I’d love to have a collection of the very best Christmas carols/hymns, but everybody’s got a christmas album, and there are so many- I just don’t know where to start looking.
I really love tabernacle choir-type singing. For instance, Lo, How A Rose E’er Blooming is in my top five, and I love when this hymn is given all the vocal pomp/circumstance it deserves.
I know there’s the Mormon Tabernacle Choir- are there any other choruses that did excellent Christmas CDs that I must hear/must have?
I guess I’m really talking about Christmas hymns here, and not necessarily Jingle Bells and whatnot…
One of my favorite Christmas albums is Angels on High, by the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers. Not everything is a hymn, but there are no “Frosty the Snowman” type songs.
So, The Jingle Cats Sing Meowy Christmas is not what you’re after?
Oooh, pinkfreud, I’ll have to check that out. I lurves any choral stuff conducted by Robert Shaw! I’d be in heaven if Shaw’s men’s chorus did a Christmas recording.
I’m a big fan of the English cathedral choir sound (as opposed to the tabernacle choir sound) – with the treble parts being sung by boys. The annual broadcast of the Lessons and Carols from King’s College Chapel, which starts with a boy soprano singing the first verse of “Once in Royal David’s City,” reduces me to a puddle of goo.
The Dale Warland Singers, who are no more, alas, but have to be one of the most gorgeous choral ensembles ever, have a stunning Christmas album.
Last year, I bought from iTunes a recording of “Ding Dong Merrily on High” by Orphei Drangar and Robert Sund. It was from a CD entitled Christmas Music from Sweden. It is very, very cool!
I see a few Christmas albums by the Dale Warland Singers on Amazon: Christmas with the Dale Warland Singers and Christmas Echoes (Vols 1 & 2). One in particular more of a must-have than another? I LOVE the sound!
I remembered it from my youth (badly) and asked what it was here on the dope. It was identified pretty quickly. I have heard other versions but this simple A Capella version remains my favorite version.
Thank you for posting this! I listened to some of the song samples and on the album is a song I haven’t heard since high school chorus - the Randall Thompson ‘Alleluia’. I have wanted a recording of this song for ages!
When I was in the church choir, I liked to think we sounded as good as these guys (I’m sure we didn’t, but we were pretty good). We were very much in this style- I was lucky to be a part of it. I’ll have to get this too, and pretend it’s us!
Go with whichever one has more of your “must-have” carols, because everything they do is amazing. I love Christmas Echoes Vol. 1.
One other carol to add: “What Sweeter Music” by John Rutter. The recording I have is by the Choir of King’s College.
OK, yet another – Morten Lauridsen’s “O Magnum Mysterium.” I get chills just thinking about it. It’s on the Robert Shaw recording that’s already been mentioned.
OK I know I have a little bit of post-arrhea right now, sorry, but does anybody else ever feel a little weary of I Wonder As I Wander? The same girl sang this song every year at my church’s Christmas service when I was young, and it started to get, um, old after about the fourth year. I want to like it, but I can’t quite escape the memory…
Ever feel a *little *weary??? It’s never done anything for me. I don’t like the way it ends on an unresolved note. Then there’s the “for you and for I” thing. Aaargh! I won’t even go into my abhorrence of Barbra Streisand…
You wouldn’t think you could rock out to Deck the Halls, but believe me, if you aren’t dancing like no one’s watching when that song comes on, you lack the soul for Christmas.
I’ve been to two of their concerts. Absolutely magnificent.
I have no suggestions. I just wanted to note that (if they do like they did last year) our local radio stations start playing 24/7 Christmas music in 17 days!
The Barra MacNeils have a fabulous Christmas album–not quite Tabernacle Choir-y, but they do an absolutely dreamy “Taladh Chriosda” and “O Come Divine Messiah.”
Thai merchants have picked up on the fact that Christmas means big bucks from farangs (Westerners), so each year every department store and shopping mall plays Christmas music and puts up Christmas decorations. Unfortunately, they don’t understand the difference between good and bad Christmas music, and so you’re generally assaulted with LOUD renditions of “Frosty the Snowman” and “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” everywhere you go.
The decorations run the gamut from pretty neat to extremely crass. Among the neat stuff is The Emporium’s big Christmas tree made entirely out of wind chimes that they set up outside each year. Among the crass is Siam Paragon’s giant tree covered with papier-mache versions of expensive gifts, such as from Versace and YSL, etc, and topped with not a star, but a giant Visa credit card.
Another good acapella cd is by the combined groups Acapella/AVB, A Savior is Born. It is all Christmas hymns…Silent Night will put a lump in your throat and Joy to the World will make you dance.
Carols for a Cure. One of my great holiday traditions. This is the 9th year for these CDS that feature the casts of Broadway shows singing both tradtion and new holiday songs. It is for Broadway Cares: Equity Fights AIDS, a good organization.
I never miss a chance to plug these wonderful CDS.
