Music: Sun Dec 16

Christmas-themed music from many lands is featured this Sunday morning. The Catalan composer Federico Mompou provides a jazz-inflected treatment of a popular regional Christmas carol, “El noi de la mare” (The Mother’s Son), in the “song” portion of his third Canción y danza, coupling the tender melody to a lively sardana, or traditional circle dance, in the “dance” portion. His Pessebres (Crèches) are similarly delicate and folkloric in tone, although one smiles at the allusion to the Catalonian tradition of including animal dung in Nativity scenes. The Opening Music includes one of Johannes Brahms’s settings of a 16^th-century Lutheran chorale, Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (“Lo, how a rose e'er blooming”), originally scored for organ, but played this morning in a transcription for piano by Ferruccio Busoni. The Offertory features “December” from Tchaikovsky’s cycle of monthly piano works, commissioned by a St. Petersburg music journal. The piece is widely known by its subtitle, “Christmas.” Finally, Donald Waxman, the composer of numerous collections of effective teaching pieces for piano students, furnishes lively arrangements of two traditional Christmas melodies, one French, the other English. Read on for programming details.

Centering Music: Adam Kent, piano
Pessebres

            I. Pessebres

            II. L’Ermita

            III. El Pastor

Canción y danza No. 3

                                                Federico Mompou

Opening Music:

Es ist ein Ros entsprungen

                                                            Johannes Brahms, arr. by Ferruccio Busoni

Offertory:
Christmas, Op. 37, No. 12

                                                Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Special Music:
Chantons tous, je vous prie

“The Boar’s Head Carol“

                                    Traditional Carols arr. by Donald Waxman