Christmas Beside an Old Piano Program Notes By James Siddons

Joy to the World –- The ebullient and euphoric expression of this interpretation disguises several rather academic techniques, including two-part canon of the opening motive, and a reverse circle of fifths progression in the middle motive (“Repeat the sounding joy”).

Silent Night –- There is smooth jazz harmony in this interpretation, as well as counterpoint between the melody and a bass ostinato in the opening measures and a passage near the end in which the first phrase of the melody and the melody’s last phrase are heard simultaneously in two-part polyphony.

Away in a Manger –- This easy-listening reflection of this gentle melody features some unusual reverberation and arpeggio effects.

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear –- Imagine if a symphony composer in Vienna named Ludwig and a Country-and-Western piano player in Nashville named Floyd met at an old piano to collaborate on a cover of “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.” They might have come up with this. And maybe not.

Rhapsody on “In the Bleak Midwinter” –- This work is scored for several combinations of piano and cello: piano solo, one cello and piano, and two cellos and piano. The music expresses the thoughts of Christina Rossetti’s poem “In the Bleak Midwinter” (1872), especially those of Stanza 1: Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow. In the music, open harmony is heard in the piano, suggesting the effect of “hard as iron” and “like a stone.” The flowing cello part, or two parts, express “Snow had fallen, snow on snow,” as well as a phrase in the third verse of the poem: But his mother only, in her maiden bliss, Worshiped the belovéd with a kiss. In the piano part, we hear the melody most associated with Rossetti’s poem, Gustav Holst’s CRANHAM tune (1906).

Silent Night (Beale Street, Memphis; 1914) –- The four blocks of Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, were a bustling district of river traffic and popular entertainment in the early 20th century. The avenue fell into decline as the decades went by. This interpretation reflects on what it might have been like if the Holy Family had gone to Beale Street instead of Bethlehem. Would there have been “no room for them at the inn”?

Jingle Bells. Or, A Sleighride Around the Keys. –- When James Pierpont wrote the original form of “Jingle Bells” in the late 1850s, he had in mind the horse-drawn sleighs at a winter festival in Massachusetts. His lyrics imply that the words “Jingle Bells” were a command, as in “Start jingling, you bells!” Pierpont was also apparently expressing the percussive rhythm of the prancing horses and the flow of the sleighs gliding over the snow, often wobbling, fishtailing, and even overturning. Listen for all these sound-images, and in the closing passage, a distant church bell playing the “Westminster Chime,” in this happy-go-lucky interpretation.