n CHRISTMAS music? Bah. Humbug. All that good news, three wise men, goodwill to fellow men, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, presents under the Christmas tree, and give us a kiss under the mistletoe business. All soft-sell; no meat, no muscle.
These were the words of the famous Austro-German composer, Ludwig von Krotchett, legendarily Scrooge-like in his attitude towards Yuletide musical composition. Not a carol in his canon; not a single Christmas ditty from his quill.
Mean-spirited though Krotchett doubtless was, his response has infected composers of classical music - at least in post-medieval Europe, before which time music was orientated towards the Godhead, whether at Christmas, Easter, or any of the other myriad feast days.
There's not much evidence Christmas - sacred and secular - has inspired the average composer to produce sustainable masterpieces. (Before the Christians throw this apparent heathen to the lions, there are exceptions; some mentions in a mo'.)
Composers of opera are hardly likely to find a plot of sufficient intensity in any aspect of the Christmas story - yes, I know about Amahl and the Night Visitors (soft stuff) and Rimsky- Korsakov's Christmas Eve. But opera chaps are more likely to go off looking for a story stuffed with greed, envy, revenge, murder, lust. Sin, in a word.
Richard Strauss came close (chronologically at least) to Christmas, when he set Oscar Wilde's shocker, Salome - a charming tale of Herod's step-daughter, who, to the most erotic music written, had her necrophiliac way with John the Baptist (or, rather, with his head).
Hardly a symphonic composer worth his salt would touch the subject of Christmas with a barge pole. Theirs was music of highly-charged intellect and emotions, of abstract instrumental drama. Can you imagine Beethoven's Ode to Yule? Shostakovich's Bethlehem Symphony? Mahler's Carols of a Wayfarer? Dvorak's New Nativity Symphony?
There is a paradox with Christmas: the Resurrection apart, the birth of Christ was the most important single event - ever - yet, the event contains almost no direct inspiration of significance to composers (except to those who have produced hymns commemorating the occasion). And, none of the dual industry of sentiment and materialism that has grown up around the season in the last 2000 years has influenced any composition of significance.
There are a handful of exceptions - Christmas Oratorios by Bach and Schutz, Christmas Concertos by Corelli and Torelli, and Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols, though, as that uses a lot of traditional material, it almost qualifies for exclusion. Generally, the Good News of Christmas is bad news for composers. Always was. Always will be.
n SEVERAL readers have pointed out an error in my interview last Wednesday with Paul Hughes, outgoing chief exec-utive of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. I got a point of chronology wrong: Paul Hughes did not precede Morrison Dunbar, chairman of the SNO, into the organisation. In fact, Mr Dunbar was appointed chairman one month before Mr Hughes was named as chief executive. Apologies for the error.
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