3 Christmas Music Recommendations
Enrich the Season with These Elegant Arrangements
If you’re like me, your playlist might need a little refresh by this point in Advent. Fortunately, this month I’ve found some new-to-me seasonal music that I think is worth passing along.
Liz Story: Songs of Christmas (2023)
Pianist Liz Story has been around since the 1980s. I first discovered her around 1995 when I heard one of her compositions on a Windham Hill sampler album. I used to own a couple of her albums, but I lent them out to friends and never received them back. Her music is not technically difficult—intermediate players like me can handle it—but it’s very melodic and lovely.
Songs of Christmas (website with links to streaming platforms here) is a compilation of all the Christmas music Story has published over the years. It’s pretty long, with around 90 minutes of music altogether.
The track that drew me to the album was “Deck the Halls,” which I first heard on a Windham Hill Christmas album years ago and liked so much that I purchased the sheet music for it. Another highlight for me in this collection is “Sacred Nights,” which adapts Maurice Durufle’s setting of “Ubi Caritas” for piano. (A choral performance of “Ubi Caritas” is included at the end of the album for good measure.)
Philip Aaberg: High Plains Christmas
Aaberg is another pianist whose work I discovered in the 1990s via Windham Hill. He is based in Montana, and many of his compositions evoke that state’s landscape both with their titles and their arrangement. His album High Plains (1985) is a favorite of mine.
I’ve owned Aaberg’s 2007 album Christmas for many years, but I’ve just discovered his 2013 High Plains Christmas. I listened through it last week and was thoroughly impressed.
Aaberg’s piano playing is more virtuosic than Story’s, and I can only attempt a handful of his compositions. But he also offers up beautiful melodies. From this album, I especially like “Go Tell It on the Mountain” and “Wild Rose of Christmas,” the latter of which improvises on the melody of “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.”
I found High Plains Christmas streaming on Apple Music, but Aaberg has also uploaded the album to his YouTube channel:
Boccherini Guitar Quartet: Christmas Guitar
I’ve loved classical guitar ever since picking up the instrument in high school. I don’t know what it is about nylon strings, but they just sound so . . . civilized. So I’m often on the lookout for both original compositions and arrangements of traditional songs on the classical guitar.
This album is nothing fancy, just slightly embellished renditions of familiar Christmas melodies. I’m not familiar with this ensemble apart from this 2001 album, but I was glad to come across it this month.
Once again, I discovered this album on Apple Music, but those of you without a subscription can find it on YouTube:
I’d love to know what your go-to music is during the Christmas season. Add something to my playlist!