arr. by Benjamin Harlan

The triumphant “Processional for Christmas” is anchored by “O, Come All Ye Faithful,” which summons people everywhere to come to Bethlehem to adore—in the truest sense of prayer and worship—the “King of Angels.”  The call to prayer is the central idea of this beloved hymn, which welcomes the faithful and invites them to observe the great feast of the nativity.

The Latin title suggests that “Adeste Fideles” dates back centuries, though the hymn’s origins are more recent.  For years, the author was misidentified, with attributions ranging from an unknown cleric living in the Middle Ages, to Saint Bonaventure, to an English composer, to a Portuguese lyricist.  The hymn’s author remained a mystery when Frederick Oakley, an Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism, translated the original lyrics into English.  It wasn’t until after World War II, when Bing Crosby recorded the song, that credit for composing “Adeste Fideles” was correctly awarded to John Francis Wade.

A skilled musician, professional calligrapher, and English Catholic priest, Wade fled from persecution in England and settled in France in 1745, where he was responsible for researching and preserving historical church music. In the process, Wade went beyond saving forgotten church music to organizing and distributing the songs to Catholic churches throughout Europe. 

Wade was also inspired to write new hymns.  As a Catholic cleric, it was only natural that he composed his works in Latin.  Wade first published “Adeste Fideles” in 1751, adding lyrics a decade later.  It would become his most famous hymn, with translations in more than 150 languages and hundreds of recordings. 

arr. By Julian Wachner

“The First Nowell”
”Angels We Have Heard on High”
”The Snow Lay on the Ground”

Composer, conductor, and keyboardist Julian Wachner has arranged many Christmas carols, drawing inspiration from childhood and career influences to put his own stamp on familiar tunes.  Three are presented here: “The First Nowell,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” and “The Snow Lay on the Ground.”  

Several question marks surround the origins of “The First Nowell”—the song’s author, country of origin (England or France), and exactly when it was written.  Many musical scholars trace the song to the Middle Ages, making it one of the oldest carols sung today.  The song did not appear in print, however, until 1833, when British antiquarian William Sandys, who collected French and English folk songs, included the ballad in his book of Christmas folk songs. By the mid-1800s, when the Church of England began to use new songs during services, the popularity of “The First Nowell” gained universal acclaim. 

The origins of “Angels We Have Heard on High” are hazy, but date to at least the early 18th century in France, where it was sung as “Les anges dans nos campagnes.”  The carol’s chorus likely draws from shepherds in the hills of southern France calling to one another on Christmas Eve, sending holiday greetings by singing “Gloria in Excelsis Deo.”  The carol was first published in France in 1855, followed seven years later by an English translation published in the hymnal Crown of Jesus Music.  The version used today was first printed in a 1916 carol collection titled Carols Old and Carols New.

Although published in numerous hymnals, little is known about the origins of  “The Snow Lay on the Ground.” The text includes both English and Latin phrases—the Latin expresses a sentiment found in many Christmas hymns and carols: Venite adoremus Dominum, or “Come, let us worship the Lord.”  The English stanzas serve as snapshots of the nativity.

arr. by Arthur Harris

The inspiration that led pastor and orator Phillips Brooks to write the words of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” combines memories stirred by a Christmas season visit to the Middle East three years earlier and emotions scarred by the horrors of the Civil War and the assassination of President Lincoln.  Desperately in need of a spiritual rebirth, in 1865 Brooks left his Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia for a sabbatical to the Middle East.  On Christmas Eve that year, Brooks journeyed alone to Bethlehem, an experience he described as so overpowering that it would forever “be singing in my soul.”  Three years later, Brooks found the words to convey the imagery of his solitary Bethlehem visit to his congregation, which he authored as a poem.  Lewis Redner, organist at Holy Trinity Church, composed the melody to fit Brooks’s words. On Christmas morning 1868, the lyrics and melody of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” were joined together, giving birth to the carol that shared the spiritual journey of one man with the world.  

EXTRA CREDIT READING: The tune to “O Little Town of Bethlehem” is used in the hymn “Hail, Royal Louis, Patron Saint” with lyrics by Jay Dausch.  The hymn was written to honor the parish’s patron saint and celebrate his feast day on August 25.

by Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith
Arr. by J. F. Dausch

Liz Mulligan, mezzo soprano

Singer, songwriter, and philanthropist Amy Grant wrote the Pax Christi Hymn with close collaborator Michael W. Smith on being honored with a Pax Christi Award in 1994.   The Pax Christi Awards are presented by St. John’s University, a Benedictine institution in Collegeville, Minnesota. The award honors individuals who have distinguished themselves in their devotion to God by following the ideals of the order’s founder, 6th century Italian monk St. Benedict, especially the precept “to listen with the ear of your heart.” The Pax Christi Hymn is featured on the album “Music of the Spirit: The 1994 Pax Christi Ceremony.”

by Amy Grant, Chris Eaton
arr. by J. F. Dausch

Erin Wegner Brooks, soprano

The song “Breath of Heaven,” which tells the Nativity story from Mary’s point of view, has become a contemporary Christmas music classic.  English songwriter Chris Eaton originally penned the lyrics in 1991.  One year later Amy Grant released her adaptation, keeping Eaton’s chorus lyrics but altering the verses to create Mary’s first-person perspective.  “Breath of Heaven” appears on Amy Grant’s Christmas album Home for Christmas, released in 1992, and in the soundtrack for the 2006 film The Nativity Story.

The song portrays the mother of Jesus as a frightened young girl, attempting to understand why she has been chosen to be the Son of God’s mother.  The lyrics are a prayer from Mary to God asking that the breath of heaven lighten her darkness, give her strength, and hold her together so that she may fulfill His plan.

arr. by Dan Forrest

A perfect storm of people and circumstances in Obendorf, Austria on Christmas Eve 1818 gave birth to the world’s most widely loved Christmas song, “Silent Night.”  With a rusted organ threatening chances of having music for the Christmas Eve service at St. Nicholas Church, assistant pastor Joseph Mohr devised a makeshift solution.  That afternoon Mohr took text he had written earlier about the birth of the Christ Child to the church organist, Franz Xaver Gruber.  Mohr asked Gruber to set the lyrics to music that would be suitable for their two voices, the church choir, and a guitar.  At midnight mass, with Mohr accompanying the singing on a guitar, “Stille Nacht” was performed for the first time.

Two decades after “Stille Nacht” was sung in Obendorf on Christmas eve, the Rainers, a singing family from Austria introduced the song to United States audiences, performing at the Alexander Hamilton monument outside of New York City’s Trinity Church. “Stille Nacht” was translated into English in 1863.  Seven years later, the translation saw its first printing in the Sunday School Hymnal published by Rev. Dr. Charles L. Hutchins, rector of Grace Church in Medford, Massachusetts.  “Stille Nacht” has since been translated into dozens of languages. In 2011, UNESCO declared the song an intangible cultural heritage.

by Adolphe Adam
arr. by J. F. Dausch

Colleen Daly, soprano

The story behind the creation of “O Holy Night” involves an unknown parish priest, a commissionaire of wines in a small French town, and a Jewish composer.  Years later, unrelated actions by two Americans would bring the song and its powerful, awe-inspiring imagery to the attention of those on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.  Placide Cappeau de Roquemare, commissionaire of wines in a small French town, wrote the lyrics to “Cantique de Noel” at the request of his parish priest, then handed them to his friend Adolphe Charles Adams to be set to music.  At mass on Christmas Eve 1847, the song was performed for the first time.  In 1855, American Unitarian minister and music critic John Sullivan Dwight translated the song into English and published it in his Dwight’s Journal of Music.  On Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden, an electrical engineer in Pittsburgh who had devised a means to transmit voice over the radio, read from the gospel of Luke and then played “O Holy Night” on his violin.  With that broadcast to a handful of wireless operators on ships in the North Atlantic, “O Holy Night” became the first song ever sent through the air via radio waves. 

by Glenn L. Rudolph
Lyrics by Thomas H. Troeger

wenty years ago, just a few months after the  September 11, 2001 attacks, “The Dream Isaiah Saw” was performed for the first time at a church in the Pittsburgh area. The tragic events influenced how the composer, Glenn L. Rudolph, finished the work he had begun that summer, which he dedicated to those who perished in tragedy.

Earlier in the year the Bach Choir had commissioned five new works for its Christmas concert, looking to perform songs outside the standard holiday repertoire and establish some new traditions. A requirement for the composers was to write music for a brass sextet instead of the more common quintet, since the concert was held in collaboration with the Pittsburgh Symphony Brass. Rudolph set his song to the hymn Lions and Oxen Will Feed in the Hay, written by Thomas H. Troeger in 1994. Troeger had drawn inspiration from Isaiah chapter 11, lines six through nine. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the words of Troeger’s hymn that describe Isaiah’s dream of a peaceable kingdom took on particular meaning.

by Meredith Willson
arr. by Mark Hayes

Composer and lyricist Meredith Willson is most often associated with creating one of the most beloved Broadway musicals of all time, The Music Man. A much lesser-known work penned by the Mason City, Iowa native is the musical Here’s Love, the score of which features the Christmas classic “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.”

Here’s Love, Willson’s third musical, which he adapted from the movie Miracle on 34th Street, enjoyed an eight-month run on the Great White Way in 1963-64 before it became all but forgotten. More than a decade before the musical’s most famous number “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” was sung on the Broadway stage, holiday music recording veteran Perry Como recorded and released the song, with the Fontane Sisters trio singing backup. The vivid imagery painted by the lyrics, combined with the upbeat melody, made the song a hit of the holiday season, a signature number for Como, and a popular Christmas music standard.

There are two theories behind Willson’s inspiration for “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” one linked to his Iowa hometown and the other to a village in Nova Scotia. Both beliefs center on structures referenced in the lyrics—the Grand Hotel (“There’s a tree in the Grand Hotel/One in the park as well…”) and five-and-dime store (Take a look at the five and ten, it’s glistening once again…).

Regarding Iowa, the Grand Hotel may refer to the Historic Park Inn, located in downtown Mason City overlooking Central Park. (Of note, this famous landmark, built in 1910, is the last remaining hotel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright).  Mason City, like most small towns across the United States, also had a five-and-ten store when Willson wrote the song in 1951.

Nearly 1800 miles away from Mason City lies the small coastal village of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, home to the second theory.  Residents believe that Willson wrote the song while staying in the town’s Grand Hotel, located directly across from Frost Park.  What’s more, the town also had a five-and-ten store. Unfortunately, although Willson visited Yarmouth on occasion, there is no record of the composer staying at the Grand Hotel.

by Michael W. Smith
and Joanna Carlson
Arr. by Lloyd Larson
Orchestration by mark kellner

Written by Michael W. Smith, West Virginia native and Christian pop music icon, together with singer-songwriter Joanna Carlson, the modern carol “Christmastime” celebrates the arrival of Emmanuel and the holiday, announced through a variety of sounds. Bells ring, joining carolers and angels singing to share the joyful news that Christmastime is here. The song appears on Smith’s studio album Christmastime, released in 1998, the singer’s second holiday-themed release.  Sing “Joy to the World!”

by Christoph von Schmid
arr. by J. F. Dausch

The German Christmas carol, “Ihr Kinderlein, kommet” (“Oh, come, little children”) invites listeners to view the Nativity scene through the innocent eyes of a child.  Christoph von Schmid, a Catholic priest and writer, penned the lyrics in 1798.  His original poem “Die Kinder bei der Krippe” (“The Children at the Manger”) was published in 1811.  The music to the lyrics that we recognize today is believed to have been written by German composer and Kapellmeister (music director for a monarch or nobleman) Johann Abraham Peter Schultz in 1790 as the secular song “Wie reizend, wie wonnig" (“How charming, how pleasant”).  The melody and lyrics were first published together in the collection Sechzig deutsche Lieder für dreißig Pfennig (Sixty German songs for Thirty Pennies), issued in the 1830s.

Christoph von Schmid is mostly known as a writer of children’s books and educator, considered by some as a pioneer of books for young people.  Shortly after his 1796 appointment as head of a large school in Thannhausen, Schmid began writing children’s books and reading to students after school as a way of rewarding them. His first work was a children’s Bible. Throughout his long life—Schmid died of cholera at the age of 87—Schmid continued to pursue his calling as an author of children’s books.  His writings have been translated into 24 languages.

EXTRA CREDIT READING: Johann Abraham Peter Schultz (1747-1800) was a child prodigy, studying organ at schools in Lüneburg.  When Schultz was 15 years old, he went to Berlin to study under Johann Philipp Kirnberger, an organist and composer who had been a student of Johann Sebastian Bach.  Schultz wrote operas, stage music, oratorios, and cantatas, as well as piano pieces and folk songs.

by José Feliciano
arr. by J. F. Dausch

“Feliz Navidad,” one of the most played and recorded Christmas songs worldwide, is simple in its form and origins.  Released in 1970 by José Feliciano, the song has just 19 words in Spanish and English, repeated over a three-minute run time.  The singer-songwriter says that he wrote the song in 10 minutes, aiming to unite people with its positive message and bilingual lyrics. 

Feliciano wrote “Feliz Navidad” during the summer in Los Angeles, homesick for his large family, Christmas foods and traditions, and Puerto Rico.  He recorded the song in a single take with Brazilian drummer Paulinho Magalhães, accompanying himself on the guitar and cuatro, a traditional 10-stringed Puerto Rican instrument.  “Feliz Navidad” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2010.

by Leroy Anderson

The seasonal favorite “Sleigh Ride,” easily recognizable by its upbeat melody, jingling sleigh bells, clip-clops, and horse whinny, traces its beginnings to a heat wave and drought in Connecticut in summer 1946.  Following his release from active duty in the U.S. Army, Leroy Anderson was staying in a cottage in Woodbury with his family, where he began composing several tunes, including “Sleigh Ride.” Anderson completed the orchestral piece in Brooklyn in February 1948, following one of the snowiest winters on record in New York City.

“Sleigh Ride” received its premiere in May 1948 with the Boston Pops Orchestra.  Mitchell Parish, a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania, added lyrics in 1950.  While the composition still ranks as one of the 10 most popular pieces of Christmas music worldwide, the words make no reference to Christmas.  Leroy Anderson’s original instrumental version scored for orchestra is the most performed and popular of all the song’s versions.

Extra Credit Reading: Leroy Anderson, the unrivaled master of light orchestral pieces, was also a talented linguist, fluent in nine languages. Born to Swedish immigrants in 1908, Anderson studied toward a Ph.D. degree in German and Scandinavian at Harvard University while working as a music tutor at Radcliffe College. His language proficiency earned him a U.S. Army assignment to Iceland during World War II, where he wrote an Icelandic grammar book for the army. In 1945, Anderson was sent to the Pentagon as chief of the Scandinavian Desk of Military Intelligence. He declined an offer to serve as U.S. military attaché to Sweden, finally deciding to make composing his full-time profession.

by Frank Sinatra et. al.
arr. by J. F. Dausch

“Mistletoe and Holly”
”The Christmas Waltz”

Joseph Ciani-Dausch
Erin Wegner Brooks

The medley “Christmas with Frank” blends two classic holiday favorites recorded by Sinatra: “Mistletoe and Holly” and “The Christmas Waltz.” Both songs are featured on the singer’s album A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra, originally released by Capitol Records in 1957. Alongside other holiday secular favorites, these two tunes form Side One, while Side Two is devoted to Christmas carols.

Sinatra himself wrote “Mistletoe and Holly,” alongside collaborators Dok Stanford and Hank Sanicola. It is the only Christmas tune ever penned by the legendary singer. The lyrics paint vivid pictures of family gatherings, delicious food, and wintry landscapes to celebrate the traditional symbols of the holiday season and capture its festive atmosphere. This arrangement draws from the original opening of “Mistletoe and Holly” before putting its own spin on the classic. Like the original song, the “Mistletoe and Holly” rhythm used here is a gentle swing.

Songwriters Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne wrote “The Christmas Waltz” specifically for Sinatra. In contrast to the original, this arrangement is characterized by a more up-tempo jazz waltz, introduced by the conductor shouting " a-one-two-three" to set the new tempo.

EXTRA CREDIT READING: Capitol Records, the label for which Sinatra recorded many of his albums in the 1950s, was founded in 1942 by songwriters Johnny Mercer and Buddy DeSylva with the financial backing of Hollywood businessman Glenn E. Wallichs. It was the first major West Coast-based record label. Amazingly prolific in their individual songwriting output, Mercer and DeSylva dedicated the label to great songs, great singers (Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Peggy Lee) and great arrangers (Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, etc.). In so doing, the founders distinguished Capitol from the major East Coast labels (Columbia, RCA, and Decca) that were transitioning to recording novelty songs in the late 1940s and early 1950s, in addition to dropping singers like Sinatra.

by Randy Goodrum
and John B. Jarvis
arr. by J. F. Dausch

Liz Mulligan, mezzo-soprano

Written by Nashville veteran songwriters Randy Goodrum and John Jarvis, the song “’Til the Season” takes listeners on a nostalgic journey through the passage of time. The lyrics of this beautiful ballad, first released in 1993 by country music star Vince Gill, remind us of the importance of cherishing each passing season.

Goodrum offers insight into how the song came about. “We tried to write on a premise that hadn't been done before. Most holiday songs anticipate various aspects of the coming of Christmas. We decided to write about the last moment of the season–a celebration of all that just happened and a wish for good will ‘til the season comes round again." 

The song has been recorded by many artists, although Goodrum's favorite is the “masterful and moving performance” by Amy Grant, which he described as “a gem of a recording.”

arr. by Antony Baldwin

It remains something of a mystery as to how “Joy to the World” came to be a Christmas carol, since the words are based on Old Testament scripture and speak more about Christ’s second coming than they do the first. Hymnist and clergyman Isaac Watts published the verses in 1719 in a collection of poems, each of which was based on a psalm. In penning the verses, Watts drew inspiration from a phrase in Psalm 98: “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.”

As a young man in Southampton, England, Watts viewed the church music of his day to be monotonous and uninspiring, prompting his father to challenge him to create something better. That call to action resulted in Watts composing more than 600 hymns, among them “Joy to the World!” It would take more than a century, however, before Lowell Mason, a Boston music educator and prolific hymn writer, composed the music that would eventually accompany Watts’s poem. A passionate student of the music of composer George Frideric Händel, Mason drew inspiration from two songs of Messiah to compose his instrumental piece “Antioch.” Three more years passed before Mason would find, in Watts’s “Modern Psalmist” songbook, words to link to the “Antioch” melody. In 1911, a Christmas release by Elise Stevenson and the Trinity Choir marked the first time that “Joy to the World!” appeared on a popular music playlist. An Old Testament psalm, songs from Händel’s Messiah, two brilliant hymn writers living in different countries and eras, a long passage of time, and more: it required the piecing together of all these elements to produce one of the most joyful and uplifting Christmas carols ever written.