The First Noel (GREER) A Music Box of Christmas Carols (Vanguard OVC 6020)
The First Noel (GREER) Performer: Annette DiMedio Christmas Spirit (ADM1313)
O Little Town of Bethlehem (BROOKS/REDNER) Performer: Canterbury Choristers A Music Box of Christmas Carols (Vanguard OVC 6020)
Our Little Town (JIMMY HEATH/PERCY HEATH) Performer: Heath Brothers Jingle Bell Jazz (Columbia CK 40166)
O Little Town of Bethlehem (BROOKS/REDNER arr. PAULUS) Performer: The Ensemble Singers of the Plymouth Music Series of Minnesota/Brunelle Welcome Christmas (RCA 09026 68015 2)
Announcer: At least I hope we're going to get Schickele Mix, because I'm looking across the glass, through the glass, into the other studio, where Peter Schickele usually stands, and I don't see Peter Schickele, but I do see some guy dressed up in a Santa suit.
Ho, ho, ho, am I ever ready? Here's the theme.
[theme: Mozart, Symphony No. 24]
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. And the glad tidings today are that our bills are paid by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, and also from this very radio station right here, within whose hallowed walls I fashion these programs which are then flung to the four corners by PRI, Public Radio International.
I'm one of those annoying people who shop for Christmas presents all year long. It's not that I don't have to do some last minute shopping too, but I have a special place. It used to be a closet, now it's a couple of drawers, where I keep presents for people. Some of them are presents for specific people, and some are just nifty things that I've run across and I know they're going to come in handy.
I love giving presents, and what I love best is when you get a real inspiration, the perfect present for that person. But let's face it, inspiration doesn't always strike. So it's nice to have a drawer or two full of goodies.
And I don't mean desperation stuff either. I mean stuff that when you see in the store you think, what a great present that would be for somebody, so I buy it and stick it in one of the drawers. By the way, were you a peeker? I've talked with various friends about this, and some of them have said that when they were kids they tried to find where the presents were hidden before Christmas and check them out. Now me, I wouldn't want to know. I'd rather be surprised and delighted at opening time, and I'm pretty sure I felt the same way when I was a kid, too. When my kids were young, I don't mean Santa Claus age, but young, I told them, don't go in that closet, because that's where the presents are. And apparently they didn't. I've asked them since they've grown up.
Anyway, the main reason I collect presents year round is not because I'm Mr. Well Organized. In fact, in most ways, I am definitely Mr. Last Minute.
It's because the tradition of P.D.Q. Bach concerts in New York City during the last week in December goes back to 1965, and that means that the Christmas season is usually an especially hectic time of year for me, what with meetings and rehearsals and interviews and finishing up recent discoveries and everything, so it really behooves me to be ahead of the game in terms of helping Santa.
And in all these years, I have made it an absolute rule that Christmas and the two days or so before it be kept free, even if the series of concerts starts on December 26th, as it often has. No matter how frantic things got, no matter how many things still had to be done, on December 23rd, the family used to pile into the car and head on up to Stonington, Connecticut, where my wife's folks lived, and that was Christmas time, Now, I can't pretend that I never thought about the concerts at all during those visits. I'm usually working on my spoken introductions right up till curtain time. But the deal is, and it has been honored almost religiously, no appointments, no phone calls, no nothing having to do with work, because even though I'm not a churchgoer, it has always seemed important to me to keep Christmas. And that's the name of today's show, Keeping Christmas.
[music: "The Christmas Bells of Bethlehem from the Cathedral of Christi Birth" (The Bells of Christmas)]
Those are the bells of Bethlehem on Christmas Day. To Christians, of course, this season celebrates the birth of Christ. It's a time of glad tidings and good cheer, a time of joy and sharing. And sharing has come to mean the giving of presents, just as the three wise men brought gifts to the infant Jesus. But some people feel that in our society, the sharing has gotten in the way of the joy.
That is, that present giving has become so compulsive and commercially driven that the feelings of awe and humility experienced by the Magi have been replaced by feelings of greed and envy. That displaying open-hearted generosity has given way to keeping up with the Joneses. That the din and the rush of the marketplace have driven out the stillness of contemplation. In other words, that the religion has been carefully extracted from this religious celebration, creating a decaf holiday that everybody can enjoy without losing any sleep.
[music: Parker, "Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas?" (Bummed Out Christmas); The Staples Singers]
The Staple Singers asking, who took the merry out of Christmas? Well, and for that matter, who took the humble out of pie? Here are two settings of a well-known carol, and I think I'm safe in saying that, taken as a pair, they cover just about the entire range of the humility meter.
[music: Greer, "The First Noel" (A Music Box of Christmas Carols)]
[music: Greer, "The First Noel" (Christmas Spirit); Annette DiMedio]
The First Noel, first performed by an early 19th century music box, and then by pianist Annette DiMedio and orchestra. The orchestra doesn't seem to have a name, but I do, and it's Peter Schickele. That of the program is Schickele Mix, and it's from PRI, Public Radio International.
Today's show is called Keeping Christmas, and we just heard two extremes in the art of hymn setting. Now it's true that many modern arrangements of Christmas songs are too pompous or too sentimental for my taste. But on the other hand, I am not one of those who feel that the only acceptable setting is a traditional setting. Those who feel, in other words, that there's no room at the inn for modern classical composers or jazzers.
I guess because jazz grew up partially in brothels and speakeasies, some people think that the application of jazz techniques to traditional material is at least disrespectful, if not downright humorous. Now it's true that sometimes things are jazzed up in a gimmicky way, but anybody who's been to a church where gospel music is sung knows that you don't have to be out of American Gothic to be serious about religion.
Here's the first verse of another beloved Christmas carol followed by two very nice pieces based on the song.
[music: Brooks/Redner, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (A Music Box of Christmas Carols); Canterbury Choristers]
[music: Jimmy Heath/Percy Heath, "Our Little Town" (Jingle Bell Jazz); Heath Brothers]
[music: Brooks/Redner arr. Paulus, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (Welcome Christmas); The Ensemble Singers of the Plymouth Music Series of Minnesota/Brunelle]
O Little Town of Bethlehem. We heard the first verse sung by the Canterbury Choristers and then an effectingly cool tune called Our Little Town by Jimmy and Percy Heath based on the carol. In addition to the Brothers Heath on tenor and bass, that was Stanley Cowell on piano and kalimba, that's a thumb piano, and Tony Purrone on guitar, and Akira Tana on drums, and finally, a lovely arrangement of the carol by Stephen Paulus, performed by The Ensemble Singers of the Plymouth Music Series of Minnesota, conducted by Philip Brunelle.
The oboist on that recording is Marilee Klemp, the harpist is Lynn Aspness, the back announcer is Peter Schickele, and the show is Schickele Mix, from PRI, Public Radio International.
We're talking about keeping Christmas. So what does that mean? For some people it means keeping it religious, and for others it means keeping it serious, and then there are people for whom those two things are the same thing. There are many folks who feel that there is no place for humor in religion at all. When I discovered the consort of choral Christmas carols by P.D.Q. Bach, I very much wanted them to be completely secular. I didn't want to ruffle feathers. I wanted audiences to enjoy themselves during a season of good cheer. The first carol is called Throw the Yule Log on Uncle John and it's about throwing the yule log on Uncle John. The second is called Oh Little Town of Hackensack and it's about Santa Claus coming to New Jersey. The last one is called Good King Kong and that's what it's about. As I said these are to my sensibility completely secular pieces but after they appeared in print, a woman contacted my publisher and said that she was never again going to order any piece of music published by them because the title, Oh Little Town of Hackensack, is so blasphemous.
Obviously, the title doesn't offend me, but I can appreciate the woman's discomfort, perhaps even anguish. She would consider me a pagan, yet even I have heard jokes and comedy routines that have made me uncomfortable. Here is a member of the Shaker community commenting on Simple Gifts, the hymn that has become well known due to its use by Aaron Copland in the music for Appalachian Spring.
Shaker community member (recorded): Although the world has made the song famous, we feel troubled that in its fame it is taken so lightly. To believers, it holds a real message, reminding us that we do have to come down to the place just right in order to live out Mother's Gospel.
One should never belittle great depth of feeling, especially when it's in the service of love. In any way, it's always wise to avoid being blasé. But you also have to make room for the diversity of a society like ours. When we look at small, self-contained societies, as we sometimes longingly do, the absolute integration of religion into everyday life seems healthy and powerful. But when things get more heterogeneous, well, we all know what people can do to each other in the name of religion. And have done. And for that reason, the separation of church and state seems absolutely necessary in a large country such as the barely United States of America.
So like it or not, we live in a quite secular society. Not as secular as that of Soviet Russia, but more secular than that of many Middle Eastern countries, and also, perhaps, more secular than that of Brazil, where, I read recently, a paraplegic man and his fiancée were denied permission by the church to marry, because he would be unable to sire children.
In America, almost anything goes, at least if you're not receiving any money from the government. See? We're not as secular as you thought. And that brings us to Tidbit Time. Today's tidbit is pretty tame by counterculture standards. It doesn't have anything directly to do with religion. But by popular music standards, it's a pretty dark slice of Christmas humor. You've got to listen carefully to the words on this one.
[music: Kuhn, "Who Say There Ain't No Santa Claus" (Bummed Out Christmas); Ron Holden & The Thunderbirds]
Ron Holden and the Thunderbirds with Who Say There Ain't No Santa Claus? Actually, he does exist, you know, and I can tell you that firsthand. I got into an elevator at a Holiday Inn last spring, and a six-year-old boy said, softly but very audibly, Look, Mom, it's Santa Claus. Actually, I get that fairly frequently in December, just walking down the street ever since my beard turned white. So hang in there, Virginia.
Hey listen, speaking of the lighter side of Christmas, sometimes a non-traditional setting can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Now this may be the corniest of all the standard holiday songs, and that's saying something, but the second of these two renditions turns it into a very tasty morsel indeed, if I may be permitted a special seasonal dispensation to mix my metaphors.
[music: Nelson/Rollins, "Frosty the Snowman" (Christmas with the Chipmunks, Vol. 1); The Chipmunks]
Recording: Hey, fellas, why don't you tell the kids about your ice-cold friend? All right.
[music: Nelson/Rollins, "Frosty the Snowman" (A Chiaroscuro Christmas); Mike Jones]
Frosty the Snowman, sung by The Chipmunks and swung by Mike Jones. A pianist new to me. What a great left hand. That was recorded, by the way, according to the notes, aboard a cruise ship somewhere between Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. Maybe that explains all the high seas. A nice jazz Christmas album on Chiaroscuro.
Chiaroscuro, Chiaroscuro, something like that, nice label, nice album, a compilation that has everybody from Earl Hines to Steve Allen on it. Well, we live in a far-flung world. Some of the pieces we've heard today, like the Music Box playing the first Noel on the one hand, and Ron Holden & The Thunderbirds doing Who Say There Ain't No Santa Claus on the other, Those two pieces are farther apart than Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, and that's the way it is. Look, I'm a card-carrying member of the ACLU, but I miss the nativity scene on the town square. And I remember saying back in the 70s that the day would come when a public school choir couldn't sing the Messiah, and that day is already here in a lot of areas. I wish we could come up with ways of embracing instead of denying the fact that our cultural heritage is religious as well as secular.
And I wish that the problems, the very real problems that arise from our wild and woolly heterogeneousness, I wish they could be solved by inclusion rather than exclusion. Meanwhile, here and now, for better or worse, Christmas is two celebrations.
A joyous religious holiday and a merely happy secular holiday, or anyway that's what they should be at the very least, and you can make them that. Whatever your religious feelings are, don't let mammon grind you down. Okay, since people, at least people under the age of 10, often identify me as Santa Claus, let me presume to dispense some holiday advice, and here it is.
Keep Christmas. That's it. Keep Christmas.
Yeah, I know it's sort of like do the right thing, right? But I mean go out of your way to keep Christmas, whatever that means to you. On Christmas Eve, when I was a kid, one member of the family used to read the St. Luke version of the Christmas story aloud out of the big old family Bible. I miss that. We should revive that practice in our house.
And when it comes to presents, remember that there is a middle ground between mindless consumerism and Olympian asceticism. Make each present count. And be of good cheer. And most important of all, don't pay too much attention to people on the radio trying to tell you how to lead your life.
There's not a Christmas spirit. There are Christmas spirits. And that's what I call this last suite. It has three numbers, and I'll see you in about nine minutes.
[music: Trad., "Third Carol for Christmas Day" (Celtic Christmas); Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill & Donal Lunny]
[music: Pierpont arr. Wonderling, "Jingle Bells" (A Creole Christmas); Rockin' Dopsie & The Zydeco Twisters]
[music: Ives, "A Christmas Carol"; Jan DeGaetani/Gilbert Kalish]
Christmas Spirits. We began with a beautiful cut from an album called Celtic Christmas on Windham Hill, and that was the Third Carol for Christmas Day performed by, oh brother, my pronunciation of Gaelic is only slightly better than my pronunciation of classical Persian.
Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill and Donal Lunny. Beautiful anyway. Then we had Jingle Bells as performed by Rockin' Dopsie and the Zydeco Twisters. And finally, a very beautiful little piece called A Christmas Carol, written in 1897 by Charles Ives and sung by Jan DeGaetani with Gilbert Kalish at the piano. We began this program talking about how the Three Kings brought gifts to the infant Jesus. So let's go out with them. We Three Kings of Orient are arranged by Wynton Marsalis and performed by the Wynton Marsalis Quintet. Wynton Marsalis of course on trumpet, Branford Marsalis on tenor, Kenny Kirkland on piano, Clarence Seay on acoustic bass, and Jeff Watts on drums.
[music: Trad. arr. Marsalis, "We Three Kings of Orient Are" (Jingle Bell Jazz); Wynton Marsalis Quintet]
And that's Schickele Mix for this week. Our program is made possible with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by the National Endowment for the Arts. With additional support from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and from this radio station and its members. Thank you members and have a fine holiday season. And not only that, our program is distributed by PRI, Public Radio International. We'll tell you in a moment how you can get an official playlist of all the music on today's program, with album numbers and everything. Just refer to the program number. This is program 123.
And this is 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. See you next week.
[music: Trad. arr. Marsalis, "We Three Kings of Orient Are" (Jingle Bell Jazz); Wynton Marsalis Quintet]
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, Schickele Mix. Care of Public Radio International, 100 North 6th Street, Suite 900A, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55403.
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Coming up in just a moment, we have music of Respighi and Dvořák, conducted by Paul Anthony McRae