''The Singing Saw at Christmastime'' is an album released by
Julian Koster on October 7, 2008 by
Merge
Merge, merging, or merger may refer to:
Concepts
* Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road
* Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program
* Merger (politics), the comb ...
. It features covers of popular Christmas songs played by
Julian Koster on the
singing saw
A musical saw, also called a singing saw, is a hand saw used as a musical instrument. Capable of continuous glissando (portamento), the sound creates an ethereal tone, very similar to the theremin. The musical saw is classified as a plaque ...
.
Track listing
#"
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.[Frosty the Snowman
"Frosty the Snowman" is a popular Christmas song written by Walter "Jack" Rollins and Steve Nelson, and first recorded by Gene Autry and the Cass County Boys in 1950 and later recorded by Jimmy Durante. It was written after the success of A ...]
" - 1:36
#"
Silent Night
"Silent Night" (german: "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht", links=no, italic=no) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an ...
" - 2:18
#"
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
"Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" is a Christmas song featuring Santa Claus written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie. The earliest known recorded version of the song was by banjoist Harry Reser and his band on October 24, 1934. It was then ...
" - 1:48
#"
Jingle Bells
"Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and most commonly sung American songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822–1893) and published under the title "The One Horse Open Sleigh" in September 1857. It has been claimed t ...
" - 2:41
#"
White Christmas" - 2:44
#"
Silver Bells" - 3:17
#"
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is an English Christmas carol that first appeared in 1739 in the collection ''Hymns and Sacred Poems''. The carol, based on , tells of an angelic chorus singing praises to God. As it is known in the modern era, it f ...
" - 2:51
#"
O Come All Ye Faithful
"O Come, All Ye Faithful" (originally written in Latin as "") is a Christmas carol that has been attributed to various authors, including John Francis Wade (1711–1786), John Reading (composer and organist), John Reading (1645–1692), John IV ...
" - 1:25
#"
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 co ...
" - 4:16
#"
O Little Town of Bethlehem
"O Little Town of Bethlehem" is a Christmas carol. Based on an 1868 text written by Phillips Brooks, the carol is popular on both sides of the Atlantic, but to different tunes: in The United States, to "St. Louis" by Brooks' collaborator, Lewis ...
" - 1:44
#"
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is an English Christmas carol, listed as numbers 230 and 9681 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The famous version of the carol is from the English West Country
The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is ...
" - 2:07
Reception
The album received mixed-to-positive reviews.
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
gave it a 7 out of 10, describing it as “unsettling, bizarre, and, on occasion, exquisite.”
Spin’s 2-star (out of five) review compared the album to “your grandmother’s ghost visiting on Christmas Eve to serenade the family with wordless, impressionistic vapors that teeter between hauntingly gorgeous and slightly nauseating.”
[ http://www.spin.com/reviews/julian-koster-singing-saw-christmastime-merge ]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singing Saw At Christmastime, The
2008 Christmas albums
Merge Records albums
Julian Koster albums
Christmas albums by American artists