I do enjoy Christmas music. One of the things I love the most about it is it’s diversity. This year one of the classes I teach is doing a project with Carol of the Bells and I thought it would be fun to share my research with more than just my class.
The project is very basic, learning about accompaniment but to get ideas flowing I sent them the following list of interesting versions of our favorite Ukrainian christmas song. Enjoy!
Original in Ukrainian: https://youtu.be/HERnFfbcIxY
Play list of all the videos (but not in order, sorry).
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_iySOQBHK06ZZKMhNCZiktDpZjzonu4z
More Traditional Arrangements
Orchestra: https://youtu.be/VnkjENi-RGE
Celtic Woman (Choir & Orchestra, small): https://youtu.be/GsFUyq3R004
Choir & Orchestra huge: https://youtu.be/k-W2Bkz_Rno
A cappella (Voices only): https://youtu.be/FSCo5dZ42v8
Bell Choir: https://youtu.be/Ac_MOMGUtro
Saxophone Quartet: https://youtu.be/wmwQu2TpzY8
Clarinet Quartet (Very unique arrangement): https://youtu.be/SK6dZYsrYoU
Flute Choir: https://youtu.be/1zdC7QmGnfw
Jazz (in duple instead of triple time): https://youtu.be/2hgbhmx69xs
Jazz choir (slow): https://youtu.be/wAY9_KlLjHM
Modern arrangements and pop
The Piano Guys (Piano and Cello): https://youtu.be/e9GtPX6c_kg
Lindsey Stirling (Violin and techno): https://youtu.be/EKkzbbLYPuI
Pentatonix (A cappella): https://youtu.be/WSUFzC6_fp8
>>This one ends on what we call a picardy third. The song is in minor but tine final chord is major.
Dark Christmas (Orchestra): https://youtu.be/URugFjhXHrs
Trans-Siberian Orchestra: https://youtu.be/sCabI3MdV9g
Mannheim Steamroller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVftSkNgJTA
Electro Swing/Glitch Hop: https://youtu.be/4fe6-RGSI1E
Floppotron (not a unique arrangement, but it’s floppotron so I had to include it): https://youtu.be/PRNT2uYjNC8
Versions with music to watch along with.
Jazz: https://youtu.be/D4tzbsVWlmU
Progressive Rock in 7/8 time: https://youtu.be/YWLfiP7Rylk
Pentatonix: https://youtu.be/0ZudxiQePzo
Last one – Carol of the Bells is in a minor key. If you were to change it major harmonies it would sound like this. Very different.
https://youtu.be/e-1-MOmFNLk
I love all the moods created by the piece of music and the different ways we have manipulated it. I hadn’t realized, but we use it for the Joker theme in Batman. It has also been in a small hord of christmas movies and even our beloved muppets did their own version.
Happy holidays and enjoy your listening 🙂
