I love Christmas music. I don't know what it is, but (I restrain myself) the day after Thanksgiving the Christmas CDs come out and run non-stop at my house. And in my office.
Today, I'm listening to AccuHolidays streaming internet radio station. What I love about this site is the wide variety of channels from which to choose. There's the classic Christmas channel, the R&B channel, the Holiday Jazz channel, the old-fashioned Christmas channel, and so on.
Of particular interest to me are the song-themed channels. I'm listening right now to the Jingle Channel, which plays nothing but different versions of Jingle Bells (the barking dogs are on right now), Jingle Bell Rock, and (occasionally) Jingle, Jingle, Jingle. There are a few others--there's the Chestnuts Roasting Channel, the White and Blue Channel, and others.
Now it's Danny Kaye and Leith Stevens. There's a strange sort of flutter-tounging...
These channels provide an interesting look at musical ontology in that all of these things are considered "types" of the same "token," yet they vary, occasionally quite significantly. What do these countless versions of "Jingle Bells" all have in common?
Well, it's not the words. The barking dogs prove that. I will concede that perhaps just hearing the melody will evoke the lyrics in most listeners who hear an instrumental version of the tune. A version by Peggy Lee (now playing) features a choir of children singing "I like the sleigh ride" to a little neighbor-note figure as an introduction. The figure also punctuates Lee's performance of the chorus.
It's not the harmonic structure. A version by BeBe and CeCe Winans features a chromaticized version of the traditional accompaniment that features chromatic passing tones, extended tertian chords, and pedal tones. Admittedly, it's not too difficult for even the untrained ear to strip away the chromaticism and recognize the basic chord progression. SheDaisy's version uses fairly unconventional harmonies in their accompaniment.
It's not the form. Lee's version began with the children's chorus "I like the sleigh ride" figure four times (I think). Some versions begin with the chorus; others with a verse. One version I heard by a brass quintet featured "Deck the Halls" as a kind of B section. Some versions include several verses; others just one. Jim Brickman's version starts with a unique piano introduction.
It's not the tempo. Brickman's version is slower than many of the others, as is SheDaisy's. Barbra Striesand's famously syncopated version is quite fast.
It's not the rhythm or meter. Streisand's syncopation is not common to the other versions of the song. SheDaisy's version features quite a lot of liberty in this respect: the song is rewritten in a compound meter (6/8 or 12/8).
It's not the instrumentation. Again, barking dogs.
That leaves us with the melody, which is probably our best shot at unifying all of these things. But most of these performers take a variety of liberties with the melody. Bing Crosby's version is playing now. I particularly like his "Oh we'll have a lotta fun!" in the second chorus. And we can't discount the effect of rhythm, meter, tempo, and harmonic support on our interpretation of melodic tones.
I haven't even approached the subject of what relates "Jingle Bells" to "Jingle Bell Rock" or "Jingle, Jingle, Jingle."
So what exactly is it that unifies all of these remarkably disparate things? What enables us to say that "these are all the same thing" or, more specifically, "these are all versions of the same thing?" What would we have to do to "Jingle Bells" (that hasn't been done already) to "destroy" it? (not that I want to destroy "Jingle Bells"...)
(I've written about similar dilemmas before.)
Today, I'm listening to AccuHolidays streaming internet radio station. What I love about this site is the wide variety of channels from which to choose. There's the classic Christmas channel, the R&B channel, the Holiday Jazz channel, the old-fashioned Christmas channel, and so on.
Of particular interest to me are the song-themed channels. I'm listening right now to the Jingle Channel, which plays nothing but different versions of Jingle Bells (the barking dogs are on right now), Jingle Bell Rock, and (occasionally) Jingle, Jingle, Jingle. There are a few others--there's the Chestnuts Roasting Channel, the White and Blue Channel, and others.
Now it's Danny Kaye and Leith Stevens. There's a strange sort of flutter-tounging...
These channels provide an interesting look at musical ontology in that all of these things are considered "types" of the same "token," yet they vary, occasionally quite significantly. What do these countless versions of "Jingle Bells" all have in common?
Well, it's not the words. The barking dogs prove that. I will concede that perhaps just hearing the melody will evoke the lyrics in most listeners who hear an instrumental version of the tune. A version by Peggy Lee (now playing) features a choir of children singing "I like the sleigh ride" to a little neighbor-note figure as an introduction. The figure also punctuates Lee's performance of the chorus.
It's not the harmonic structure. A version by BeBe and CeCe Winans features a chromaticized version of the traditional accompaniment that features chromatic passing tones, extended tertian chords, and pedal tones. Admittedly, it's not too difficult for even the untrained ear to strip away the chromaticism and recognize the basic chord progression. SheDaisy's version uses fairly unconventional harmonies in their accompaniment.
It's not the form. Lee's version began with the children's chorus "I like the sleigh ride" figure four times (I think). Some versions begin with the chorus; others with a verse. One version I heard by a brass quintet featured "Deck the Halls" as a kind of B section. Some versions include several verses; others just one. Jim Brickman's version starts with a unique piano introduction.
It's not the tempo. Brickman's version is slower than many of the others, as is SheDaisy's. Barbra Striesand's famously syncopated version is quite fast.
It's not the rhythm or meter. Streisand's syncopation is not common to the other versions of the song. SheDaisy's version features quite a lot of liberty in this respect: the song is rewritten in a compound meter (6/8 or 12/8).
It's not the instrumentation. Again, barking dogs.
That leaves us with the melody, which is probably our best shot at unifying all of these things. But most of these performers take a variety of liberties with the melody. Bing Crosby's version is playing now. I particularly like his "Oh we'll have a lotta fun!" in the second chorus. And we can't discount the effect of rhythm, meter, tempo, and harmonic support on our interpretation of melodic tones.
I haven't even approached the subject of what relates "Jingle Bells" to "Jingle Bell Rock" or "Jingle, Jingle, Jingle."
So what exactly is it that unifies all of these remarkably disparate things? What enables us to say that "these are all the same thing" or, more specifically, "these are all versions of the same thing?" What would we have to do to "Jingle Bells" (that hasn't been done already) to "destroy" it? (not that I want to destroy "Jingle Bells"...)
(I've written about similar dilemmas before.)