The World For Christmas

My favorite time of the year is about to settle in completely and entirely on most of the planet and that gives me some special holiday chills! Christmas is of so much sincere joy and inspiration to me that I look forward to live it through again and again. The ambiance that reigns in December is like nowhen else – even the coldest spots of the world get filled with special warmth, family love and unity of the souls.

Like with most important things in life I perceive Christmas musically as I can’t imagine it without music. The magic Christmas carols and songs that accompany this holiday are so deeply planted in my heart. Despite the list of old Christmas songs that have been around for years, ages, I keep looking for new Christmas melodies that appear every year. I love to observe how modern composers see this holiday and therefore look for new music portraits of Christmas.

This year one of my curious finds is represented by a contemporary choral piece by Anders Edenroth – “The World For Christmas”. Below is the video of The Real Group performing it. The amazing thing about the composition is not just the great music in general but the message of the song. We are all used to listening to Christmas songs that are an ode to joy, holiday and the happiness of the moment. But in this case the compositions aims for something of a bigger scale, much bigger. This song is an expression of a huge concern for our planet and the ecological problems it has to face. A call for global action and change. And it does make me want to act. Below is the beautiful video of the song made the guys. Just watch it and get inspired.

Devil's Trill Sonata

I fall in love with some music works only for their background story. And if the piece sounds gorgeous too – even better!

One of the music compositions that drew my attention in this sense was the sonata composed by Giuseppe Tartini – “Il trillo del diavolo”, which is translated from Italian as “Devil’s Trill”. We know that many composers (as well as mathematicians, scientists etc.) sometimes saw some useful clue or even their work-of-a-lifetime while sleeping. That’s what (almost) happened to Giuseppe. One night Devil himself showed up in his dream (he came for his soul, composer said) and started playing violin. The melody was so beautiful and breathtaking that Tartini was fully encaptured by it. The morning he woke up the first thing to do was grab some paper and try to save what’s was still playing in his head.

As a result we now have a beautiful music composition for violin and piano now. Tartini humbly mentioned that what he made is only a vague reminder of the powerful music he heard in his dream. But in memory of that night, he decided to call his music work a “Devil's Trill Sonata”.