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A Fresh Aire Christmas
''A Fresh Aire Christmas'' is the tenth studio album and second Christmas album by American musical group Mannheim Steamroller, released in 1988. The album was the last to feature Eric Hansen as a member of the band. It is the highest selling album in the Chip Davis/Mannheim Steamroller music catalog. When selecting the tracks, Chip Davis had requested of fans to submit three of their favorite Christmas songs. He then tabulated the results and sent a note of thanks and a copy of the album to those fans who had a song selected. On June 21, 2004, ''A Fresh Aire Christmas'' was certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of six million copies in the United States, making it one of the best-selling holiday albums in the U.S. Four of the album's tracks were included in the group's 2004 compilation '' Christmas Celebration''. As of November 2014, ''A Fresh Aire Christmas'' is the sixth best-selling Christmas/holiday album in the U.S. for the Nielsen Soun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carol Of The Bells
"Carol of the Bells" is a popular Christmas carol, with music by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914 and lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky. The song is based on the Ukrainian folk chant " Shchedryk". The music is in the public domain; Wilhousky's lyrics, however, are under copyright owned by Carl Fischer Music. The music is based on a four-note ostinato and is in time signature, with the B-flat bell pealing in time. The carol is metrically bistable, and a listener can focus on either measure or switch between them. It has been adapted for many genres, including: classical, metal, jazz, country music, rock, trap, and pop. The piece also features in films, television shows, and parodies. Background Origins The conductor of the Ukrainian Republic Capella, Oleksander Koshyts (also spelled Alexander Koshetz) commissioned Leontovych to create the song based on traditional Ukrainian folk chants, and the resulting new work for choir, "Shchedryk", was based on four no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mannheim Steamroller
Mannheim Steamroller is an American neoclassical new-age music ensemble founded and directed by percussionist/composer Chip Davis in 1974. The group is known primarily for its ''Fresh Aire'' series of albums, which blend classical music with elements of new age and rock, and for its modern recordings of Christmas music. The group has sold 28 million albums in the U.S. alone. History Beginnings Mannheim Steamroller began as an alias for record producer and composer Chip Davis. The name "Mannheim Steamroller" comes from an 18th-century German musical technique, '' Mannheim roller'' (German: ''Mannheimer Walze''), a crescendo passage having a rising melodic line over an ostinato bass line, popularized by the Mannheim school of composition. Before the fame of Steamroller, Davis had been best known for collaborating with his friend Bill Fries on the songs of the country music character "C. W. McCall", of "Convoy" fame. The song was based on the character created by Fries and musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557 – 12 August 1612) was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms. Biography Gabrieli was born in Venice. He was one of five children, and his father came from the region of Carnia and went to Venice shortly before Giovanni's birth. While not much is known about Giovanni's early life, he probably studied with his uncle, the composer Andrea Gabrieli, who was employed at St Mark's Basilica from the 1560s until his death in 1585. Giovanni may indeed have been brought up by his uncle, as is implied by the dedication to his 1587 book of concerti, in which he described himself as "little less than a son" to his uncle.Bryant, Grove online Giovanni also went to Munich to study with the renowned Orlando de Lassus at the court of Duke Albert V; most likely he stayed there unti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mykola Leontovych
Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych (23 January 1921; ua, Микола Дмитрович Леонтович, link=no (); also Leontovich) was a Ukrainian composer, conductor, ethnomusicologist and teacher. His music was inspired by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko and the Ukrainian National Music School. Leontovych specialised in a cappella choral music, ranging from original compositions, to church music, to elaborate arrangements of folk music. Leontovych was born and raised in the Podolia province of the Russian Empire (now in Ukraine). He was educated as a priest in the Kamianets-Podilskyi Theological Seminary and later furthered his musical education at the Saint Petersburg Court Capella, and by means of private lessons with Boleslav Yavorsky. With the independence of the Ukrainian state in the 1917 revolution, Leontovych moved to Kyiv, where he worked at the Kyiv Conservatory and the Mykola Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama. He composed "Shchedryk" in 1904 (prem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Wilhousky
Peter J. Wilhousky ( uk, Пітер (Петро) Вільговський; 13 July 1902 – 4 January 1978) was an American composer, music educator, and choral conductor of Rusyn descent. During his childhood he was part of New York's Russian Cathedral Boys Choir and gave a performance at the White House to President Woodrow Wilson. He was featured on several broadcasts of classical music with Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra, including the historic 1947 broadcast of Verdi's opera ''Otello''. In 1936, Wilhousky wrote a popular English version of the Ukrainian song " Shchedryk" by Mykola Leontovych and called it "Carol of the Bells". Wilhousky's 1944 choral arrangement of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" reached #13 on the ''Billboard Hot 100'' in 1959 with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Grammy-winning performance, and has become "arguably the most well-known choral arrangement of a hymn or anthem in the United States." Former students As a choral director in New Y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greensleeves
"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song. A broadside ballad by the name "A Newe Northen Dittye of ye Ladye Greene Sleves" was registered by Richard Jones at the London Stationer's Company in September 1580,Frank Kidson, ''English Folk-Song and Dance''. READ BOOKS, 2008, p.26. John M. Ward, "'And Who But Ladie Greensleeues?'", in ''The Well Enchanting Skill: Music, Poetry, and Drama in the Culture of the Renaissance: Essays in Honour of F. W. Sternfeld'', edited by John Caldwell, Edward Olleson, and Susan Wollenberg, 181–211 (Oxford:Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1990): 181. . and the tune is found in several late-16th-century and early-17th-century sources, such as ''Ballet's MS Lute Book'' and ''Het Luitboek van Thysius'', as well as various manuscripts preserved in the Seeley Historical Library in the University of Cambridge. Form "Greensleeves" can have a ground either of the form called a ''romanesca''; or its slight variant, the ''passame ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
In Dulci Jubilo
"In dulci jubilo" (Latin for "In sweet rejoicing") is a traditional Christmas carol. In its original setting, the carol is a macaronic text of German and Latin dating from the Middle Ages. Subsequent translations into English, such as J. M. Neale's arrangement "Good Christian Men, Rejoice" have increased its popularity, and Robert Pearsall's 1837 macaronic translation is a mainstay of the Christmas Nine Lessons and Carols repertoire. J. S. Bach's chorale prelude based on the tune (BWV 729) is also a traditional postlude for Christmas services. History and translations The original song text, a macaronic alternation of Medieval German and Latin, is thought to have been written by the German mystic Heinrich Seuse circa 1328. According to folklore, Seuse heard angels sing these words and joined them in a dance of worship. In his biography (or perhaps autobiography), it was written: Now this same angel came up to the Servant (Suso) brightly, and said that God had sent him down ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Es Ist Ein Ros Entsprungen
"" (literally "A rose has sprung up") is a Christmas carol and Marian hymn of German origin. It is most commonly translated into English as "Lo, how a rose e'er blooming" and is also called "A Spotless Rose" and "Behold a Rose of Judah". The rose in the German text is a symbolic reference to the Virgin Mary. The hymn makes reference to the Old Testament prophecies of Isaiah, which in Christian interpretation foretell the Incarnation of Christ, and to the Tree of Jesse, a traditional symbol of the lineage of Jesus. Because of its prophetic theme, the hymn is popular during the Christian season of Advent. The hymn has its roots in an unknown author before the 17th century. It first appeared in print in 1599 and has since been published with a varying number of verses and in several translations. It is most commonly sung to a melody harmonized by the German composer Michael Praetorius in 1609. The hymn's popularity endures in the 20th and 21st centuries. Meaning The hymn was ori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Still, Still, Still
"Still, still, still" is an Austrian Christmas carol and lullaby. The melody is a folk tune from the district of Salzburg. The tune appeared for the first time in 1865 in a folksong collection of (1802–1868), founder of the Salzburg Museum. The words describe the peace of the infant Jesus and his mother as the baby is sung to sleep. They have changed slightly over the years but the modern Standard German version remains attributed to (1895–1956). There are various English translations. Lyrics Still, still, still, weil 's Kindlein schlafen will. Maria tut es niedersingen, ihre keusche Brust darbringen. Still, still, still, weil 's Kindlein schlafen will. Schlaf, schlaf, schlaf, mein liebes Kindlein, schlaf! Die Englein tun schön musizieren, vor dem Kripplein jubilieren. Schlaf, schlaf, schlaf, mein liebes Kindlein, schlaf! Groß, groß, groß, die Lieb' ist übergroß. Gott hat den Himmelsthron verlassen und muss reisen auf den Straßen. Groß, groß, groß, die Lieb' ist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Katherine Kennicott Davis
Katherine Kennicott Davis (June 25, 1892 – April 20, 1980) was an American composer, pianist, arranger, and teacher, whose most well-known composition is the Christmas song "Carol of the Drum," later known as " The Little Drummer Boy". Life and career Davis was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, on June 25, 1892. She composed her first piece of music, "Shadow March," at the age of 15. She graduated from St. Joseph High School in 1910, and studied music at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. In 1914 she won the college's Billings Prize. After graduation she continued at Wellesley as an assistant in the Music Department, teaching music theory and piano. At the same time she studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Davis also studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. She taught music at the Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts, and at the Shady Hill School for Girls in Philadelphia. She became a member of ASCAP in 1941. and was granted an honorary doctorate fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Little Drummer Boy
"The Little Drummer Boy" (originally known as "Carol of the Drum") is a popular Christmas song written by American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. First recorded in 1951 by the Trapp Family, the song was further popularized by a 1958 recording by the Harry Simeone Chorale; the Simeone version was re-released successfully for several years, and the song has been recorded many times since. In the lyrics, the singer relates how, as a poor young boy, he was summoned by the Magi to the Nativity of Jesus. Without a gift for the Infant, the little drummer boy played his drum with approval from Jesus's mother, Mary, recalling, "I played my best for him" and "He smiled at me". Origins and history The song was originally titled "Carol of the Drum". While speculation has been made that the song is very loosely based on the Czech carol "Hajej, nynjej", the chair of the music department at Davis's alma mater Wellesley College claims otherwise. In an interview with Music Depart ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Holly And The Ivy
"The Holly and the Ivy" is a traditional British folk Christmas carol, listed as number 514 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The song can be traced only as far as the early nineteenth century, but the lyrics reflect an association between holly and Christmas dating at least as far as medieval times. The lyrics and melody varied significantly in traditional communities, but the song has since become standardised. The version which is now popular was collected in 1909 by the English folk song collector Cecil Sharp in the market town of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire, England, from a woman named Mary Clayton. Words The following are taken from Sharp's ''English Folk-Carols'' (1911), the publication that first established the current words and melody: Origin The words of the carol occur in three broadsides published in Birmingham in the early nineteenth century.; see also http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/birming4.htm An early mention of the carol's title occurs in Willi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
