arr. 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. 

by John Hobbs & Bill House
arr. J. F. Dausch

The St. Louis Treble Choir (Paul Heinemann, conductor)

Composed by John Hobbs and Bill House, “It’s Christmas All over the World” comes from the soundtrack for “Santa Claus: The Movie,” released in 1985.  A young Terry Eberhardt first heard the song performed by Placido Domingo and Glenn Close on the Hallmark “Repeat the Sounding Joy” CD (1995) and it’s been a favorite ever since.  In Terry’s words, the song “has this joy to it that was part of my Christmas tradition. I love the lightness of the piece, but with the big dramatic ending.” 

The song made its first appearance on the “Christmas at St. Louis” program in 2020, performed by choir tenor Rolando Sanz under an arrangement by then Executive Producer Jay Dausch.  Today’s concert still uses Jay’s arrangement, with the Treble Choir bringing the song to life.

arr. A. Harris

The hauntingly beautiful “We Three Kings” describes the journey of the famous travelers from the East, guided to Bethlehem by the “star of wonder, star of light.”

John Henry Hopkins, Jr., (1820-1891), a deacon in the Episcopal Church, composed both the carol’s lyrics and melody.  After earning degrees from the University of Vermont and working briefly as a journalist, Hopkins graduated from New York City’s General Theological Seminary, serving as its first music instructor from 1855-57. 

Research reveals variations of the story as to what prompted or inspired Hopkins to write “We Three Kings.” One version ties back directly to the seminary, noting that Hopkins penned the carol for a Christmas pageant there in 1857.  Other accounts state that Hopkins wrote the song as a gift for his nephews and nieces to celebrate the January 6th Feast of the Epiphany (During the 1800s, gift giving to celebrate the official end to the Christmas holiday was a common practice among Christians in the United States).

Hopkins based his carol, designed to be sung by a trio of male voices, on the narrative of the journey of the Magi as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 2.  In his writing, Matthew does not refer to the Magi as “kings,” nor does he say how many Magi there were, only that there were wise men.  That stories and songs designate three wise men coming to visit the baby Jesus is inferred from the number of gifts.

Hopkins’s original composition consisted of five verses—the first and last were written for the three kings to sing together, while the remaining verses were written as a solo for each king bearing their gift.  In his lyrics, Hopkins fully describes the gifts, symbolic of three areas of Christ’s life.  Gold represents Jesus’s kingly reign and the crown that he would forever wear. Frankincense, suitable for priests, symbolizes his ministry. Myrrh, the bitter perfume, foreshadows Christ’s death and resurrection.

“We Three Kings” achieved popularity beyond Hopkins’ personal circles when he published it in his songbook Carols, Hymns, and Songs.  The carol’s fame spread when it was included in the United Kingdom’s Christmas Carols New and Old in 1871—the only American carol included in the prestigious collection. “We Three Kings” is recognized as the first carol originating from the United States to achieve widespread popularity.

Extra Credit Reading: Although “We Three Kings” is John Henry Hopkins Jr.’s most widely known accomplishment, he is also remembered for having delivered the eulogy at the funeral of President Ulysses S. Grant in 1885.

arr. Leo Nestor

A perfect storm of people and circumstances in the village of Obendorf, Austria on Christmas Eve 1818 gave birth to one of the world’s most enduring and beloved Christmas carols, “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 verses he had written two years earlier about the birth of the Christ Child to his friend and 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!” Heilige Nacht!” (“Silent Night”) was performed for the first time.

A sampling of facts about “Silent Night”:

• It is likely that the first performance of “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht” in America was at the Alexander Hamilton monument outside of New York City’s Trinity Church in 1839, sung by the Rainers, a singing family from Austria.

• “Silent Night” was translated into English in the 1850s by Episcopal priest John Freeman Young, while he was serving at Trinity Church.  Young later published his translation (verses one, three, and six) in a book of Christmas carols in 1859. “Silent Night” has since been translated into more than 300 languages and dialects.

• During the World War I unofficial Christmas Truce across the Western front in 1914, allied and German soldiers serenaded each other with “Silent Night,” among other carols.

• In 2011, UNESCO declared “Silent Night” an intangible cultural heritage for its "key contribution to sustaining cultural diversity."

arr. Dan Forrest

Liz Mulligan, mezzo-soprano

“The Huron Carol” is considered to be the first Canadian Christmas carol and likely the earliest carol composed in North America. Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit missionary among the Wyandot (Huron) people in Canada, wrote the lyrics in their native language around 1642. The song’s original title is “Jesous Ahatonhia” (“Jesus, He Is Born”). At some point, Brébeuf’s lyrics were paired with the melody of a traditional French folk song, “Une Jeune Pucelle” (“A Young Maid”).

In 1649 the Iroquois, enemies of the Wyandot, brutally tortured and murdered Father Brébeuf and drove the Wyandot from their homeland. About 300 Wyandot fled to a mission in New France, carrying the Christmas carol they had learned with them on the 50-day journey east. 

The song remained within the Wyandot oral tradition for 150 years. In 1794, another Jesuit missionary wrote down the words to “Jesous Ahatonhia,” which were then translated into French.  The French lyrics were first published in 1899.

“The Huron Carol” is celebrated as a Canadian national treasure, honored with a national series of postage stamps in 1977 and inspiring at least four picture books.  It is also a connection to a lost language--Wyandot—which had practically disappeared by the 1850s, a consequence of intermarriages with French speakers and the need to conduct business in French.  Over the years “The Huron Carol” has been recorded by scores of artists in Wyandot, in French, and in English, as well as in a version that combines the three languages.

Extra Credit Reading: Jean de Brébeuf, Jesuit missionary to the Huron/Wyandot people, was also an accomplished linguist, supervising the preparation of the first Huron grammar and dictionary.  Pope Pius XI canonized Father Brébeuf, together with seven other missionaries known as the Canadian martyrs, on 29 June 1930. One decade later, Pope Pius XII proclaimed Father Brébeuf one of the patron saints of Canada. His feast day is October 19.

arr. A. Harris & W. Silvester

Penned by Unitarian minister Dr. Edmund Sears in 1849 as part of a Christmas Eve sermon to his congregation, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” was first published with accompanying music in 1850 under the uninspired title “Study Number 23.”  Richard Storrs Willis, New York Tribune music critic, fit a melody he had composed to Sears’s words, creating the first version of the song.  A decade later, Willis republished the song as “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night,” using a new, updated arrangement. It is this version that is sung today. The message of “peace on earth” proclaimed in the song’s verses voiced the hopes of American soldiers fighting in Europe during World War I and World War II, who continued to make it part of their Christmas musical tradition upon return home. Today, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” remains one of the most popular carols, thanks to its enduring messages of “peace on earth, good will to men.”

by Camille Saint-Saëns

Colleen Daly, soprano
Norman Shankle, tenor
Trevor Scheunemann, baritone

Prolific composer Camille Saint-Saëns worked in every genre, writing nearly 400 works that spanned concertos, symphonies, operas, chamber works, film, among other fields of music. He began his career as a church organist, securing a prestigious position in 1858 at L’église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, the official church of the French Empire. That same year, the church commissioned 23-year-old Saint-Saëns to write an oratorio for that year’s Christmas celebration. In just 12 days, on December 15, Saint-Saëns completed the 10-movement Oratorio de Noël, Op. 12 (Christmas Oratorio), which premiered on Christmas Day.

Christmas Oratorio, which blends musical styles to tell the nativity story, is scored for soloists, chorus, strings, harp, and organ.  The movement performed today is the seventh movement, Tecum principum. 

by David Foster & Linda Thompson-Jenner
arr. J. F. Dausch

Tynan Davis, mezzo-soprano

"Grown Up Christmas List" was written in 1989 by songwriter/producer David Foster (music) and Linda Thompson-Jenner (lyrics) as a duet to be sung by Foster and Natalie Cole for a  TV special that year. In 1992, Amy Grant made the first "cover" recording of the song, and wrote, with Foster's approval, additional lyrics ("As children we believe...never heal a hurting human heart") . This version was included on Amy's triple platinum Christmas album that year "Home For Christmas", recorded while she was in the final stages of carrying her third child Sara (the album cover photo of Amy was shot from the waist up!).

arr. W. Silvester & A. Harris

Charles Welsey. George Whitefield.  Felix Mendelssohn.  William Hayman Cummings. Other than perhaps Mendelssohn, these men aren’t household names, but it would take their combined creative powers, carried out over a span of two centuries, to craft the popular Christmas carol known today as “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!”

English Methodist leader and hymn writer Charles Wesley wrote the original lyrics in 1737, opening with “Hark how all the Welkin rings, Glory to the King of Kings.”  Set to one of Wesley’s own melodies and premiering in his church, the hymn quickly gained favor with other congregations following the new Methodist movement, a splinter denomination of the Church of England. Two years later the hymn was published in the collection “Hymns and Sacred Poem,” assembled by Charles and his older brother John.

The first evolution of the carol occurred in 1753 when George Whitefield, a Calvinist preacher and friend of Wesley, altered the text, notably changing “welkin” to “herald angels,” “(Glory to the) King of Kings” to “newborn King,” and “Universal nature say” to “sons of men and angels sing.”  Whitefield changed the text without consulting Wesley, who was incensed at his friend’s actions. With his adjustments, Whitefield shifted Wesley’s intended focus of heaven’s chorus glorifying the newborn king to one that imagined humanity joining the angelic praise. For the rest of his life, Wesley refused to acknowledge the rework of the song.

It would take more than a century after Whitefield reworked the lyrics before English musician William Hayman Cummings adapted a melody by Felix Mendelssohn to pair with the text. A teenage Whitefield, singing one of the tenor leads at the London premiere of Mendelssohn’s opera Elijah in 1847, had personally encountered the composer, who was directing the opera.  While considering a melody for Whitefield’s reworking of the hymn, Cummings thought of another Mendelssohn work, the 1840 choral cantata Festgesang zur Eröffnung, written to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press.  Ironically, Mendelssohn had written that his tune was fitting for “a national and merry subject,” but unsuitable to a sacred text. 

Cumming’s arrangement of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” was first printed in a Methodist hymnal in 1857, then adopted by other denominations and publishers over the next several years. Within a decade, the new “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” was one of the most recognized carols in the world.

Extra Credit Reading: Even when Charles Wesley penned “Hark! How all the welkin rings…” in 1739, the word “welkin” was likely becoming obsolete.  An old English word for “the expanse of the heaven,” Chaucer used it in The Canterbury Tales: “This day in mirth and revel to dispend, / Till on the welkin shone the starres bright.”

by Paul Basler

“Alleluia” is one of five movements from “Songs of Faith,” written by contemporary composer, horn player, and university professor Paul Basler. Arguably the most popular movement, “Alleluia” has an infectious rhythmic drive and is full of energy. The other movements of “Songs of Faith” are “Psalm 23,” “Psalm 150,” “Be Thou My Vision,” and “Ubi Caritas.”  In a notable achievement, Basler’s “Songs of Faith” was performed in Vietnam in 1999, the first American work performed there since the end of the Vietnam War.

by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne

Lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer/Broadway songwriter Jule Styne wrote “Let It Snow!” on an oppressively hot California day in July 1945. The original title echoed the triple iteration of the lyric, "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!,” simplified today to “Let It Snow!” Why three “Let it snow” and not two or four? As explained by Sammy Cahn, “three is lyric.”

Although “Let It Snow!” is typically associated with Christmas, the lyrics contain no mention of the holiday, focusing on ways to spend a snowy day with a loved one—near the fireplace with some popcorn. The song has been covered by some of the biggest names in the music industry, with Dean Martin’s 1966 release regarded by many as the classic version of the song.

by Leon Jessel

by Victor Herbert

Liz Mulligan, soprano
The St. Louis Treble Choir (Paul Heinemann, conductor)

“Toyland” comes from the 1903 operetta “Babes in Toyland,” composed by Victor Herbert with libretto by Glen MacDonough.  The popular operetta weaves together characters from Mother Goose nursery rhymes into a musical extravaganza.

Although the “Toyland” lyrics have no direct affiliation with the traditions of Christmas, the spirit of the song captures the immense pleasure that toys bring to children, making it compatible with the loving and giving essence of the holiday.  It’s no surprise that with dozens of artists recording “Toyland” over the years and, in cases, including it on their Christmas albums, the song has become a staple of many holiday playlists.

“Babes in Toyland” was among the first of Victor Herbert’s 40-plus operettas, the genre with which the cellist, conductor, and composer is most associated.  The operetta debuted at the Grand Opera House in Chicago on June 17, 1903, before opening on Broadway several months later.  Four film versions of “Babes in Toyland” have been produced, with the 1934 release starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy widely recognized as an enduring holiday classic.

by Émile Waldteufel

“Les Patineurs” (“The Skaters’ Waltz”) transports listeners to a cold winter day in Paris, with the swirling melodies conjuring images of ice skaters gracefully gliding across a frozen pond.  Of the many compositions written by French composer Émile Waldteufel, “Les Patineurs” is arguably the best known. Waldteufel composed the work in the early 1880s, a few years after Europe had experienced the phenomenally cold winter of 1879, one of the most severe to ever hit the continent.  The composer drew inspiration for his masterpiece from skaters he saw at the Bois de Boulogne, a park on the western edge of Paris. In popular culture, Les Patineurs is featured in dozens of movies, most notably, Chariots of Fire, as well as in video games and other media.

arr. J. F. Dausch

Erin Wegner Brooks, soprano
Tynan Davis, mezzo-soprano
Joe Ciani-Dausch, tenor

• Happy Holidays

• I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm

• It Must Have Been ‘Ol Santa Claus

• Little Jack Frost Get Lost

• It’s A Marshmallow World

• We Wish You the Merriest

This fun mixture blends popular seasonal songs and wintry weather sentiments to celebrate snowy landscapes and the joys of the holiday season.

Irving Berlin penned two of the medley’s songs. “Happy Holiday” was featured in the 1942 film “Holiday Inn”, about a Connecticut farmhouse transformed into a jubilant nightspot—but only on holidays.  Five years before “Holiday Inn” was released, Berlin composed “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” for the lesser-known musical “On the Avenue.”  Though the lyrics make no mention of Christmas, many artists have included “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” on their Christmas albums.

“It’s a Marshmallow World,” written by songwriters Carl Sigman and Peter de Rose, has also become part of the standard holiday song repertoire, though the lyrics make no specific reference to Christmas. With the lyrics creating a palette of delicious sugary confections, “Marshmallow World” convinces listeners of the appeal of a snowy winter day.

“Little Jack Frost Get Lost” takes a crankier approach to the winter season, lamenting the return of the cold and pleading for Jack Frost to “get lost.”   Written by Al Stillman & Seger Ellis, the song was first made popular by Bing Crosby and Peggy Lee in 1952.

Rounding out the medley are "We Wish You the Merriest" written by swing bandleader Les Brown and “It Must've Been Ol' Santa Claus” by Harry Connick Jr., a novelty number about a cynical grown-up who learns to believe in Santa Claus.

by Thad Jones

Tynan Davis, mezzo-soprano

The authorship of “A Child is Born” is generally credited to jazz trumpeter Thad Jones and the lyrics, added later, to composer Alec Wilder. By this account, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra first recorded the song for their 1970 album Consummation. Both attributions have been challenged, since jazz bassist Richard Davis, and jazz pianist Roland Hanna, members of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, performed the tune in Germany six months prior to the release of Consummation.

According to Hanna, “A Child is Born” began as an interlude that he performed between numbers for Jones’ ensemble. Upon hearing the interlude, Hanna claimed, Jones transformed the tune into a composition for the full orchestra. Despite contesting Jones’s authorship, if there ever were any hard feelings, Hanna let them go. The versatile jazz pianist excused Jones as “just doing what bandleaders did…If you throw an idea out there, he'd take it and write it down.”

The instrumental and song “A Child is Born” has been recorded by a number of musicians, among them Tony Bennett and Bill Evans, Richard Davis, and Hank Jones.

arr. Marty Paich

“Jingle Bells” is one of America’s most popular seasonal melodies, recorded by thousands of artists and orchestral ensembles. Its backstory, however, is tainted by the pro-slavery sentiments and activities of its composer, his lack of family values, and the song’s debut performance by black-faced performers in a minstrel show. 

The Yuletide staple was written by James Lord Pierpont, a controversial, disreputable man and staunch supporter of the Confederacy.  Originally titled “One Horse Open Sleigh” when written in 1857, Pierpont copyrighted it as “Jingle Bells, or the One Horse Open Sleigh” two years later. The first known performance of “One Horse Open Sleigh” was presented in Boston in September 1857 by blackface minstrel performers. 

From an early age, the wild, rebellious Pierpont sought adventures and fortunes far from the family home near Boston.  Pierpont’s father, Rev. John Pierpont, was a fiercely abolitionist Unitarian minister, as was his brother, who was forced to close his church in Savannah and return to the North in 1859 because of his preaching against slavery.  Pierpont moved to Savannah in 1853 to become the organist at his brother’s church, joined the 1st Georgia Cavalry in the Civil War and penned fight songs for the soldiers in grey.  Meanwhile, Rev. John Pierpont was serving Union soldiers as chaplain of the 22nd Massachusetts Infantry.

Pierpont’s residences in Medford, Massachusetts and Savannah, Georgia explain why both towns claim to be the birthplace of “Jingle Bells,” publicized in historical plaques.  Most likely, Pierpont was temporarily living in a Boston rooming house when he composed the song.

Extra Credit Reading #1: “Jingle Bells” was the first song ever broadcast from outer space.  With Christmas 1965 a little more than a week away, astronauts orbiting aboard Gemini 6 playfully reported to Mission Control some sort of UFO when it was time to reenter Earth’s atmosphere.  They had just completed a rendezvous with Gemini 7.  “"We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit…I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit."  The troubling report was broken up by the sounds of “Jingle Bells” played on a harmonica accompanied by sleigh bells, two of the handful of personal items that astronauts were allowed to bring along with them.  Today, those bells and harmonica—the first musical instruments played in space—are on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. 

Extra Credit Reading#2: James Pierpont, the author of Jingle Bells, was the uncle of John Pierpont Morgan, the famous banker. J.P. Morgan was named after the Reverend John Pierpont, his maternal grandfather, and preferred to be called Pierpont by his friends.

arr. 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 Frederic Handel, 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 Handel’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.