{"id":71544,"date":"2019-12-13T12:52:42","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T20:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/?p=71544"},"modified":"2025-11-26T09:56:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T17:56:25","slug":"classical-composers-holiday-gifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/classical-composers-holiday-gifts\/","title":{"rendered":"Classical Composers\u2019 Holiday Gifts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What\u2019s more meaningful than a homemade gift \u2013 especially when the giver is a composer and the gift is music? Here\u2019s a list of five classical compositions that were given as holiday gifts!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Johannes Ockeghem: Ma maitresse\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/T_X7t9Ncbjo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Johannes Ockeghem (c.1410-1497): An Illuminated Chanson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Johannes Ockeghem was a brilliant 15<sup>th<\/sup>-century Franco-Flemish composer. Gifted with a deep and beautiful bass voice, Ockeghem spent his career singing, composing, and directing church music, in places like the cathedral in Antwerp, and later, in the French royal chapel under several monarchs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ockeghem had a particularly good professional relationship with King Charles VII (1403-1461), who reportedly loved music \u2013 we have records indicating the king\u2019s purchase of precious illuminated songbooks for personal enjoyment. As a New Year\u2019s gift in 1454, Ockeghem offered the king a book of his own songs. The present must have been well-received, because for New Year\u2019s Day 1459, Ockeghem went a step further and gave the king a lavishly illuminated copy of one of his <em>chansons<\/em>, or secular partsongs. We don\u2019t know which of his songs was the gift on this occasion; any of them would be a worthy gift for a royal, as you can hear from Ockeghem\u2019s chanson <em>Ma Maistresse <\/em>(My Mistress)<em>. <\/em>Like many of Ockeghem\u2019s works, this chanson features a glorious part for bass voices like his own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel - Das Jahr - December\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bTn74p0_UwE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847): A Year in Piano Music<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1839, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel traveled to Italy with her husband Wilhelm and their young son Sebastian. She spent the better part of a year visiting Venice, Rome, and Naples, soaking up the musical and cultural flavors of Italy. One of the musical fruits of this trip was Hensel\u2019s piano cycle <em>Das Jahr<\/em>, a set of thirteen pieces, one for each month of the year plus an epilogue. The cycle is full of musical images of the Italian trip, like a Tarantella for Carnaval season in \u201cFebruary.\u201d <em>Das Jahr <\/em>also travels home to Hensel\u2019s life in Berlin: \u201cDecember\u201d depicts a dramatic snowstorm, and ends by quoting the Lutheran Christmas carol, \u201cVom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her\u201d (From Heaven High I Come to You).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fanny Hensel completed <em>Das Jahr<\/em> on December 23, 1841, and presented the set to her husband as a Christmas gift. Soon afterward the couple embarked on an artistic project together: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omifacsimiles.com\/brochures\/hensel.html\">a beautiful album edition of <em>Das Jahr<\/em><\/a> with epigrams from their favorite poets and handpainted illustrations by Wilhelm, who was a Court Painter and art professor in Berlin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Clara Schumann: Am Strande\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IVOLnuTr0Kc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Clara Schumann (1819-1896): Three Love Songs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Soon after the Hensels\u2019 return from Italy, another artistic couple celebrated their first Christmas as newlyweds. Clara Wieck married Robert Schumann in 1840 after years of fraught courtship. The two had met when Robert was studying piano with Clara\u2019s father Friedrich Wieck, who threw Robert out of the house when he discovered their relationship. Clara and her father were close, and she felt torn between her loyalty to her father and her love for her sweetheart. Clara and Robert eventually had to sue Wieck for the right to marry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Christmas of 1840, Clara Schumann presented Robert with three songs she had composed that year: \u201cAm Strande,\u201d (On the Shore), \u201cVolkslied\u201d (Folk Song) and \u201cIch stand in dunklen Tr\u00e4umen\u201d (I Stood in Dark Dreams). All three songs explore the longing of star-crossed lovers: for example, in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfordlieder.co.uk\/song\/949\">\u201cAm Strande,\u201d<\/a> a woman gazes across the stormy ocean which divides her from her beloved. Perhaps these songs were Clara\u2019s way of telling Robert how she\u2019d felt during the long, challenging courtship that led to their first Christmas together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Hansel und Gretel - Abends will ich schlafen gehn (Gruberova)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/96pW-o2tzjA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921): A Fairy Tale Opera<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One musical holiday favorite actually started out as a Christmas gift. On Christmas of 1890, composer Engelbert Humperdinck presented his fianc\u00e9e Hedwig Taxer with a singspiel he\u2019d composed for voices and piano. (A singspiel, or \u201csinging-play,\u201d is an operatic work with songs and dialogue \u2013 Mozart\u2019s Magic Flute is a famous example.) The libretto was written by Humperdinck\u2019s sister Adelheid Wette, based on \u201cHansel and Gretel\u201d by the Brothers Grimm. The next year, Humperdinck orchestrated Hansel and Gretel and expanded it into a full opera, in time to offer a draft of the complete work to Hedwig, now his wife, on Christmas of 1891.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a couple of years, Humperdinck\u2019s charming fairy tale became a sort of Christmas gift to the world, premiering in Weimar on December 23, 1873, under the direction of Richard Strauss. The opera was an instant hit and has been delighting audiences ever since, especially during the holidays.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Evening Scene in D Minor: Lo! Christ the Lord Is Born\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lWGwvzayUiM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Edward Elgar (1857-1934): A Musical Christmas Card<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1897 Edward and Alice Elgar sent a musical gift to everyone on their Christmas card list. Elgar composed a charming little partsong to a traditional text honoring his home, the town of Malvern: \u201cGrete Malverne on a Rocke.\u201d The text came from a book entitled Historic Worcestershire, by W. Salt Brassington (1894). The Elgars had this little song printed on their Christmas cards, as a sort of Victorian corollary to the family photo cards you might send during the holiday season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1907, Elgar\u2019s publisher Novello received a request from their ailing retired employee J.A. Jaeger. Jaeger was Elgar\u2019s close friend, immortalized in the gorgeous \u201cNimrod\u201d variation from Elgar\u2019s Enigma Variations. Jaeger wanted Novello to turn Elgar\u2019s Christmas card tune into a published carol for all the world to enjoy.&nbsp; In 1908, poet Sharpcott Wensley wrote a Christmas text for Elgar\u2019s tune, which was published as \u201cA Carol for Christmastide.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What\u2019s more meaningful than a homemade gift \u2013 especially when the giver is a composer and the gift is music? Here\u2019s a list of five classical compositions that were given as holiday gifts! Johannes Ockeghem (c.1410-1497): An Illuminated Chanson Johannes Ockeghem was a brilliant 15th-century Franco-Flemish composer. Gifted with a deep and beautiful bass voice, &#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":71640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4056],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-for-fun"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 04:19:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71544"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108827,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71544\/revisions\/108827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}