elrhiarhodan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
elrhiarhodan) wrote2010-12-04 04:14 pm
elrhiarhodan) wrote2010-12-04 04:14 pm
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Pardon Me ... A Small Holiday Season Rant
For the record, I hate Christmas music. Which has nothing to do with the fact that I don't celebrate the holiday. What I hate is the false cheer. The hypocritical message of peace and good will peddled by those who believe in anything but that. The sanctimonious imagery of a Norman Rockwell America that never existed. And most of all, the simply bad music and lyrics - bubble gum pop Auto-Tuned to bland sameness.
In other words, "Home for the Holidays." An Anti-Classic. First demortalized by Mr. Bland himself, Perry Como, then punishingly covered by The Carpenters - it's this latter version that will (if anything could) set my mind to murder and mayhem. Uber-perky (and apparently perked up on pills) Karen Carpenter trippingly sings (is that what that's called?) about how "the traffic is terrific!". Words cannot express how much I loathe and despise this recording - which, for some unfathomable reason - is played every hour on every radio station in America (even the All Talk - All The Time ones). This horror is inescapable - it's like a swiftly moving mass of sewage, creeping through even the most tightly sealed portals.
My nightmare is this - although I don't own (and certainly never will) any version of this travesty, I fear that it will somehow infect my iPod, and all 26,000+ songs will become "Home for the Holidays." Or that I'll put a CD in to play in my car, and you guessed it - that's the only song on the disc. I'll end up killing myself as I try to jump out of the moving vehicle. Anything but having to listen to Karen and/or Perry sing about the idiot from Tennesee trying to get to Pennsylvania.
As much as I loathe most American Christmas music, I actually love the old English Christmas carols. My favorite is O Come, O Come Emmanuel, which is seems more Jewish than Christian (ignoring, of course, the line "God's Dear Son"). The best rendition is the one by the King's College Choir, Cambridge. There is a section when the choir divides into six or seven part harmony (with the organ playing descant in the background), and my heart nearly stops from the perfect beauty. This recording was on an album I got from the Musical Heritage Society (probably vinyl) back in the early 1980s (I remember listening to it in college), which has been plundered for a sort of "Best of..." version that now includes some of the minor horrors of the season.
Anyway - whatever holiday shopping I need to do, I'll be doing on line, and when I have to venture out into the Danger Zone (i.e., a mall or chain store), I'll have my earbuds tightly screwed in and something a little more pleasant playing, say John Cage's 4'33".
Oh, and Happy Holidays
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g4lY8Y3eoo
Then try the original Bing Crosby recording of I'll Be Home for Christmas, forever associated with homesick soldiers. I like this one set to a surrealistic, Guy Maddenesque video of Canadian home movies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g4lY8Y3eoo
Traditional carols also have their moments, above all the Coventry Carol with its haunting Picardy thirds at the end of each heartwrenching verse. Hard to find a good combination of sound and image, but there's this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g4lY8Y3eoo
"And in despair I bowed my head. "There is no peace on earth," I said, "for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men." Longfellow, embittered by family tragedy, finds hope in the bells.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-EfxNj2oIQ
Oh, I could go on and on. I think the melancholy Christmas songs are actually my favorites.
PS: You've seen the symphonic arrangement of 4'33", I hope? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJagb7hL0E
no subject
I will check out every one of these...particularly the symphonic version of 4'33"
God, you know me so VERY WELL!
no subject