Christmas music by Handel, Tchaikovsky, and Vaughan Williams

We’ve looked at a variety of classical Christmas music over the past few weeks. We considered somber music for a solstice of solitude and little-known Christmas operas such as Hans Pfitzner’s Christelfein.

Now we come to the big dogs of Christmas Classique. There are three.

The first is Messiah by Georg Frederick Handel. This comes as no surprise. Messiah has a tradition beyond any other piece of classical Christmas music. The popularity of Messiah is due to its excellent yet accessible music. The orchestra requirements are modest by modern standards and the choral music can be adequately performed by almost any civic or church-based choir. Even the vocal solos can be mastered by local undergraduate vocalists.

The second piece also comes as no surprise. Piotr Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker has been a staple of the American Christmas since The New York City Ballet gave its first annual performance in 1954.

Tchaikovsky’s ballet is a melodic masterpiece. Almost every single section of music is instantly recognizable by even the most casual of listeners. The Nutcracker along with A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens has been instrumental in the development of the modern Christmas. The Nutcracker is an atmospheric tale that is quintessentially about Christmas but without any reference to the holiday’s religious traditions.

The third piece is a quintessentially religious tale about Christmas. Hodie by Ralph Vaughan Williams is the greatest Christmas composition. It draws its text from Catholic, biblical, and poetic sources.

The opening “Hodie” section is from the service of Vespers and uses the Latin text. The rest of the piece is in English and uses text from The Gospels, John Milton, Thomas Hardy, Martin Luther, The Common Book of Prayer, George Herbert, and the composer’s wife Ursula.

Musically, Vaughan Williams uses a children's choir to narrate the story of the birth of Christ. There are solos for soprano, tenor, and baritone along with massive choral sections. Hodie is not as accessible as Messiah. The orchestra is huge and the choral singing is more demanding than Handel’s.

Hodie was the last large-scale composition for chorus and orchestra that Vaughan Williams was to write. It premiered in 1958 and was immediately out of step with the current compositional practices which were post-modern and generally dreadful. The critical response was tepid and Vaughan Williams was condemned for the sin of nationalism.

Vaughan Willimas was an Englishman and Hodie is very much what we would expect from such a personality. Fortunately, we can now listen to Hodie on our own terms and not worry about whether or not it is culturally appropriate. If you are into the English traditions of Christmas, and I am, then Hodie is a gift as valuable as those given by the Magi.