Traditional Christmas Music That’s Not So Traditional
photo credit: Kurt Christensen
I was walking through a Best/Worst Buy store the other day and I heard some crazy version of “Jingle Bells” blasting through the store’s speakers. Whereas once the store used to play traditional Christmas music now it oscillates between the traditional and totally ridiculous. The lyrics were fairly close the original but there was what sounded like a manic depressive singing the words and the guitar player in the background sounded like he had just been released from San Quentin.
The harmony? Oh, the harmony…a mix of I, IV, V progressions and the occasional Burt Bacharach moment. Yeah I know, hard to imagine.
The chart finished out with a very odd coda-like ending that sounded like a mix of psychedelic rock and smooth jazz. All in the name of “Jingle Bells.” Traditional Christmas music? Not so much. But fun to listen to, if not just to laugh at it and raise your eyebrows just high enough to realize that more kick ass brass music needs to be written and added to the lexicon of traditional Christmas music.
Boston Brass put out a great album a couple of years ago…Stan Kenton Christmas Carols, arranged for a large brass group and rhythm section. Extremely well performed album that showcases the genius of Kenton’s arranging chops. The record misses the mark though when it comes to originality, as so many Christmas records do these days. (Well, I guess it was an original idea to record the Kenton’s music with a brass band, but the arrangements weren’t new.)
There are infinite ways to arrange a piece of traditional Christmas music and as such it baffles me that so many brass band Christmas records sound so similar. I know of some composer colleagues that believe the key to codified sound over the course of entire record or film or even an opera comes from the instrumentation of the group.
Incorrect…please try again.
Codified sound comes from harmonic as well as dynamic, rhythmic and orchestrational choices (mostly). Wagner used basically the same orchestral setup for most of his operas. Every opera has its own sound. Jerry Goldsmith often used the same orchestral instrumentation for many of his film scores, yet every single one of them breathes its own life.
Well arranged traditional Christmas music can do the same thing. So here’s to more and more killer Christmas arrangements on subsequent brass records.
(And yes, this is an early plug for the Los Angeles Brass Ensemble’s first Christmas record - to be released 2009).
Oh yeah.
Tags: Christmas music, Christmas music for brass, traditional Christmas music