250 --> 00:38:56,730 It's marked very fast, joyous. 92 00:38:56,910 --> 00:38:59,370 And just listen to what Messiaen wrote about it. 93 00:38:59,890 --> 00:39:03,250 The first part is a carillon. These are the bells of Christmas. 94 00:39:04,050 --> 00:39:15,290 Noticeable as well is a xylophone theme, the theme of chords, concentrated, then fragmented, and the Hindu rhythm, miçravarna, which means in Sanskrit, mixture of colors. 95 00:39:15,850 --> 00:39:18,730 More murmuring sounds and rustling of silk. 96 00:39:19,310 --> 00:39:23,670 The middle part evokes the holy family and the adoration before the child in the crib. 97 00:39:24,010 --> 00:39:30,290 It is composed in the third mode of limited transpositions, having the colors orange, gold, and milky white. 98 00:39:30,970 --> 00:39:36,490 Opposed to this another polymodal color, the third mode in the fourth transposition, orange, 99 00:39:36,690 --> 00:39:37,950 red with a little blue. 100 00:39:39,070 --> 00:39:45,890 Superimposed on the second mode, golden brown, and a third color, mode 3-2, gray and mauve, 101 00:39:46,270 --> 00:39:50,170 with an upper pedal of which the foreign notes add a trace of red. 102 00:39:50,710 --> 00:39:55,170 In the reprise of the first part, the bells are augmented by a long convergent movement 103 00:39:55,170 --> 00:39:56,350 like a fan closing. 104 00:39:56,350 --> 00:40:14,270 The whole piece demands of the pianist a variety of attacks, imitating other instruments, timbres of bells and of tam-tam, of xylophone and marimba, of clarinets and flutes, without mentioning the rustling of silk referred to above, or the rhythm of kettledrums at the close. 105 00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:17,200 This man knew what he wanted. 106 00:40:17,810 --> 00:40:23,470 And we ended that suite with part of the famous Christmas concerto by Corelli. 107 00:40:23,470 --> 00:40:40,390 And as I mentioned before, I can't see anything Christmassy about the music itself, nor have I found any writing that indicates what that might be, but the subtitle of the concerto is Fatto per la Notte di Natale, Made for Christmas Night. 108 00:40:41,050 --> 00:40:46,010 That was the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Jeanne Lamon. 109 00:40:47,420 --> 00:40:51,340 My name is Peter Schickele. The program is Schickele Mix on APR. 110 00:40:51,340 --> 00:40:57,170 We talked about how bells are associated with Christmas. 111 00:40:57,390 --> 00:41:01,310 So for our tidbit today, let's hear some organ music that includes bells. 112 00:41:01,990 --> 00:41:06,510 Most people associate organ bells and drums and things like that with theater organs. 113 00:41:06,890 --> 00:41:14,330 But many church organs were built not only with bells, but bird calls and thunder and cymbals and all sorts of stuff included. 114 00:41:14,830 --> 00:41:19,510 Here's Virgil Fox on the organ of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Manhattan, 115 00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:27,600 playing a setting by Bach of the joyful traditional Christmas carol, "In dulci jubilo." We'll hear a little bit of a preceding setting first. 116 00:41:28,630 --> 00:41:41,190 The good news is that I've only got about one more present to go here, and even though it's a bit of a weird shape, I think our tidbit is long enough to allow me to wrap things up, if I may be permitted a bit of seasonal humor. 117 00:41:41,950 --> 00:41:59,930 By the way, by the way, just in case any members of my family are listening, I just want to say that it's not as if I was too lazy or stingy to go out and buy gift wrapping paper or anything. It's just that, well, it's really an environmental thing, using newspaper, and I just wanted to make sure you all realize that. 118 00:41:59,930 --> 00:42:03,390 Here's In Dulci Jubilo, performed by Virgil Fox. 119 00:42:04,080 --> 00:43:42,500 [music: Trad. arr. Fox, "In Dulci Jubilo" (The Christmas Album); Virgil Fox, organ] 120 00:43:42,600 --> 00:44:08,200 An old world Christmas. Three beautiful pieces, and I couldn't be more serious about that. Three great pieces of Christmas music, ranging from an achingly tender lullaby to some irresistibly kinetic joy to the world. And I don't mean the carol, I mean three minutes and seventeen seconds of concentrated joy for the world to be nurtured by. The whole suite is about, let's see, that would be ten and a half minutes long. See you then. 121 00:44:09,600 --> 00:47:40,200 [music: Schütz, Kleine geistliche Konzerte, No. 10, "Hodie Christus natus est" (SWV 315); soloists of the Tölzer Knabenchor, Schmidt-Gaden] 122 00:47:43,300 --> 00:51:12,700 [music: Trad., "Can Ye Sew Cushions" / "The Christ Child's Lullaby"; Julianne Baird & Bill Crofut] 123 00:51:15,900 --> 00:54:27,800 [music: J. S. Bach, Christmas Oratorio, chorale "Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen"; Münchener Bach-Chor and Bach-Orchester, Richter] 124 00:54:29,260 --> 00:54:49,090 An Old World Christmas began with Heinrich Schütz, No. 10 of his Kleine geistliche Konzerte, Hodie Christus natus est, and that was performed by soloists of the Tölzer Knabenchor, a children's chorus, under the direction of Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden. 125 00:54:49,090 --> 00:55:04,610 Then we heard a beautiful pair of pieces, traditional Scottish pieces, Can Ye Sew Cushions? and The Christ Child's Lullaby, performed by Julianne Baird and Bill Crofut, with the Crofut consort. 126 00:55:04,610 --> 00:55:11,170 And finally, Johann Sebastian Bach's gigantic Christmas Oratorio, made up of six cantatas. 127 00:55:11,230 --> 00:55:16,610 This is the last number of the last cantata, the chorale Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen, 128 00:55:16,850 --> 00:55:22,270 and that was the Munich Bach Choir and Orchestra under the direction of Karl Richter. 129 00:55:22,890 --> 00:55:25,090 And that's it for our Christmas show, folks. 130 00:55:25,270 --> 00:55:31,210 I'm going to go and put these presents, well, I'm not going to say where the wrong ears might be listening, 131 00:55:31,210 --> 00:55:36,530 But I wish you all a happy holiday, wherever you may be, and whomever you may be with. 132 00:55:37,390 --> 00:55:43,970 And, uh, ho ho ho, everybody, and just in case I don't see you, have a happy new year, too. 133 00:55:45,000 --> 00:55:50,220 Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I forgot about the theme music. 134 00:55:52,450 --> 00:55:54,710 See if I can get this button with my foot here. 135 00:55:58,720 --> 00:55:59,600 Oh, great. 136 00:56:00,600 --> 00:56:13,300 [music: theme; Mozart, Symphony No. 24 (K. 182), 2nd mvt.; Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of London, Leinsdorf] 137 00:56:13,300 --> 00:56:27,700 And that's Schickele Mix for this week. Have a very happy holiday. Our program is made possible with funds provided by the American Public Radio Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 138 00:56:27,800 --> 00:56:40,460 and also by this radio station and its members. We'll tell you in a moment how you can get an official playlist of all the music on today's program, with record numbers and everything. Just refer to the program number. 139 00:56:40,560 --> 00:56:53,780 This is program number 30. And this is a slightly out-of-breath Peter Schickele saying goodbye and reminding you that it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi. You're looking good. 140 00:56:54,100 --> 00:56:57,500 Don't eat too much. Go ahead. See you next week. 141 00:57:18,480 --> 00:57:30,940 If you'd like a copy of that playlist I mentioned, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Schickele Mix. That's S-C-H-I-C-K-E-L-E, Schickely Mix. Care of American Public Radio, 142 00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:36,860 100 North 6th Street, Suite 900A, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55403. 143 00:57:36,860 --> 00:57:46,500 [music: theme; Mozart, Symphony No. 24 (K. 182), 2nd mvt.; Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of London, Leinsdorf]