*This is the fourth installment of our weeklong series on “Do You Hear What I Hear”
The cast of the TV show Glee released their second Christmas soundtrack album, Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album Volume 2, in 2011, featuring ten covers and two original songs. Alex Newell and Lindsay Pearce are the featured vocalists on “Do You Hear What I Hear,” which modulates from C up to D at 1:58.
*This is the third installment of our weeklong series on “Do You Hear What I Hear”
Country singer Jennifer Nettles released her first Christmas album, To Celebrate Christmas, in 2016. Her arrangement of “Do You Hear What I Hear” is the sixth track on the record, and modulates from C to D at 2:31.
*This is the second installment of our weeklong series on “Do You Hear What I Hear”
The a cappella group Pentatonix took Whitney Houston’s 1987 recording of the holiday standard and dubbed in her vocals to their arrangement, which was included on their 2019 holiday compilation album The Best of Pentatonix Christmas. Modulation from Ab up to A at 2:05.
*This post is the first in a week-long series featuring different arrangements of “Do You Hear What I Hear”
Written by Gloria Shayne and Noel Regney during the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962, the song was a plea for peace. Shayne and Regney were married when they wrote the song, with Regney contributing the lyrics and Shayne the music. In an interview Shayne said it was difficult for both of them to perform the song because of the emotions surrounding it. “Our little song broke us up,” she said. “You must realize there was a threat of war at the time.”
The song has since been covered by hundreds of artists and is frequently included on Christmas albums. Idina Menzel’s rendition is the first track on her 2014 album Holiday Wishes. It begins in C major, modulates briefly to Db at 1:53, and lands in E at 1:58. A common tone modulation back to C occurs at 2:30, and we stay there until the end.
Michael Buble’s 2011 album Christmas has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide, making it by far his most successful album, and one of the best-selling records of the 21st century. “Winter Wonderland” was one of four tracks added to the deluxe edition of the album released in 2012. It modulates from Db up to D at 1:54.
“No More Blue Christmas,” written by Gerry Goffin and Michael Masser, is the the one original song included on singer Natalie Cole’s 1994 holiday album, Holly & Ivy. Billboard called the song a “soulful, torch-like burner.” Beginning in G major, the tune modulates up to Ab at 3:14.
Thanks again to Ziyad for this contribution!
Claudine Longet has had a career as a dancer, actress, and singer; born in France, she’s lived in the US since she was a teenager. She recorded several albums, mostly for A&M, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She was married to middle-of-the-road singer Andy Williams for several years, appearing on some of his recordings. After they divorced, infamously, she was convicted of negligently shooting and killing her boyfriend, Olympic skier “Spider” Sabich. After that tragedy and its lurid media coverage, she stayed out of public view.
The song here, “I Don’t Intend to Spend Christmas Without You,” was written by Margo Guryan expressly for Longet. Producer Tommy LiPuma asked her to write a Christmas song without the usual trappings of snow, mistletoe, and so on. A&M issued the song as a single in 1968, backed with (wait for it) “Snow,” written by Randy Newman.
Guryan started her career writing songs and lyrics in the jazz tradition. Her songs were recorded by the likes of Chris Connor, Dizzy Gillespie, and Harry Belafonte; she wrote the lyrics to Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman”. After hearing the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds”, the story goes, she decided to write pop songs. She recorded one sunshine pop album, “Take a Picture”, in 1968, for Bell. The album did not do well, but became something of a cult favorite in the 1990s and 2000s, particularly in Japan. After that album, she recorded occasional singles, and wrote “Chopstick Variations”, a piano education book. Margo Guryan died earlier this year (2021) at the age of 84.
The song starts out in G, with a bridge in A. At 1:45, the verse modulates to A-flat. (You can find Margo Guryan’s own version of the song here, recorded as a demo. Her voice is remarkably like Claudine Longet’s. No modulation in her version, though.
Thanks to regular MotD contributor Paul Steckler for this submission!
“My Kind of Present” is featured on Meghan Trainor’s 2020 album A Very Trainor Christmas. The album was a family effort, with various members serving as songwriters, backup singers, producers and instrumentalists; this track was written by Trainor and her two brothers Justin and Ryan. “The record is firmly within the realm of spirited seasonal soundtrack,” wrote AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine. The track begins in Db major and modulates up a whole step at 2:09.
Thanks to our regular contributor Ziyad for this submission!
This week we will be featuring guest submissions, kicking off with our newest masthead contributor JB, who provided the write-up below:
Even though it sounds like a modern commercial jingle, the melody of Ding Dong Merrily on High is at least 500 years old, and the current lyrics are nearly 100 years old.
While there have been many recordings of this tune over the years — including the iconic Wiggles version from A Wiggly Wiggly Christmas — it’s a safe bet that none of them has had more modulations than Michael Biggins’ version. There are key changes at 1:04 and 1:27, a full mode change from 1:50-2:14, and multiple keys-of-the-moment and other harmonic tensions sprinkled throughout.
Biggins was named the 2021 Young Traditional Musician of the Year by BBC Radio Scotland, the first pianist ever to win this prestigious award. One of the reasons that the award had, in the past, always recognized pipers, fiddlers, and other players of melody instruments is that the piano is generally relagated to the role of a rhythm instrument in Scottish trad, playing simple boom-chuck accompaniment to support the melody players. This role delineation is still honored in the video, where Biggins plays all the virtuosic tracks on the accordion (generally a melody instrument in Scottish trad), while keeping the piano track well below his pay grade.
Written by Allen Story, Anna Gordy Gaye and George Gordy, and first recorded by Stevie Wonder in 1967, “What Christmas Means To Me” has been covered by dozens of artists over the years. Green included the song on his 2012 Christmas album Cee Lo Green’s Magic Moment, and it reached the #23 spot on the R&B charts in the United States. The tune modulates from Bb up to B at 1:41.
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