#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalChristmas Week 1

Dec 4th, 2020 | By Ralph Graves
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For the past four years, the #ClassicsaDay team has adopted  Classical Christmas as its theme for December. And why not? We have a rich body of music related to the season dating back to the Middle Ages. A good deal of it is religious, but not all — many works are simply inspired by the time of year.

As always, I tried to select music that I hadn’t shared before while avoiding the obvious (like Vivaldi’s “Winter”). Here are my posts for the first week of #ClassicalChristmas

12/1/20 Johann Kuhnau – Magnificat in C major

Kuhnau was Bach’s predecessor at Leipzig, holding the post for 21 years. This Magnificat would have been performed during Advent.

 

12/2/20 Felix Mendelssohn – Weihnachten

“Weihnachten” (Christmas) is part of Six Motets written in 1843. The text is by Martin Luther.

 

12/03/20 Williams Billings – Shiloh

Billings is considered the first American choral composer, beginning his career around 1770. “Shiloh” is one of several Christmas carols he composed.

 

12/04/20 Moravian Christmas music

Missionaries of the Moravian Church arrived in American in 1735 and established two enclaves in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Music is a strong tradition in the church, as are trombone choirs.

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