It’s the holiday season! I love this season, and in particular I love Christmas music. As a musician I’m partial to Christmas music for several reasons: traditional Christmas carols are so ingrained in our collective psyche that as an arranger one can explore many different styles and arrangements without confusing the listener and the Christmas season is just, well, inspirational.
So as my holiday gift to you, loyal readers, instead of security related commentary, this post and the several following will contain holiday music for you to enjoy. For free. For you and whoever you would like to share it with.
Actually there is a little security related stuff here [hey - you didn't think you'd get off that easy]. This music is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. That means you can use it for whatever you want – play it on your iPod, burn a CD, play it on the radio, use it as the theme music to your hit TV series – whatever you want. Just give credit to the musicians who made it, which in this case are Larry Hall, Troy Harms, Dean Vendl and me.
Impressions of Christmas 2001
1. Angels We Have Heard on High – A Caribbean Salvation Army Zydeco band, whose normal drummer is replaced by a rocker meets some strolling mariachis.
Larry Hall – Guitars and programming
Troy Harms – Drums
Joe Webster – Keyboards2. Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella_Carol of the Bells – Chris Webster first suggested doing “Carol of the Bells” as a round. It evolved into this quasi-minimalist tone poem somehow.
Larry Hall – Guitars and Mandolins
Joe Webster – Keyboards3. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day – Counterpoint. The Longfellow poem counterpoints war with the peace and hope message of Christmas. What began with the idea to counterpoint the two traditional melodies ended up counterpointing many melodies and diverse musical styles.
Larry Hall – Guitars and Mandolins
Joe Webster – Keyboards4. O Come, O Come Immanuel – In the weeks following September 11, every TV news show had dramatic, mournful theme music featuring a distant trumpet and and a tolling bell. The inspiration for this arrangement came from that theme music.
Larry Hall – Guitars
Dean Vendl – 7-string electric bass
Joe Webster – KeyboardsCover image by Digital Blasphemy.
Happy Holidays from Security For All!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Joseph Webster and Avnet SolutionsPath™, open source. open source said: Gift of holiday music for all – present 1 « Security For All: This music is licensed under a Creative Commons Attributio http://url4.eu/t03T [...]
[...] I should explain where this music comes from. In 2000, Larry Hall and I decided to start recording original arrangements of Christmas Carols. As a musicians [Larry is a guitarist, I'm a keyboardist] we were both drawn to Christmas music because traditional Christmas carols are so ingrained in our collective psyche that arrangements can have enormous latitude, exploring different styles and voicing without confusing the listener. By December 2001 we had some material recorded with the help of fellow musicians, drummer Troy Harms and bassist Dean Vendl, so we decided to send the CDs as “Christmas Cards” to those on our collective lists. Thus it began with the music in present 1: Impressions of Christmas 2001. [...]
[...] earlier posts in this series present 1: Impressions of Christmas 2001 and present 2: Christmas Child 2002 were original arrangements of traditional Christmas carols or [...]
[...] been too busy Christmas shopping or listening to the great free holiday music posted on this blog here, here and here (with a bonus here) CBS news covered it like this. It was a security breach and a [...]