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Christmas Music?

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Mara

Mara

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Oct 30, 2002
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31,003
I am a huge fan of Christmas music and play the CD''s straight from Thanksgiving til New Years...

I have some favorites already, but I want to get some new CD''s this year...anyone have favorites they can recommend?

I love old classics from Bing and Nat and the like...my favorite CD''s are the SF Ballet Nutcracker and the 3 CD Set I got from Pottery Barn which has tons of the old classics on it.

So any recommendations on CD''s you love??? Compilations? There are so many out there, it''s hard to know what to buy, so I end up not buying anything because I can''t figure out what to buy.
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I adore Mannheim Steamroller. They have several but my favorite is Christmas In the Aire (by Chip Davis).

And it isn''t the season unless I here that Charlie Brown piece. I don''t play anything until my popourri is in the air...a delight for all senses. So when I think of the music...I am also smelling cinnamon and sugar cookie and gingerbread...
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DKS
 
i love the cd ''home for christmas'' by amy grant. ''breath of heaven'' is the most amazing and beautiful song.
 
I am looking for one too. In the meantime there is a radio station here that is palying christmas music 24/7 so am listening to that for now. They started right after halloween, crazy but true.
 
Ok so I was all motivated after posting this...so I went to Amazon and listened to and then bought the following three CD's:

---Diana Krall--Christmas Songs (was on the best seller list and is jazzy mellow)
---Nat King Cole--The Christmas Song (love Nat!!)
---Various Artists--Ultimate Christmas (has a bunch of old classics and some newer ones)

Got Free Shipping so the total was ~$41..not bad!
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Kaleigh,

I forgot about that until you mentioned it...but my AOL account offers satelite type radio...there is an all holiday section. You can choose from jazz, instrumentals, classics, gospel, rock, etc. It is sooo cool. No commercials...just music. Some genres are limited on rotation. So you switch often.

They also have this studio B? thing that offers christmas movies. They have one that has Pia Zadora as a young one...martians and Santa and it is goofy. Anyway it is always fun to watch. I forgot about my internet links until you mentioned your radio.

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I have more Christmas music than you can shake a stick at! Rather than just play one CD all the way through, however, I have put favorites onto my iPod. I like interesting harmonies and have some songs recorded by the Roches and SHeDaisy. I have everything, though. I really love old English Christmas carols, rounds, and madrigals...and I love singing them as well as hearing them. Our family always sings carols at Christmas, and sometimes the children get out their instruments. One year I found books of Christmas music that could be played by clarinet and flute together and by violin and cello together. We had a blast!

The songs I don't like (and that, unfortunately, some of the older members of my family like to sing) are songs like, "White Christmas", "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed reindeer"; "Up on the Housetop", etcetera. Unless some group is going to give me truly great harmony in its version of, "Jingle Bells" I prefer to hear, "Angels We Have Heard on High" and, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!"

We also go to see, "The Messiah" each year. That I will put on and listen to in its entirety!

Deb
 
OK...I dug out some of the CDs from which I chose songs for my iPod. I have one compilation my brother gave me many years ago. It consists of 4 CDs and is called, "Joy to the World". One disk is dedicated just to, "The Messiah". I do not know whether one can easily obtain this nowadays.

I also love, "Out Under the Sky" by Suzanne McDermott. SHeDAISY's, "Brand New year" is fun, although I only love, "Jingle Bells" on it. I like Kirsten Easdale's, "Be Not Afraid", and the Roches', "We Three Kings". Their (wonderful) rendition of a "Hallelujah Chorus" is not on that CD, however.

Suzanne Mcdermott and Kirsten Easdale are, in my opinion, the most evocative among this group.

I also love the music to, "Amahl and the Night Visitors" by Gian Carlo menotti.

Deb
 
Date: 11/20/2005 4:46:54 PM
Author: belle
i love the cd ''home for christmas'' by amy grant. ''breath of heaven'' is the most amazing and beautiful song.
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I love this CD too. Believe it or not the 98 degress christmas CD is really good. I also love the oldie''s like nat and bing. mariah carey''s album is like 10 years old but I still like it too. I bought clay aiken''s last year and it''s not too bad either. Harry Connick''s Christmas in another one I like. I love the pottery barn albums and my daughter love the Christmas one they made for kids. It''s really cute and fun.
 
Date: 11/20/2005 10:42:45 PM
Author: AGBF
I have one compilation my brother gave me many years ago. It consists of 4 CDs and is called, ''Joy to the World''.
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This still exists and is available on Amazon.com for $19.98! That''s not bad for five (yes, it is five, not four) disks! I can really recommend this one. It has something for everyone!

Deb
 
I HIGHLY recommend the CD, "Noel" by Joan Baez. On this CD her voice is true and pure, but she doesn''t evoke the solemnity that some of the female opera singers do when singing these same pieces. (I own an album by Kiri Te Kanawa, "Ave Maria". It is beautiful. It has songs on it like, "Panis Angelicus". I think I like the Joan baez CD more. Maybe I am just a lowbrow!!!)

Deb
 
I got Martina McBride''s "White Christmas" CD last year and love it... i think she has such a fantastic voice. I also have "A Very Special Christmas" 1 & 2, but they are on tape and i dont listen to them as much. DH loves the Nutcracker... i think he bought the Philly Orchastra version last year. Mara, im going to check out some of the ones you listed... we could use some more CDs!
 
My absolute favorite is "Christmas Night: Carols of the Nativity" by the Cambridge Singers. I love all the classic Christmas songs like Silent Night and all that, but I like variety, and this CD has lots of different Christmas songs you don''t usually hear. The words are included in the CD, and I just love to turn down the lights except for the Christmas lights/candlelight, curl up with a nice warm drink and listen to that CD!

Christmas with the Cambridge Singers is also good.
 
Date: 11/20/2005 4:45:12 PM
Author: door knob solitaire
I adore Mannheim Steamroller. They have several but my favorite is Christmas In the Aire (by Chip Davis).
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I love the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas CDs -- have the entire collection. I put them in my CD changer and hit random, and I could listen to it all day long at this time of year. It really gets my in the spirit for decorating the house and baking cookies.
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We took the kids and my folks to see MS live in Baltimore a couple years back, and it was absolutely incredible.
 
We have the manheim stearmroller CDs too. I also think I am going to buy the christmas CDs that Victoria''s Secret and Bath and Body works put out. I know that the VS one is a little bit more "pop" oriented.. I''m not sure about the B&B works one. And you know. some of the best Christmas CDs I have are just cheap-o ones you can buy at walmart for like $5.. they are not famous people singing, but they are classic christmas songs done in the normal classic way.. I really like those!
 
The Diane Krall christmas album is one of my favorites. I actually just got Regis'' christmas album to play at thanksgiving, as kind of a joke..... its not half bad, for cheesey holiday music!
 
Lots of ideas, thanks everyone!! MsFlutter, I saw the Regis CD and I was like WHAT!! hahha.

I also have bought a few in-line Starbucks Christmas CD's that I am pretty happy with but one went missing and the other is good but I wanted to branch out a bit this year and really do some digging to find things I would like.

Unfortunately, for me I dislike most of the pop Christmas stuff just because it seems SO WRONG to have someone like NSync singing White Christmas or something...haa haa!! But a few songs I think are cute. Like Mariah's All I Want for Christmas...love that song. And one of the CD's I listened to had a great Boyz2Men Silent Night which was very choirish.

One of my favorite movies is Love Actually and they had the best music selection in there...Otis Redding did White Christmas and it's superb...very hard to find I guess if you are looking for a 'cd' and I don't think he did a whole Xmas CD..I looked on Amazon with no luck. But great sound and voice.

Also, I loved the gal who did 'All I want for Christmas' in that movie too. I have that version saved as an mp3 on my computer and play it sometimes. Cute modern version.

I may check into the Mariah Carey Xmas one that someone recommended...I listened briefly to the Mannheim recommendation and it was totally not my style. I also was torn on getting a compilation CD on Amazon called Christmas with the Rat Pack, I LOVE Dean Martin's voice on alot of those old classics!!

I know that many people dislike her but I love Celine Dion's voice, does anyone have her Xmas CD (and would admit to it) and recommend it? She has such a strong, beautiful voice, and the renditions I have heard her do on the radio seem lovely.

Lastly, any great recommendations for different takes on the old classics, like I would love to get a very 'classic' CD that incorporates choir and maybe a bit of acapella kind of style...something that puts more emphasis on the beauty of the words and singing than the rest of the music in the background?
 
Mara, my favorite, FAVORITE Christmas CD of all time is Ella Fitzgerald's "Ella Wishes You a Swingin' Christmas." I can't recommend it highly enough. Nice and classic but also does great at a party. I searched high and low for that CD...as I bought it on tape when I found it...it wasn't till years later that they remastered it and rereleased it on CD. It's a must have!!!! (I have the original CD, but will also buy the remastered version this year.)

ETA: My mom has Celine's Christmas CD and it is very nice. I don't own it yet but will at some point. She does have a beautiful voice and doesn't muck up the songs with a lot of crap. Mannheim Steamroller is not my style either. Have listened to them, but don't really like the style.

I have yet to find an acapella Christmas CD but if anyone has, I'd LOVE to hear about it as well - it's my favorite type of music.

One CD I also really like is "Winterlude: Instrumentals for a Contemplative Christmas." It's a really nice, calm instrumental CD for the season. Nice for writing out Christmas cards! I just saw at amazon that this CD is out of print. Bummer. I actually found it at like, Walgreens for $5 somewhere around 5 years ago. If you happen to see it at the drugstore in the bin of cheap Christmas music - grab it! It's the only one I've ever bought from a bin that was awesome.
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OH FG that sounds right up my alley!! I will have to check it out as well.

I told Greg I bought some new CD''s last nite and the only thing he said after saying he liked Diana Krall was ''how much''...well maybe I can tack a few more on and not mention it...
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For those that like Christmas done by pop-culture acts, I do really like Christina Aguilera's Christmas CD (My Kind of Christmas). It's definitely modern, but girlfriend can SING. Love her rendition of "Merry Christmas, Baby."

I do have Jessica Simpson's Christmas CD (ReJOYce), but I recommend to skip it. I bought it because I LOVE the duet she does with Nick for "Baby It's Cold Outside" but other than that, the only song I really like is her duet with her sister for "Little Drummer Boy."

I also have both of Harry Connick Jr's Christmas CDs. I prefer the 1st one, but they're both really good. The first is When My Heart Finds Christmas. The second is Harry for the Holidays.
 
{{{{{for me I dislike most of the pop Christmas stuff just because it seems SO WRONG to have someone like NSync singing White Christmas or something...haa haa!!...... Lastly, any great recommendations for different takes on the old classics, like I would love to get a very ''classic'' CD that incorporates choir and maybe a bit of acapella kind of style...something that puts more emphasis on the beauty of the words and singing than the rest of the music in the background?}}}}}

{{{{{"Winterlude: Instrumentals for a Contemplative Christmas." It''s a really nice, calm instrumental CD for the season. Nice for writing out Christmas cards! }}}}}}

I agree about the pop stuff; some are cute but a lot of them just don''t work; like you said Mara, "it seems SO WRONG to have someone like NSync singing White Christmas or something." :) But I do think that Christmas Night: Carols of the Nativity" by the Cambridge Singers - or any of the Cambridge singers or John Rutter Christmas CD''s fit the bill for a lot of what was said above. It is choral music, very beautifully done, and also nice calm CD like FG said, for writing Christmas cards. They do a lot of songs that aren''t popular - things from the past four or five centuries! - with beautiful lyrics and melodies - but also some of the classics like Silent Night or Little Town of Bethlehem. "something that puts more emphasis on the beauty of the words and singing than the rest of the music in the background" describes it exactly, IMO. Here is a link to one similar: John Rutter is the conductor, and although this isn''t the Cambridge singers, it''s the same idea:

http://music.msn.com/album/?album=43234324
 
Mara, you might try Take 6''s Christmas CD, very cool. www.take6.com. they are a christian acapella group and are AWESOME.

http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/ has a wonder choral christmas CD you might like too.

i''ll raid my parents collection when i''m at their house on thursday. i think they own every christmas cd ever made.
 
Odilia- I agree with the Cambridge Singers...very nice Chrismas music..
 
HEE HEE I feel another purchase coming on!!!!
 
anything considered ''early music'': 1400''s - 1700''s and i prefer said music played on replicas of the period. this, of course, would include Handel''s Messiah.

for those in the bay area interested in live performances, i suggest the following:

http://www.magnificatbaroque.org/ for the weekend of december 9, 10, and 11 Magnificat performs ''Charpentier. Pastorale sur la naissance de Nostre Segneur''''.

http://www.sfems.org/conser05.htm for the weekend of december 16, 17, and 18 the group El Mundo performs ''Buon Natale! Music of the Season from Italy, Spain, and Latin America. Drawing on sources from both the old and new worlds, we experience a diverse selection of holiday music from the kingdoms of Castille and Italia. Latin rhythms, sacred polyphony, and virtuoso performances all come together in this joyous celebration, with works by Giovanni Legrenzi, Giuseppe Valentini, Juan Yribarren, Rafael Castellanos, and Sebastian Duron.'' [i love this group!]

and for a fun romp see: http://www.calrevels.org/home_page.htm ''For our Twentieth Anniversary production we return to the theme of our first show two decades ago when we made merry in the style of medieval England. The time is 15th and 16th century England and the place is Derbyshire’s Haddon Hall.'' [this is really fun and is the same weekends as the above events.]

i already have my tickets!

peace, movie zombie



 
Thanks for the info Movie Zombie! The SF Bach Choir also puts on an awesome concert for Christmas called "Psallite! A Candlelight Christmas" and this year it's on the weekend of Dec. 3 and 4. You can find more info here. I went last year and it was great - and during the performance the singers walk around the church singing and holding candles - it made my hair stand on end it was so moving! I stumbled upon them looking for Handel's Messiah concerts around the area. It's kind of a yearly tradition for me...always puts me in the spirit of the season! (I especially love when they break into "And his name shall be called wonderful, counselor......")
 
Date: 11/21/2005 2:23:51 PM
Author: movie zombie
anything considered ''early music'': 1400''s - 1700''s and i prefer said music played on replicas of the period. this, of course, would include Handel''s Messiah.
Click to expand...

We apparently have similar taste. I love the music from the Renaissance era (the court dances and so forth) and I love the Baroque period: Bach, Vivaldi, Handel. I am trying to remember the name of the composer whose record album (yes, it was years ago) my husband had in Italy. Another classic Baroque composer.

I do enjoy other styles of music, too, however :-).

Deb
 
Date: 11/21/2005 3:46:26 PM
Author: AGBF



Date: 11/21/2005 2:23:51 PM
Author: movie zombie
anything considered ''early music'': 1400''s - 1700''s and i prefer said music played on replicas of the period. this, of course, would include Handel''s Messiah.
Click to expand...

We apparently have similar taste. I love the music from the Renaissance era (the court dances and so forth) and I love the Baroque period: Bach, Vivaldi, Handel. I am trying to remember the name of the composer whose record album (yes, it was years ago) my husband had in Italy. Another classic Baroque composer.

I do enjoy other styles of music, too, however :-).

Deb
Click to expand...

Not to keep pushing it, but most of the music from Christmas Night: Carols of the Nativity is from that period also.
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Some from the 1800s too.
 
Mara, I don''t know if this has been mentioned yet, and I don''t know if it exists, but Josh Groban has a beautiful voice and might have done a Christmas CD. You said you were looking for something where the words are emphasized more than the background music...that popped into my mind, specifically the song "O, Holy Night" one of my personal favorites. I have heard his version of that on the radio during Christmas, and it''s really good.
 
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