 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: CPW
Date: 2004-12-10 14:24
If I hear that drummer boy song one more time...........
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2004-12-10 15:11
Our comm. band is now presenting two Chr concerts, me on Bass cl, with other low reeds, two "bassoons" [one a transpg. Bari sax], a 2nd Bari. I believe my fav. piece is a Dvorak Slavonic Dance, lots to do ! The Gershwin Cuban Raphsody is proving to be a difficult one. My least fav. is "M C with Chips and Salsa" rather boring repetition, but a novelty. Other Chr dis?arrangments., Would prefer to be playing a bit of Bizet, L'Arlesienne, it has some Chr "character", I'm told . Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: John O'Janpa
Date: 2004-12-10 16:10
One of our local radio stations is playing two christmas novelty songs to death.
They are cute the first few times, but after the 100th get annoying. They are "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" and "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas".
Poor arrangements of songs I usually love, for example "O Holy Night" also are on my least favorite list.
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Author: lisabilski
Date: 2004-12-10 16:26
We're playing a piece in our community band called "Stars and Stripes for Christmas." Ack!
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Author: Robert Small
Date: 2004-12-10 16:34
Two that really get on my nerves are: "The Twelve [count 'em] Days of Christmas" and "The Little Drummer Boy" (go away kid, you bother me).
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Author: Brian Peterson
Date: 2004-12-10 17:41
On the flip side, one of my favorites is John Pryne's "Christmas in Prison".
"It was Christmas in prison and the food was real good. We had turkey and pistols carved out of wood."
Am still waiting for someone to arrange it for clarinet choir.
BP
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Author: clarinetwife
Date: 2004-12-10 18:09
Holly Jolly Christmas totally gets on my nerves!
J O' J wrote: <Poor arrangements of songs I usually love, for example "O Holy Night" also are on my least favorite list.>
Oh my, it is a lovely piece, but it has to be THE most frequently butchered Christmas song ever. The choir director at my old church used to call it "O Holy Nightmare"
Fun seasonal topic
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Author: Camanda
Date: 2004-12-10 19:22
Sleigh Ride. 3 years in a row of Sleigh Ride, and chances are quite good that I have yet to see the last of it. We call it Sludge Crash. I also can't stand Joy to the World or Deck the Halls. Actually, I guess I get so sick of Christmas music by September that I hate all of it in December.
Amanda Cournoyer
URI Clarinet Ensemble, Bass Clarinet
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Author: 3dogmom
Date: 2004-12-10 19:54
How about "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"? When I was a kid I thought this was about adultery.
Sue
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Author: Wicked Good ★2017
Date: 2004-12-10 20:30
My least favorite has got to be Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas." Good gracious, what a hideous tune. The background vocals themselves are enough to make me reach for the Jack Daniels.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2004-12-10 20:38
I'm gettin' nuttin fer Christmas
Mommy and Daddy are mad
I'm gettin' nuttin fer Christmas
Cause I ain't bin nuttin' but bad
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2004-12-10 21:06
Two things about Christmas music:
One is that the "novelty" of it all is what sells it to the population as a whole. The nostalgia that is called up by the images and sounds works at a level far more basic than any artistic plane upon which you may be operating.
There are people who are moved to tears by the emotional element with Christmas, and they are the ones who hook up to the "all Xmas music, all of the time" stations. By extension, they are also the ones that the marketing machinery is aimed, and they fuel all of the decoration and "trappings" aspect that come with the holiday.
Cute stuff like the arrangements mentioned above are pointed squarely at these folks. The arrangers are trying to come up with a fresh take on an age old subject, and the fear is that if the novelty number isn't "novel" (in the true, patent office and book type definition of the word "novel"), it won't take.
Push comes to shove, I don't think that there have been many improvements on the classic hymns and other folk tunes, and most arrangers who are wise will omit too much "novelty" when dealing with such fundamental topics.
When they do ignore the good advice above, we end up with Blue Christmas ("Oh-oha-oh-oh; oh-oha-oh-oh", as the backup vocal runs) and the like.
The second thing is that Christmas has become such a massive iconic element in our cultures (even the Japanese go wonkers over it, although only in the Western, commercial sense...there's very little Christ in their Christmas as well) that many who go along with the holiday (i.e., about 95% of those here in the US) still gain some pleasure from poking fun at it as well. Hence, "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" and the like.
We're doing a Christmas gig on the 19th that's put out for "public" consumption. (Most of my groups work is for private parties, weddings, benefits and so forth.) I was tempted to put a big dose of Xmas cheer in same, but ultimately decided to go more with pop and rock and showpieces.
Out of our two hour segment, I've only included a nifty Harry Connick Jr. Xmas medley, Santa Baby (both great arrangements from Lush Life Music in jolly ol' England) and the Christmas Song (included because one of my vocalists does such a good job on it). All in all, that's only about 1/12th (9 to 10 minutes) of the total (36-ish tunes, depending on the chatter between).
For the rest, though, we're offering a relief from the unending litany of "Christmas cheer" that has been going on for the last three weeks in these parts. And, every time that we've done Xmas work, this approach gets grateful thanks from listeners who come up and tell us how nice it was not to be submerged in another couple of hours of Christmas music.
Christmas music is like opera, classical music, jazz or anything else...a little bit is great for most everyone, but a lot is bad for all but a very few...
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Author: msloss
Date: 2004-12-10 21:28
All of them, particularly by the 7th or 8th gig this month. No amount of money is enough compensation for playing those miserable medley singalongs or those fantasia/theme'n'variation treatments. And 25 consecutive years of Sleigh Ride has taken me to toxic Leroy Anderson levels.
You better not shout.
You better not pout.
You better not cry
And I'm telling you why --
Santa Claus is dead.
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2004-12-10 21:34
"Stars and Stripes for Christmas"? We're going to play "Jingle Bells Forever". How many combinations of Stars & Stripes and Christmas music are there?
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Author: Bnatural
Date: 2004-12-10 23:03
Least favorite would be "Christmas Festival"... a poorly orchestrated annual event in which the chorus, orchestra, and band play together. This year will only be my second time doing it, and I already dread it.
In the rest of the world though my least favorite is any performance that insists on doing numerous verses. I don't like christmas music at all, but most of the people that do like to know the song being performed. If you sing "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,..... " you get smiles and claps, but if you sing "Now bring us some figgy pudding, now bring us some figgy pudding..." you get less claps and a strange look... or so I've noticed
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Author: Neil
Date: 2004-12-10 23:11
I dislike secular Christmas songs in general but I truly despise "Winter Wonderland" or whatever it's called. In all fairness, though, it shouldn't be considered a Christmas song, just a lousy song that gets played to death at Christmas.
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Author: Karen
Date: 2004-12-10 23:23
Ah dont be dissing Sleigh Ride! Sure tis only great! We're doing a piece called 20 carols in 2 minutes! A christmas version of instant concert! Lots of fun indeed!
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Author: claclaws
Date: 2004-12-11 00:51
GBK,
lol...
Let me have it. Would like to post it on my blog.
Lucy Lee Jang
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Author: BobD
Date: 2004-12-11 00:54
Hmmm....the folks at the convalescent homes where we play seem to like 'em all.
Bob Draznik
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Author: marcia
Date: 2004-12-11 01:17
The origianl of "Twelve Days of Christmas" is tedious indeed, BUT there are some delightful versions, ie. Canadian Brass, Mormon Tabernacle choir, and Penelope Leitch. She is a British actress and in her version the music is just background. She is in fact reading the letters she is sending to her "true love" a fellow named Algernon commenting on his ever increasingly outrageous gifts. There are other versions along this line but the hers is by far my favourite. The Brits have the monopoly on understated comedy.
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Author: CPW
Date: 2004-12-11 02:46
Surely someone has conducted a marketing survey to show whether carols in a mall really spur the Chri$$tma$$ $$pirit
Why else do we get pummeled from WeenThanxmas with interminable Muzac?
and oh those barking dogs. Thanx GLK....now I am ready to deck the halls and deck anyone else who plays it.
At least no one mentioned my V-12 days of Xmas with the Mercedes Benz GLK (sic)
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=164890&t=164890
SNL used to play a grainy claymation cartoon featuring the Elf of Christmas Stress. On Target for sure!
Hey....catch this:
On Target
On Walmart
On Gimbels...gift for the vixen.
On Bloomies and Barneys
my credit is a-Blitzen........and to all a good nite.
Against the windmills of my mind
The jousting pole splinters
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Author: clarinetist04
Date: 2004-12-11 05:18
Awww...I like Christmas music! All of it! Especially the Hallelujah chorus. I used to go every year and hear the Marine Band play at Wolf Trap. It was a giant sing along. I'm sure they hated it (the players), but we sure enjoyed it. I've played my fare share of Christmas music for sure (!!!), but I still like it all everytime I hear it...especially if you get a good ole record of Bing Crosby and Sinatra singing their hearts out..."I'm dreaming of a white christmas..." doo doo doo. Merry Christmas!
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Author: marcia
Date: 2004-12-11 06:09
And I just remembered another version of "Twelve Days". It is very Canadian, and is all about what "Trudeau promised me!" The only thing I can remember is "a pension at 33" but the rest was equally hilarious.
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2004-12-11 14:00
How about "Frosty the Snowman" in marching band arrangement -- my personal peeve.
Susan
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2004-12-11 14:10
Great cmments, folks, in partic. CPW's rings "chimes" . Of the 3-4 we played last nite, only Sleigh Ride seemed to stir the audience , with its tpt "horse ?whinney?. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: CPW
Date: 2004-12-11 19:34
Here is a fun thing:
Recording of Leroy Anderson conducting the Beantown POPs and a
Separate recording of Fiedler conduction the same item...Sleigh Ride.
Very different tempi and style.
I prefer the Anderson version. The whinney sounds the same on both, however.
The best horse whinney I heard was Gil Johnson (former princ. trumpet with Phila Orch...recently deceased as prof. of brass in Florida).
Had no idea how many reactions this thread would generate. Kewl.
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Author: joeclarinet
Date: 2004-12-11 19:58
I'm jewish - they are all my least favorite. You can't walk anywhere after Thanksgiving (sometimes even right after Halloween!!) without the damn xmas carols drumming in your head in the stores. I won't even go into stores anymore without my headset listening to my own selections just to escape it.
And now they have even "gettoized" the classics too!!
Horrible, just horrible.....
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Author: joeclarinet
Date: 2004-12-11 21:07
I haven't seen it yet but if it's from jibjab is HAS to be good 
Those 2 guys are geniuses.
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Author: joeclarinet
Date: 2004-12-12 05:16
I just saw it. Man, they went all out on that one! I kinda doubt we'll be hearing that one in the malls.
My favorite one is the Canadian Brass playing 12 days of Xmas. Least would be anything sung in a crooners style (bing crosby, etc) as that stuff drives me nuts.
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Author: JessKateDD
Date: 2004-12-12 07:08
"Hooray for Santy Claus" - from the movie "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians"
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Author: CPW
Date: 2004-12-12 14:07
joe....thanks...just bookmarked JIBJAB on the 'puter.
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Author: joeclarinet
Date: 2004-12-12 17:53
Give thanks to Brian, I didn't even know JibJab was at it again.
but a warning, you almost have to be a Howard Stern fan to get a kick out of the site.
I'll go from Stern to Smooth Jazz, and back to Bartok, and Bach in the same listening drive.
And I don't mean Issac Stern either
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2004-12-12 18:01
That drummer boy song annoys the ____ (there's at least three four-letter words that will work here . . . ) outta me.
On the flipside, I can't WAIT till a Charlie Brown Christmas comes on TV this year! Talk about GREAT music!
US Army Japan Band
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Author: psychotic lil clarinet girl (don't as
Date: 2004-12-12 18:08
Deck the halls with gasoline
Falalalalalalalala
Light a match and watch it gleam
Falalalalalalalala
Watch the school burn down to ashes
Falalalalalalalala
Aren't you glad you played with matches?
Falalalalalalalala!
hehe... the one variation of deck the halls that I like... LOL!
Or better yet you could get a christmas book and play all the songs in a minor key just to show how much you LOVE Christmas... yep... that's always fun...
I would say jingle bells... gets old....
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Author: joeclarinet
Date: 2004-12-12 20:40
As sick as heck as I am of hearing the tunes at the mall, I still enjoy teaching them to my students to play.
I never get tired of that.
It's a little late now, but not too late. A really great Xmas book which was done by a guy I grew up with is titled "the twelve styles of christmas" and written by James Hosay (published by Curnow Music). Very cool, upbeat and funky arrangements of the classics with live playalong tracks.
Hosay was the arranger for the US Army Band for years. New book (clarinet, flute, sax, whatever you play..) came out about 2 years ago and is my favorite to use.
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Author: diz
Date: 2004-12-12 20:51
Christmas song???
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
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Author: Jim E.
Date: 2004-12-13 04:36
I did "The Chipmunk's Christmas Song" last year, that just might be my least favorite. Though the barking dogs jingle bells and Gramdmom got run over... are close contenders.
This year I'm doing "Frosty's Carribean Vacation" so at least the old guy gets some sun! This is grouped with "Santa Loves to Cha-Cha." The director has a sense of humor, and it's an intergenerational band, middle school kids and up.
But seriously, ever think of how much of the Mall Christmas music is being performed by dead people? Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby still celebrate after being dead for more than 25 years. How's that for immortality. To me the saddest is Karen Carpenter singing "I'll be home for Christmas, you can count on me." 'Fraid not, Karen.
I guess Christmas music is the comfort food of the music world. Like Mom's meatloaf, its overly filling, not very challenging to the taste buds, and a nutritional nightmare, but it feels so good!
On the bright side, I sang an hour and a half program this afternoon of carols, the familiar as well as many obscure ones largely from Europe. What a collection of musical styles and textures. Not a Jingle Bells or Twelve Days in the bunch. Of course this works only if you're into the more religous side of the holiday.
Likely no one likes Leroy Anderson more than I do, but... finially... even I am tired of Sleigh Ride!
When Mel Torme wrote "Chestnuts Roasting..." did he know that his "Christmas Song" would become one of those old chestnuts?!
I wish you the merriest....
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Author: Igloo Bob
Date: 2004-12-13 04:41
Sleigh Ride is the Pomp and Circumstance of high school christmas concerts. Why are the most popular ones always the most crappy? Does the whole world except us have poor taste?
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Author: GBK
Date: 2004-12-13 05:09
joeclarinet wrote:
> I'm jewish - they are all my least favorite.
> You can't walk anywhere after Thanksgiving
> (sometimes even right after Halloween!!) without
> the damn xmas carols drumming in your head in the stores.
> I won't even go into stores anymore without my
> headset listening to my own selections just to escape it.....
> Horrible, just horrible
- "White Christmas" by Irving Berlin
- "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let It Snow" by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne
- "The Christmas Song" by Mel Torme
- "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" by Johnny Marks
- "Silver Bells" by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
- "We Need A Little Christmas" by Jerry Herman
- "O Holy Night" by Adolphe Adam
All the composers of the above songs were Jewish ...GBK
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