It Was The Holly
From Trololo to a Cornish village. The Sans Day Carol was written sometime in the 19th century. Wikipedia postures that the it was notated from a singing villager in St Day parish, perhaps during the folk song collecting craze that…
Category: Advent Calendar
Happy Trololo To You
Because gigs are apparently more important that the OM Advent Calender, Frere Mussel has begged off this weekend. Honestly, some people’s kids. Never mind. On to Christmas greetings courtesy of Gifford Children’s Choir from Racine Wisconsin. It’s cute and frightening…
Lo, how a rose
After several posts of ‘lighter’ music, we return to something a bit more satisfying to the ear. The tune of Es ist ein Ros entsprungen most familiar today appears in the Speyer Hymnal (printed in Cologne in 1599), and the…
I have been manipulated
Brace yourselves dear public, today I give you a song that I love and I have no idea why. Where are you Christmas? is the theme song from How the Grinch Stole Christmas . I needn’t explain the plot in…
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…
In honour of the rather large snow storm that is hitting most of the American Midwest and Canada today, I’d like to offer a Christmas snippet about snow. Not the usual Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…
The other, other Christmasy Oratorio
This year around Christmas I have the strange opportunity to sing all three of the major Christmas oratorios: Messiah, Weihnachts Oratorium and L’enfance du Christ and all in different cities at that. We are, of course, all familiar with Messiah…
well just praise the Lord for that….
This video was first brought to my attention by, of all people, my voice teacher in Toronto. It may be familiar to some of you but for those of you who are ‘first timers’ sit back and enjoy Henrietta and…
The Santa Narratives
Earlier this week we had 3 Kings, and now we have songs about dear Saint Nick. 1. Zat you Santa Claus — This mischievious little number conjures up an image crossed between the Grinch and something from the mind of…
Pearl, I couldn’t agree more.
Here we have a little selection submitted by Miss Mussel to me Frere Mussel. It is simply really really funny. For me, it totally surpasses Santa Baby, by our favourite blonde bombshell. Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August…
3 Songs for 3 Kings
Today we visit the Three Kings, well before Epiphany. Instead of the usual ‘We three Kings’ that as children went more like this: Three Kings of Orient Are, Trying to smoke a rubber cigar! It was loaded and it exploded,…
So, how’s YOUR Polish Part II
That’s right ladies and gentlemen “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” is originally a Polish carol, also originally WITHOUT Kenny G, or whoever that was. I think baby Jesus would sleep better without the soprano sax, and so would I. The original…
So, how’s YOUR Polish?
Mine is really quite bad. I have been to Warsaw twice in the last six months and have learned how to say “Airport” and “Okay”, but not in that order. It is a very beautiful language so it might be…
Like it or lump it
I would now like to draw your attention to O Holy Night. I don’t feel I need to go through all the hullabaloo of explaining to everyone the origins etc… If you do not know this carol you clearly live…
Dirty Minds
Next we travel back in time. To a time when I was 12 and able to sing a high C, those days have since marched on. Tomorrow Shall be my Dancing Day is an English carol usually attributed as ‘traditional’;…
Ring-a-ling-a-ling etc…
Today we go to that perennial favorite “Sleigh Ride”. During his alto saxophone years Frere Mussel can remember the horror of playing this brisk number in five sharps. It never got easier. EVER. The composer, Leroy Anderson, had the original…
The Good the Bad the Ugly
Here we have, what is probably, the worst offending Carol for cheese-grater-to-face syndrome. The Little Drummer Boy. The song, originally titled “Carol of the Drum”, was written in 1941 by pianist Katherine K. Davis based on a traditional Czech carol….
Ah, the French
What can one really say about this 17th-Century French Carol? It is simply beautiful. Here are two versions, with two very different budgets. Left: Random Swedish Choir | Right: You Know Who For this carol I think it is clear…
Advent 2010: A Hostile Takeover
ATTENTION OM READERS! This is not the voice of Miss Mussel rather, it is the voice of Frere Mussel. In lieu of forfeiting the Advent calender to Father Time, I have staged a hostile take over from across the pond….
Dear Australia
Thanks to a dodgy web feed of Channel 9 via Pakistan and then Sweden, Miss Mussel was privy to your spectacular bowling collapse over the weekend. It was sad to watch. Please take the week to get yourselves together and…