CJ Replay: Singing at Christmas

People love to sing at Christmas. Not just choirs or madrigal ensembles, but all the people. Those same folks who can’t make it through Happy Birthday at a restaurant will stand in the snow to sing carols outside a shut-in’s door. With far less group singing during the other eleven months—do school children still sing in assemblies or Rotarians and Kiwanians lift a tune?—everyone sings at Christmas.

 

The common repertoire of the season draws listeners to the arts. Messiahs and Glorias abound, audiences crave classics.  When does some other Handel or Vivaldi choral selection fi nd that kind of following? Even TV specials and church productions capitalize on a yearning for seasonal music. Whether a “living Christmas tree” at a young United States mega-church or the Lessons and Carols of an old European cathedral, the emphasis is on choral music.

 

Choral directors wisely tap into this annual desire to make music. The choral art fl ourishes at this time of year: sophisticated art music, arrangements of carols, and jaunty popular tunes. It is the “best time of the year” to be a singer (and a choral director).