I’m hoping that we all know at least some version of the Hansel and Gretel story, even if its only the Bugs Bunny take on the old fairy tale. Every year about this time, many opera houses all over the world perform Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera based on the story. And I’ve always been a little baffled as to why this season, and not the end of October. So, let’s find out.

What's in a name? 

First off, the music for the opera was composed by Engelbert Humperdinck, a man who lived from 1854-1921, so not the British singer of the same name. (That Engelbert was born Arnold Dorsey. He changed it on the advice of his then-manager. I suppose to be more memorable.)

But, is it art?

While Humperdinck composed many things, it is his opera Hansel and Gretel that remains popular. Even though it is not always the most accessible music. Through the years, I have sung Gretel, Hansel and the Witch, singing in both German and English. It is a lot of fun, but it is also some difficult music to plow through. At one point in the scene where the children are lost in the forest, they are singing in a completely different time signature than the orchestra is playing. (Think of tapping out a beat in groups of four with one hand while taping out a beat of three with the other, and have the groups somehow match up at the end.)

Not surprising in a German composer of the era, Humperdinck worked with Richard Wagner. (I did not find anything to suggest that Humperdinck shared Wagner’s antisemitism, fortunately.) But the musical influences are there. However, I also think that Humperdinck was part of the folk music movement that included Edvard Grieg, Antonin Dvořák, and Bedřich Smetana. By saying that I don’t mean that they wrote folk music, but that they used existing folk melodies in their works. In doing so, they gave a certain credibility to an otherwise down-graded art form. 

Hansel and Gretel is a combination of sprightly folk melodies, (Brother, Come and Dance with Me) Wagnerian bombast (The Witch’s aria) and just plain gorgeousness (Evening Prayer).

Christmas time?

But, why is it performed at the Christmas holidays? Because the first performance was on 23 December 1893. Yup, that appears to be the only reason. Tradition. (My mother always thought that tradition was the act of making the same mistake over and over again, on purpose. That might apply here.)

I hope that you have a safe and wonderful New Year. As usual, I will be playing excerpts from the opera on my Minnich Music FaceBook page this week, so be sure to check them out.

Until next year!
 
 

We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
This is another song that I thought would be relatively straight-forward that has turned out to be a little more complex.

We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
And a happy New Year!
Good tidings we bring to you and your kin,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
And a happy New Year!
 
Now bring us some figgy pudding,
Now bring us some figgy pudding,
Now bring us some figgy pudding,
And bring some out here.
Good tidings we bring to you and your kin,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
And a happy New Year.
 
For we all like figgy pudding,
For we all like figgy pudding,
For we all like figgy pudding,
So, bring some out here.
Good tidings we bring to you and your kin,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
And a happy New Year.
 
And we won’t go till we’ve got some,
And we won’t go till we’ve got some,
And we won’t go till we’ve got some,
So, bring some out here.
Good tidings we bring to you and your kin,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
And a happy New Year.

I think this song is sung at the end of every Christmas concert. I know my Victorian caroling troupe, the High Tea Carolers, sings it at the end of every set. It’s kind of expected. But there’s a lot to dig into.

Let’s start with the general history. It is generally considered to date back to the 1500s in England. Except that there does not seem to be any mention of anything that could be this song in any of the song lists, or records that remain to us from the period. That isn’t exactly conclusive, things get lost and songs can change drastically, but it is a bit unusual for a song that is this popular.

One thing does seem pretty obvious: originally it didn’t mention the new year. Why? Well, in the 1500s, New Year’s Day was on 25 March. That is because they were still using the Julian calendar in England until 1752. (Things must have been very confusing for a couple of hundred years as to dates from one country to the next. Some countries in Europe started using the Gregorian calendar as early as 1582! The Protestant countries were slow in agreeing to use the calendar approved by a Catholic pope.) So, the Happy New Year part was added late in the song’s history.

At first, I also thought that the song would have begun singing about a happy Christmas, because I know that is how the people in England wish each other the joys of the season. But, in ye olde times, the word merrie was used. It turns out that while they seem to be synonyms, happy and merry have slightly different connotations. Happy is an emotional condition, while merry is a behavior. Interesting. And until 1932, merry was what most people in the UK wished each other at Christmas. (A usage largely promoted by Charles Dickens.) What happened in 1932? King George V gave the first monarch’s Christmas message over the radio, and he wished his subjects a Happy Christmas. The feeling at the time was that merry was lower-class, while happy was upper. (Check out Mental Floss’ short video on this, it’s fascinating.)

It is believed that the tradition of caroling door-to-door began in England in the mid-1600s, when Oliver Cromwell ruled in England. He had banned the singing of carols in churches throughout the country. (Cromwell did not approve of merry making on Christmas. He felt it should be much more solemn.) So, groups began going around the neighborhood to sing in the blessings of the season. (Keep in mind that the neighborhood of this period was a lot different from ours. In many cases this meant going to the Great House on the estate.) The singers were paid in foods like figgy pudding. Hence why they wouldn’t leave until they got some.

Which brings us to the question: what on earth is figgy pudding? When I was a kid, my older brother sang in the college’s madrigal choir. (I tried not to laugh at him wearing tights! But I loved the women’s long flowing velvet gowns.) The first time I heard the figgy pudding line, I did laugh. The idea of college students using baby-talk was too, too funny. Turns out that figgy, in this instance, isn’t baby-talk. It’s more of that olde English. Figs and plums in the medieval times should not be taken to literally mean that type of fruit. Both are used almost interchangeably to mean a dried fruit. And a pudding of this sort isn’t the custard-y pudding that we in the US think of. It is a steamed cake, filled with dried fruit. Sort of like a fruit cake, but waaaay better. (Here’s Jamie Oliver’s updated version.)
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So, when did the song become popular? That’s easy. The composer, conductor, and organist Arthur Warrell arranged it for his University of Bristol Madrigal Singers and they sang it in a concert on 6 December 1935. It has been a hit ever since.
 
What is your favorite Christmas carol? Have you ever tried making a figgy/plum/Christmas pudding? Let me know in the comments section below. And whether you celebrate Yule, Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa or Festivus, I hope that you and yours have a very happy season. I’ll be posting some of my favorite carols on my Minnich Music FaceBook page this week, so be sure to check them out.
 
Until next time!

Judy Garland made us all cry when she sang Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas in 1944’s movie Meet Me in St. Louis. The movie takes us through a year in the life of a large family in St. Louis, starting in 1903, ending at the World’s Fair of 1904. While largely a comedy, the scene where Judy sings Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas will make even the most hard-hearted cynic tear up at least a little.

In the scene, there is just Judy and the seven-year old Margaret O’Brien. (Margaret was seven, playing a five-year old.) The family has just found out that they will be moving before the new year, and all the kids are upset. Judy finds Margaret and sings to her, trying to cheer her up. It doesn’t really work.

In the end, the family doesn’t move. They all attend the World’s Fair and live happily ever after.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yuletide gay
Next year all our troubles will be miles away

Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Will be near to us once more

Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow
So, have yourself a merry little Christmas now

While the song, as sung in the movie, is steeped with melancholy, it could have been even sadder.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
It may be your last
Next year we may all be living in the past
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Pop that champagne cork
Next year we may all be living in New York

Those were some of the original lyrics that were given to Judy to sing to her little sister. She balked at these, saying that people would think she was being a monster to her sister. The writer went back to the old drawing board and came up with a slightly less sad version.

While the movie takes place in 1903 and 1904, it came out in 1944, while WWII was in full swing. Many people had loved ones who were far away. No one was sure if they were ever coming back. The lyrics that were sung in the movie struck a chord with everyone.

Over a decade later, in 1957, Frank Sinatra was recording a Christmas album entitled A Jolly Christmas. He went to Hugh Martin, the composer, and asked for a more cheerful lyric. He didn’t feel that the line Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow was quite in keeping with the jolly part of Christmas. Martin came up with Hang a shining star upon the highest bough. Frank recorded that, and it is now the more common lyric.

Which version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas do you prefer? I’ll be playing several versions of the song on my Minnich Music FaceBook page this week, so be sure to check them out.
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Until next time!
 

When I was a little girl, one of the highlights of the TV holiday season was the Bing Crosby Christmas special. He always had great music and a Christmas-y feel. I remember my shock to see in the TV Guide that David Bowie was going to be a guest on the show in 1977. This would turn out to be Bing’s last special, as he died before it even came out on TV.

Crooners

Before the days of microphones, anyone wanting to pursue the career of a singer had to have a big voice. Without a mic, the only way to be heard at the back of a hall was to project. And, if you listen to any Ethel Merman, you know that this did not always result in a lovely sound.

The introduction of the microphone allowed singers to use a softer, more intimate, tone. This gave us the idea of the ‘crooner.’ Crooners rarely gave us the full-voiced drama of the earlier singers. (Or the full range of a classically trained opera singer!) But the style became very popular. And Bing was one of the earliest proponents of the new sound.

Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby was an American legend. Born in 1903, he was a fixture in early radio and movies, with a very laid-back style. During WWII, Bing was credited with doing more for morale among the GIs than anyone else. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his work in Going my Way, playing Father Chuck O’Malley. He also revolutionized how radio shows were produced.

Bing was married twice. His first wife, Dixie, died after 22 of marriage, in 1952 of ovarian cancer. He remarried in 1957, to Kathryn who was 30 years his junior. Things get a little murky here. He had four sons with his first wife and two more sons and a daughter with his second. One of the sons from his first marriage wrote a tell-all book where he discussed the abuse that he had undergone at the hands of Bing. His younger brother called him a liar, while the other two sons agreed with the author. The children from his second marriage also denied any abuse.

Christmas Specials

Bing had a history of doing Christmas specials dating back to 1936 on the radio. He started his annual TV specials in 1961, always having a star-studded line-up of guests. These specials were always what would now be called “Must See TV.” There would be several musical guests, a comedian, and members of Bing’s family would perform with him.

In 1977, Bing was getting old, and a bit tired. The children from his second marriage were big fans of David Bowie, and asked their dad to put him on the show. Bing did not follow much of what was currently popular and did not follow avant-garde music at all. Producers came into play and Bowie was booked.

David Bowie

Some people know David Bowie best for his role as Jerith, the Goblin King from the Jim Henson classic movie Labyrinth. Bowie had a singing career dating all the way back to 1963. Through the years, he took on many personas as he performed such as Ziggy Stardust, and the Thin White Duke. In 1977, he was aiming for something a little more mainstream than his years as Ziggy. This was when he got the offer to do the Bing Crosby Christmas Special. Bowie had little idea who Bing was, but his mother did. Bowie did the show because it made his mother happy.

Now we come to the day that Bowie came in and found out that he was supposed to sing The Little Drummer Boy with Bing. “I hate that song. Is there something else I could sing?”

The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth is born

The Little Drummer Boy was written in 1941 by Katherine Kennicott Davis. She originally claimed to have simply transcribed a Czech melody and put English words in place of the originals. But I listened to a lot of Czech melodies (Tluče bubeníček) and could not find anything that sounded at all similar. By 1951, the song was being credited to Davis alone when it was recorded by the Trapp Family Singers. (Yes, as in Maria von Trapp, of The Sound of Music fame. Those were based on real people and real events.)

Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, and Alan Kohan, the writers/producers for the show, sat down and pounded out the counter-melody Peace on Earth in roughly an hour. The two singers ran through it a few times, and filmed the sequence, also in about an hour.

This gave us one of TV’s most surreal moments: a duet between Bing Crosby and David Bowie.  It also gave us a lovely song. After filming, Bing had this to say about Bowie: "clean-cut kid and a real fine asset to the show. He sings well, has a great voice and reads lines well."

This was Bing’s last Christmas special. He died of a heart attack on 14 October 1977, following a golf game in Spain. The special aired in the US on 30 November 1977.

Like Bowie, I was never a fan of The Little Drummer Boy. But I enjoy singing the Peace on Earth part with it. Do you have a favorite version of The Little Drummer Boy? Let me know in the comments below. I’ll be playing this and a few other songs this week on my Minnich Music FaceBook page this week, so be sure to check them out.
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Until next time!