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What is your favorite holiday tune?

geminibear

By geminibear
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AdamSmith Grand Master

AdamSmith

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(Ahem)...Would you by terribly offended if I UN-invited you to Christmas dinner...I'm not sure you would be a good fit.

 

http://askmissa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Family-Christmas.jpg

 

Well...on second thought, you might fit right in. :eek:

Just put me between the two wearing the tinfoil hats. :D

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WilliamM Grand Master

+ WilliamM

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I don't consider it depressing. Just realistic.

 

It's an essential part of the film "Meet Me in St. Louis," so I agree the song is realistic, not depressing.

 

I do not remember if Garland sang "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" on her only TV Christmas show (1963). Perhaps it was too close in meaning to "Somewhere Over The Rainbow," which was the final song that evening. (Her TV shows are all available on DVD.)

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bostonman Grand Master

bostonman

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In the context of Meet Me In St. Louis, the song is very moving. (No pun intended, as the family is indeed about to move away from home, or so they think.) The defining lyric in the film context is "until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow" which was changed to something more festive to make it a mainstream holiday song ("hang a shining star upon the highest bough") - though I have always preferred the film lyric even in the context of the holiday.

 

A side note that many people may not realize - arguably the most successful popular Christmas song, "White Christmas," was also written with a dark side. Irving Berlin, trapped making films in Hollywood, wrote the song about missing the iconic northeastern holiday climate. The verse (not often sung) bears this out:

 

"The sun is shining, the grass is green

The orange and palm trees sway

There's never been such a day

In Beverly Hills, LA

But it's December the 24th

And I'm longing to be up north."

 

So this song, along with "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" are really a little bittersweet in intention - and I think they are stronger songs for that.

 

Speaking of lyrics, I want to play Humbug for a minute and point out what I think is one of the worst lyrics in a Christmas song. That would be in the iconic Johnny Marks song "Have A Holly Jolly Christmas." Now - there's a thing in lyric writing known as the "dummy lyric" - which is a kind of a generic draft lyric used to keep the rhythm of the line, etc, with the expectation that it will get replaced by a better lyric as the song is created. And I've always wondered if the final section of the song has a dummy lyric that never got fixed:

 

"Have a holly jolly Christmas,

And in case you didn't hear,

Oh, by golly, have a holly jolly Christmas this year."

 

In case you didn't hear??? Really??? After the whole song has been telling us to "have a holly jolly Christmas" over and over? I suppose it could be meant as a wry joke, but to me it always sounds like Marks just couldn't come up with a better line.

 

;)

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WilliamM Grand Master

+ WilliamM

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Thill's classic version reminded me of another wonderful tenor interpretation of Oh Holy Night (which is also among my very favorites!) sung in the original French and the singer's native German

 

The singer is Jonas Kaufmann, one of the two or three most popular performers in today's opera world. Kaufmann is doing a Puccini opera in the early spring at the Met Opera in NYC.

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TruHart1 Grand Master

TruHart1

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The singer is Jonas Kaufmann, one of the two or three most popular performers in today's opera world. Kaufmann is doing a Puccini opera in the early spring at the Met Opera in NYC.

Yes, the opera in question is Puccini's Manon Lescaut, the 3rd new production recently of this opera in which Kaufmann and Kristine Opolais shine as the ill-fated lovers, previously having made a great success of both an updated (60's) production at Covent Garden and a stark "generic" non-era setting production in Munich. This MET production is advertised as being set in France during the German occupation in the 1940's with a noir look to sets and costumes:

http://www.2beout.com/imagenes/eventos/0312113139_3690-1.jpg

 

We now return you to our thread about our favorite holiday tunes!

 

TruHart1 :cool:

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WilliamM Grand Master

+ WilliamM

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Yes, the opera in question is Puccini's Manon Lescaut, the 3rd new production recently of this opera in which Kaufmann and Kristine Opolais shine as the ill-fated lovers, previously having made a great success of both an updated (60's) production at Covent Garden and a stark "generic" non-era setting production in Munich.

 

The London production of Manon Lescaut well be available on DVD on January6, 2016.

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