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An Old Fashioned Christmas
''An Old-Fashioned Christmas'' is the second Christmas album and posthumous twelfth studio album by American music duo Carpenters, released on October 26, 1984, and after the death of singer and drummer Karen Carpenter. Background The album project had its genesis in several unused tracks from the Carpenters' previous Christmas album, 1978's ''Christmas Portrait''. Richard Carpenter took these tracks and recorded new material around them, and this album was the end result. The album includes the slower version of "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town". Reissue A 1984 expanded CD reissue of ''Christmas Portrait'' included eight tracks from ''An Old-Fashioned Christmas''. In 1996 a two-CD set, ''Christmas Collection'', was issued containing both albums in their original running order. Track listing All lead vocals by Karen Carpenter, except where noted; all tracks produced by Richard Carpenter except "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" by Jack Daugherty, R. Carpenter, and K. Carpenter. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Carpenters
The Carpenters (officially known as Carpenters) were an American vocal and instrumental duo consisting of siblings Karen Carpenter, Karen (1950–1983) and Richard Carpenter (musician), Richard Carpenter (born 1946). They produced a distinct, soft, musical style, combining Karen's contralto vocals with Richard's harmonizing, arranging, and composition skills. During their 14-year career, the Carpenters recorded 10 albums along with numerous singles and several television specials. The siblings were born in New Haven, Connecticut, and moved to Downey, California, in 1963. Richard took piano lessons as a child, progressing to California State University, Long Beach, while Karen learned the drums. They first performed together as a duo in 1965 and formed the jazz-oriented Richard Carpenter Trio followed by the Middle of the road (music), middle-of-the-road group Spectrum. Signing as Carpenters to A&M Records in 1969, they achieved major success the following year with the hit si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The First Noel
"The First Nowell", also known as "The First Noel (or Noël)", is a traditional English Christmas carol with Cornish origins, most likely from the early modern period, although possibly earlier.The First Nowell ''Hymns and Carols of Christmas''. "carol of the 16th or 17th century, but possibly dating from as early as the 13th Century." Barrie Jones (ed.), ''The Hutchinson Concise Dictionary of Music'', Routledge, 2014, s.v. "carol", "Christmas carols were common as early as the 15th century. ..Many carols, such as ' God Rest You Merry Gentlemen' and 'The First Nowell', date from the 16th century or earlier." It is listed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
O Holy Night
"O Holy Night" (original title: ) is a well-known sacred song for Christmas performance. Originally based on a French-language poem by poet Placide Cappeau, written in 1843, with the first line (Midnight, Christian, is the solemn hour) that composer Adolphe Adam set to music in 1847. The English version (with small changes to the initial melody) is by John Sullivan Dwight. The carol reflects on the birth of Jesus as humanity's redemption. History In Roquemaure in France at the end of 1843, the church organ had recently been renovated. To celebrate the event, the parish priest persuaded poet Placide Cappeau, a native of the town, to write a Christmas poem. Soon afterwards, in that same year, Adolphe Adam composed the music. The song was premiered in Roquemaure in 1847 by the opera singer Emily Laurey. Transcendentalist, music critic, minister, and editor of ''Dwight's Journal of Music'', John Dwight, adapted the song into English in 1855. This version became popular in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Bettis
John Gregory Bettis (born October 24, 1946) is an American lyricist. He was originally part of the band Spectrum, which also featured Richard and Karen Carpenter. He wrote the lyrics for " Top of the World", a hit for both Lynn Anderson and The Carpenters. He wrote several more hits for The Carpenters, including " Only Yesterday", "Goodbye to Love" and " Yesterday Once More". He later wrote hits for other artists including Madonna (" Crazy for You"), Michael Jackson ("Human Nature"), The Pointer Sisters ("Slow Hand"), Diana Ross ("When You Tell Me That You Love Me"), Jennifer Warnes ("Nights Are Forever"), Peabo Bryson ("Can You Stop the Rain"), George Strait ("Heartland"), Ronnie Milsap (" Only One Love in My Life"), and Barbara Mandrell (" One of a Kind Pair of Fools"). 38 Special (" Like No Other Night") New Kids on the Block ("If You Go Away") Barbra Streisand (" Sweet Forgiveness") Whitney Houston ("One Moment in Time") He has been nominated four times and won two Emmy Aw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pietro Yon
Pietro Alessandro Yon (August 8, 1886 – November 22, 1943) was an Italian-born organist and composer who made his career in the United States. Early life Yon was born in Settimo Vittone, (Piedmont, Italy). His earliest studies in music began at age 6 with Angelo Burbatti, organist at the Cathedral of Ivrea. At the conservatory of Milan he was Polibio Fumagalli, Polibio Fumagalli's pupil. From 1901-1904 he was enrolled at the conservatory in Turin, studying organ with Remondi and composition with Giovanni Bolzoni (composer), Giovanni Bolzoni. He then attended the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, studying organ with , piano with Bustini and Giovanni Sgambati, Sgambati, and De Sanctis in composition. In 1905 he graduated with the academy's first-prize medal and won a medal from the minister of public instruction. From 1905 to 1907 he served as assistant organist under his former teacher Renzi at St. Peter's Basilica, St. Peter's in the Vatican. Relocation to America In t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lewis Redner
Lewis Henry Redner (December 15, 1831, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – August 29, 1908, Hotel Marlborough, Atlantic City, New Jersey) was an American musician, best known as the composer of the popular Christmas carol "St. Louis", better known as "O Little Town of Bethlehem". Redner worked in the real-estate business in Philadelphia, and played the organ at four different churches during his life. He spent 19 years as organist at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia. While there, he set Pastor Phillips Brooks's poem of his recollection of a pilgrimage to Bethlehem to music on Christmas Eve, 1868, and the carol was first sung the next day. Redner was very involved with local charities. He served on the first board of Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter and soup kitchen, in 1878. Redner never married. He was buried at The Woodlands Cemetery The Woodlands is a National Historic Landmark District on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phillips Brooks
Phillips Brooks (December 13, 1835January 23, 1893) was an American Episcopal clergyman and author, long the Rector of Boston's Trinity Church and briefly Bishop of Massachusetts. He wrote the lyrics of the Christmas hymn, "O Little Town of Bethlehem". He is honored on the Episcopal Church liturgical calendar on January 23. Background Early life and education Born in Boston, Brooks was descended through his father, William Gray Brooks, from the Rev. John Cotton; through his mother, Mary Ann Phillips, he was a great-grandson of Samuel Phillips, Jr., founder of Phillips Academy (Andover, Massachusetts). Three of Brooks' five brothersFrederic, Arthur and John Cottonwere eventually ordained in the Episcopal Church. Phillips Brooks prepared for college at the Boston Latin School and graduated from Harvard University in 1855 at the age of 20, where he was elected to the A.D. Club. He worked briefly as a school teacher at Boston Latin, but, upon being fired, felt that he had f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tommie Connor
Thomas Patrick Connor (16 November 1904 – 28 November 1993) was a British lyricist and songwriter, credited with several hit songs over his long career. He wrote several of the most popular non-religious Christmas songs, including " The Little Boy that Santa Claus Forgot", "I'm Sending a Letter to Santa Claus", and "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", as well as the lyrics for such popular songs as "Lili Marlene" and " The Biggest Aspidistra in the World". Life and career He was born and raised in Bloomsbury, London, England, to parents of Irish descent. In his teens, he worked as a call boy in London theatres, and started writing his own words to well-known tunes. The composer Herbert Stothart was impressed, and suggested that he become a songwriter after gaining more experience of the world. Connor then worked for two years as a steward aboard the RMS Empress of France, before returning to England with the intention of earning his living as a songwriter. After seve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert (February 1, 1859 – May 26, 1924) was an American composer, cellist and conductor of English and Irish ancestry and German training. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I. He was also prominent among the Tin Pan Alley composers and was later a founder of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). A prolific composer, Herbert produced two operas, a cantata, 43 operettas, incidental music to 10 plays, 31 compositions for orchestra, nine band compositions, nine cello compositions, five violin compositions with piano or orchestra, 22 piano compositions and numerous songs, choral compositions and orchestrations of works by other composers, among other music. In the early 1880s, Herbert began a career as a cellist in Vienna and Stuttgart, during which he began to compose orchestral ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angels We Have Heard On High
"Angels We Have Heard on High" is a Christmas carol to the hymn tune "Gloria" from a traditional French song of unknown origin called "", with paraphrased English lyrics by James Chadwick. The song's subject is the birth of Jesus Christ as narrated in the Gospel of Luke, specifically the scene outside Bethlehem in which shepherds encounter a multitude of angels singing and praising the newborn child. Tune "Angels We Have Heard on High" is generally sung to the hymn tune "Gloria", a traditional French carol as arranged by Edward Shippen Barnes. Its most memorable feature is its chorus, " Gloria in excelsis Deo", where the "o" of "Gloria" is fluidly sustained through 16 notes of a rising and falling melismatic melodic sequence. In England, the words of James Montgomery's "Angels from the Realms of Glory" are usually sung to this tune, with the "Gloria in excelsis Deo" refrain text replacing Montgomery's. It is from this usage that the tune sometimes is known as "Iris", the na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gesù Bambino
is an Italian Christmas carol composed by Pietro Yon in 1917. The melody was used by Frederick H. Martens in his English language carol "When Blossoms Flowered 'mid the Snows". The melody and lyrics of the chorus are derived from the chorus of " Adeste Fideles" (O Come All Ye Faithful). The music historian Salvatore Basile notes: "The song would achieve the near-impossible feat of surviving in the standard holiday repertoire, with important performances, innumerable recordings, and every kind of vocal and instrumental arrangement."Salvatore Basile, ''Fifth Avenue Famous: The Extraordinary Story of Music at St. Patrick's Cathedral'', Fordham University Press, 2010, , p. 78. Lyrics See also * List of Christmas carols This list of Christmas carols is organized by country, language or culture of origin. Originally, a "Christmas carol" referred to a piece of vocal music in carol form whose lyrics centre on the theme of Christmas or the Christmas season. The d ... References ... [...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] |
