December 2014 - Featured Playlist (NML): The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer

And so this is Christmas. For no other holiday is music such a central part of celebrations both sacred and secular for so many people. Naxos Music Library includes a wide array of Christmas music to accompany your holiday observances, and we’ve included in this playlist an assortment to help guide you. After all, sharing music is the best way to spread Christmas cheer!

To hear the playlist, access NML as usual, go to the Playlists section, and select the Playlist of the Month folder under the Naxos Music Library Playlists tab. If you are on your institution's premises, you may also be able to access it if you CLICK HERE.

 1. John Jacob Niles – I Wonder As I Wander – Niles composed this tune after hearing a young girl in Appalachian North Carolina sing a brief fragment of melody at a fundraising meeting. He took these bits of tune and developed them into one of the more haunting and lovely holiday folk songs widely heard today.

2. Bernard de la Monnoye – Patapan – Patapan was originally written in the Burgundian dialect and published in 1720, and it tells of shepherds playing flutes and drums in celebration of Christmas. The version included here is performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the New York Philharmonic, with Leonard Bernstein conducting.

3. Raymond Scott – The Toy Trumpet – Known best for its use at the end of the 1938 film Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm starring Shirley Temple, “The Toy Trumpet” has become a popular holiday and pops tune. Fun fact about the film: Temple learned to play the drums for a scene, but her mother protested, saying that the posture needed to play drums was “unladylike”. The scene was ultimately cut from the film.

4. Traditional – The Enniscorthy Christmas Carol – Known from at least the mid-19th century, this folk carol is from County Wexford in southeastern Ireland. This recording is taken from a gorgeous collection of Wexford carols released this year by Irish singer Caitríona O'Leary, with guest vocals by Roseanne Cash, Tom Jones, and Rhiannon Giddens.

5. Camille Saint-Saëns – Oratorio de Noël, Op. 12: Air: Domine, ego credidi - Saint-Saëns, 23 years old at the time, knocked out his Christmas Oratorio in less than two weeks, allowing a full ten days before the work was premiered on Christmas Day 1858. This beautifully stirring passage is scored for tenor, choir, organ, and strings.

6. Benjamin Britten – A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28: Balulalow – Britten’s partner Peter Pears described A Ceremony of Carols as “a ceremony of innocence, a musical representation of life before the fall.” Indeed, a profound sense of purity and wonder can be heard in this work, which Britten composed for treble choir and harp.

7. Johann Sebastian Bach – Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248: Part II, Aria: Schlafe, mein Liebster, genieße der Ruh' – Bach’s Christmas Oratorio was originally composed to be performed across six church feast days of the Christmas season. While not as widely known as Handel’s Messiah, which was composed seven years later, this work is equally rich and even grander in scale, and has earned its own solid place in today’s sacred Christmas celebrations.

8. Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov – Christmas Eve Suite: VII. Polonaise – A witch, the devil, a bunch of people tied up in sacks, all under a moonless and starless December sky… Such is the subject matter of the story upon which Rimsky-Korsakov based his opera Christmas Eve. Festive, right? Luckily, the score is full of Rimsky-Korsakov’s characteristically colorful orchestration, and this polonaise is a highlight of the suite derived from the opera.

9. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – 3 German Dances, K. 605: No. 3 in C major, “Die Schlittenfahrt” – Mozart is well known for having a playful side, to the point of sometimes being crass (at least according to societal and musical mores of the day). “Die Schlittenfahrt” (Sleigh Ride) is one example of his playfulness, as he makes use of tuned sleigh bells, something that may well have startled a more buttoned-up, proper society.

10. Franz Xavier Gruber – Stille Nacht – Franz Gruber was a German schoolteacher who worked a second job as organist and choirmaster at a local church. On Christmas Eve 1818, Joseph Mohr, a Catholic priest, brought him the lyrics to set to music, but the organ was broken down. As a result, the first performance was carried out the next day using a guitar for accompaniment.

11. Adolphe Adam – Cantique de Noël (O Holy Night) – Poet (and wine merchant!) Placide Cappeau was commissioned to write the lyrics to this sacred carol, a task he accepted despite being an atheist himself. The song, composed by Adolphe Adam, was first performed in 1847 by an opera singer, so it only seemed right to select here a rendition by Plácido Domingo. It’s certainly a melody made for a big voice.

12. Katherine Kennicott Davis – The Little Drummer Boy – Written in 1941, this Christmas class began to receive wide attention when it was recorded fourteen years later by the Trapp Family Singers (yes, those Trapp Family Singers) as “Carol of the Drum”. It became a big hit in 1958 for Harry Simeone, who gave the song its current title and claimed writer’s royalties for his arrangement.

13. Traditional – Fum Fum Fum – This carol originated in Catalonia and likely dates from the 16th or 17th century. There is no consensus about the meaning of “fum” in this context; the word is Catalan for “smoke”, but it has also been described as the sound of a drum or guitar, or as the act of playing the fiddle.

14. Kirk Elliott – Nutcracker Nouveau (after Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker): V. Sugar Plum Fairy – Ensemble Polaris put their unique spin on Tchaikovsky’s Christmas fixture, blending classical with folk, roots, klezmer, bluegrass, and a little bit of everything else. Using instruments such as clarinet, mandolin, and cello, they have created here a whimsical reimagining worth hearing.

15. Mykola Leontovych – Carol of the Bells – Leontovych wrote this melody in 1904 and based it on a Ukrainian chant. His original lyrics were regarding the coming of the new year, which in his day and culture was celebrated in April. American Peter Wilhousky wrote the English lyrics in the 1930s, adapting them to apply to Christmas and the Gregorian new year.

16. Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Phil Spector – Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – This tune was originally written for Spector’s wife Ronnie, but her lackluster performance necessitated giving the song instead to Darlene Love, who made it a holiday classic. This version, performed by Death Cab for Cutie, is taken from a compilation that also features Pedro the Lion, Copeland, and more.

17. Irving Berlin – White Christmas – Outside of, you know, Jesus, Mary, and Santa Claus, there’s no figure who’s become more synonymous with Christmas than Bing Crosby. Okay, so that’s a bit hyperbolic, but no holiday playlist is truly complete without ol’ Bing singing “White Christmas”. It’s the best-selling single of all time, too, and by quite a bit; at over 50 million copies sold, its competition so far is Elton John’s decidedly un-festive “Candle in the Wind”, a long shot with 33 million.

18. Bob Wells, Mel Tormé – The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) – This song was started by Bob Wells when he tried to combat a blazing hot summer by listing things that made him think of cold weather. Mel Tormé took that list and forty minutes later had the song that would go on to be the most performed Christmas tune of all time. The version here is sung by Tony Bennett.

19. Hugh Martin – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – This song was written in 1944 for the film Meet Me in St. Louis, where it was performed by none other than Judy Garland. Thirteen years later Frank Sinatra asked Martin to “jolly up” the lyrics for him, and the original line “Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow” was replaced with “Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.”

20. Traditional – We Wish You a Merry Christmas – This song originates from sixteenth-century England. Carolers would often be given treats by the wealthy on Christmas Eve, hence the lyrics about figgy pudding (similar to the traditional English Christmas pudding). The version here is performed by the United States Navy Band and Sea Chanters Chorus.


Oh, and there’s a bonus track, but you’ll have to go to the playlist to find it. It’s only one of the greatest pieces ever composed, updated on a grander scale by one of the greatest composers who ever lived. No big deal, right?

Each month, Naxos Music Library presents a themed playlist for our subscribers to enjoy. We know that a database of over 1.5 million tracks can be a bit daunting, so we'd like to highlight some of the amazing music that is available to you. Let it kickstart discovery!

November 2014 - Featured Playlist: Northern Lights

From the fjords to the Baltic Sea, from the realm of the reindeer to an island forged in fire and ice, Scandinavia has captured the imagination of wanderers and wonderers around the world. It’s a region rich with history, one that spans from before the rugged reign of the Vikings to some of the most affluent and progressive societies of today. It also boasts a proud and distinct musical heritage that incorporates land, legend, and culture as effectively as any other corner of the globe. This is the mystical, mighty sound of the Northern Lights.

To hear the playlist, access NML as usual, go to the Playlists section, and select the Playlist of the Month folder under the Naxos Music Library Playlists tab. If you are on your institution's premises, you may also be able to access it if you CLICK HERE.

1. Traditional – Ye Honest Bridal Couple/Sønderho Bridal Trilogy Part I – This track marries two traditional wedding songs, the first from the far-flung, foggy Faroe Islands, and the second from Fanø Island, just off the west coast of Denmark. It is performed by the Danish String Quartet, who channel their finely honed technical chops into a beguiling arrangement that kicks off one of the best new classical releases of the year.

2. Lars-Erik Larsson – Förklädd Gud (God in Disguise): Kring höstlig vaktelds bränder – Premiered on a Swedish broadcast in 1940, Larson’s God in Disguise includes musical passages intercut with narration, a form popular with radio at the time. Both thematically and musically, the work is a plea for simplicity composed at a time when the world was becoming torn apart by war. It continues to be one of Larsson’s best-known contributions to the Swedish repertoire.

3. Jean Sibelius – Karelia Suite, Op. 11: III. Alla marcia: Moderato – The Karelia region lies in eastern Finland, on the border with Russia. It was an area much loved of Sibelius; as a young man he was fascinated by its folk music, and he also spent his honeymoon there. The suite which the region inspired was intentionally simple in style, as Sibelius felt this would lend a greater air of authenticity to the folk-inspired work.

4. Carl Nielsen – Symphony No. 5, Op. 50: II. Allegro – Completed in January 1922, Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony carries no intentional influence of World War I, but in the composer’s own words, “not one of us is the same as we were before the war.” Upon hearing it, it’s not hard to conclude that the war did indeed play a role in the symphony. A fun side note for Star Wars fans: While presumably a coincidence, one recurring five-note motif (for example, 1:59-2:06) might sound quite familiar to you.

5. Edvard Grieg – 2 Elegiac Melodies, Op. 34: No. 2, Våren (The Last Spring) – Grieg set 12 poems by Norwegian nationalist poet Aasmund Olafsson Vinje to music, then arranged two of these melodies for string orchestra. The poem upon which this track is based depicts a springtime colored by the recognition that a person might not live to see another, and this blend of renewal and farewell is masterfully expressed in the music.

6. Ole Bull - Et Sæterbesøg (A Mountain Vision) – Bull is known best as a highly successful violinist who was described by Robert Schumann as being on the same level as the legendary Niccolò Paganini. Though he composed over seventy works, only about ten are much known today, including this folk-influenced piece for solo violin and orchestra. He was also a friend of the Grieg family, and he recognized and encouraged young Edvard’s talent.

 7. Niels Gade – Et Folkesagn (A Folk Tale): Brudevalsen (Bridal Waltz) - Niels Gade was an important influence on several Scandinavian composers who followed him, including Edvard Grieg and Carl Nielsen, and he is considered to be the greatest Danish composer of his generation. His Brudevalsen became a vital part of Danish weddings, but it is said that he didn’t judge it to be particularly great at the time, and that it had to be rescued from a trash can.

8. Wilhelm Stenhammar – String Quartet No. 5 in C major, Op. 29, “Serenade”: II. Ballata: Allegretto scherzando – Stenhammar had quite the varied output, and though he was a pianist himself (the finest Swedish pianist of his time at that), his string quartets have been described as the most important works in that form between Brahms and Bartók. However, they remain relatively unknown outside Sweden, and unjustly so.

9. Kurt Atterberg – Symphony No. 2 in F major, Op. 6: II. Adagio – Presto – Adagio – Presto – Adagio – Atterberg was 24 and finishing up his engineering studies when he began work on his Symphony No. 2. That summer was spent in the Stockholm archipelago, sleeping on bare cliffs where he “was not precisely alone…” as he cryptically put it. This second movement, composed at the time, certainly hints at a youthful exuberance sparked by more than just the beautiful landscape.

10. Vagn Holmboe – Viola Concerto, Op. 189: I. Allegro moderato, ma con forza – Danish composer Vagn Holmboe may have been 82 when he composed his Viola Concerto, but the work crackles with the energy and bravura of a youthful spirit. While his work typically is solidly Nordic in style, this concerto contains a slight Jewish influence as well, in honor of Israeli virtuoso Rivka Golani, for whom the work was written.

11. Kaija Saariaho – Notes on Light: II. On Fire – Saariaho was known early in her career as a post-serialist composer, but she grew tired of its restrictions, saying “I don’t want to write music through negations. Everything is permissible as long as it’s done in good taste.” Her work also became less reliant on electronics and more open to melody. Notes on Light is a cello concerto composed in 2007 that is indicative of this Finnish composer’s development.

12. Kalevi Aho – Symphony No. 12, “Luosto”: I. Samaanit (The Shamans) – A tremendously prolific composer, Aho frequently draws inspiration from Finland’s past. This is especially evident in this symphony, which was premiered on a mountainside in Lapland. It conjures up images of the region’s primeval past, full of superstition and rugged landscapes, with music that is brutal, beautiful, and majestic each in turn.

13. Esa-Pekka Salonen – Nachtlieder: III. Frei, wie Kadenz – Salonen, of Finland, is probably better known as a conductor, but he’s also won prestige for his compositions, to the point that both talents were featured in a recent advertisement for Apple’s iPad Air. The work included here is a movement from a suite for solo clarinet and piano that he composed when he was only 20 years old, a brief inkling of the great things to come.

14. Jón Leifs – Requiem, Op. 33b – Musically speaking, Iceland is best known for contemporary artists like Sigur Rós and Björk, but Jón Leifs is the captivating island nation’s most prominent classical composer. His short choral piece titled Requiem is one of four works he composed for his daughter Líf, who drowned in 1947 when she was only 18. The constantly shifting major-to-minor tonalities are a heart-wrenching expression of both tender love and inexpressible grief.



Each month, Naxos Music Library presents a themed playlist for our subscribers to enjoy. We know that a database of over 1.5 million tracks can be a bit daunting, so we'd like to highlight some of the amazing music that is available to you. Let it kickstart discovery!

October 2014 - Featured Playlist: The Exploring Twenties

This month we’re taking a look at the Roaring Twenties, or what might also be called the Exploring Twenties. Romanticism had years before splintered off into different directions such as Impressionism and Modernism, while what we call Neoclassicism was starting to find inspiration by bringing the further past back into the present. Meanwhile, Arnold Schoenberg and his followers were upending the very foundations of tonality, and the bold new world of jazz was beginning to invade the symphony hall. It was an exciting time, one bursting with energy and possibility for both music and culture as a whole. As you enjoy this playlist, let it transport you to the tension and the release of the time in which it was created.

To hear the playlist, access NML as usual, go to the Playlists section, and select the Playlist of the Month folder under the Naxos Music Library Playlists tab. If you are on your institution's premises, you may also be able to access it if you CLICK HERE.

1. Sergei Prokofiev – The Love for Three Oranges Suite: III. March – Shortly after World War I, Prokofiev undertook a brutal four-month trans-Pacific journey to the United States, and along the way he labored at the libretto for the comic opera from which this suite was derived. It premiered in 1921, with the suite following three years later.

 

2. Kurt Atterberg – Symphony No. 6 in C Major, “Dollar Symphony”: III. Vivace – In 1928, Atterberg entered his dazzling Sixth Symphony into a worldwide composition competition and walked away with first prize and the hefty sum of $10,000 (around $140,000 today), earning it the nickname “Dollar Symphony”. This work is simply pure, unabashed fun.

 

3. George Gershwin – Piano Concerto in F Major: III. Allegro con brio – The day after Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody in Blue premiered, he received a commission for a piano concerto, one that would follow that traditional form whilst integrating his trademark jazz flair. Not having formal composition training, he taught himself the concerto form and produced this infectious work.


4. Béla Bartók – String Quartet No. 4: V. Allegro molto – While not binding himself to 12-tone or other forms of serialism, Bartók did venture well out of the traditional major and minor tonalities, choosing to apply equal value to every note. This final movement of his String Quartet No. 4 makes use of whole tone scales and inversion and retrograde forms of the melody.

5. Germaine Tailleferre – La nouvelle Cythere, Pavane: Assez lent – Tailleferre changed her surname from Taillefesse as a little act of resistance to her father’s disapproval of her musical ambitions. Her work was championed by Ravel, and she was a member of the group of young composers known as Les Six. Her work from the 20s and 30s is best-known, but she composed right up to her death in 1983.

6. Igor Stravinsky – Oedipus Rex, Act II: Divum jocastae caput mortuum – Sometimes performed as an opera, other times as an oratorio, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex has been described by Leonard Bernstein as the most “awesome product” of the composer’s neoclassical period. The text was written by French writer and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, then translated into Latin.


7. Arnold Schoenberg – Variations for Orchestra: Finale – Schoenberg is most readily known as the developer of the 12-tone compositional technique, in which the composer uses a predetermined pattern that provides all 12 tones of the chromatic scale with equal emphasis. Variations for Orchestra was his first such work composed for a large ensemble.



8. Alban Berg – Lyric Suite: V. Presto delirando – This 12-tone work for string quartet features a secret dedication to a mistress; a melodic sequence of A-B-H-F (another way of saying A-B♭-B♮-F) spells out their initials side by side, and Berg borrows a bit of melody from Zemlinsky, the official dedicatee of the piece, that in the original work is paired with the lyrics “You are mine own.”

9. Zoltán Kodály - Háry János Suite: V. Közjáték (Intermezzo) – The early 20th century was a time when unexpected instruments were increasingly included in formal compositions. Kodály’s spectacular Háry János Suite of 1927 quite prominently makes use of a cimbalom, a traditional Hungarian form of the hammered dulcimer.

10. Kurt Weill – Die Dreigroschenoper: Ballad of Mack the Knife – Just before this musical’s premiere, the lead actor demanded a new song be added to better introduce his character. Weill and lyricist Bertolt Brecht complied—but had the song sung by another character. This song, known as “Mack the Knife”, went on to become one of the great standards of its time.

11. Amy Beach – A Mirage, Op. 100 No. 1 – A child prodigy who was improvising counterpoint at the age of two, Amy Beach went on to become the first successful female American composer. Aside from one year of study, she was self-taught in composition, and in 1915 she compiled many of her own principles into a book titled Ten Commandments for Young Composers. "A Mirage" was composed in 1924.

12. Francis Poulenc – Concert champêtre: II. Andante – Concert champêtre was composed for noted harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, who was pivotal in renewing interest in an instrument that had been largely neglected throughout the previous century. The piece is a fine example of Neoclassicism, combining technical advances of the 20th century, like a harpsichord loud enough to compete with a full orchestra, with 18th-century ideals.

13. Darius Milhaud – La création du monde, Op. 81 – The creation of the world, as presented in African folk mythology, provided the subject for this ballet piece. It was inspired by Milhaud’s first exposure to jazz music, which he heard on the streets of Harlem in 1922. He described these jazz ensembles as including “a complicated percussion section played by just one man.” Oh, that new-fangled drum set…

14. Maurice Ravel – L’enfant et les sortilèges: Il est bon, l’enfant, il est sage – The text for L’enfant et les sortileges was written in eight days, but it was eight years before Ravel completed the music, as World War I and a period of ill health intervened. Finally finished and premiered in 1925, the work was an elaborate production that called for eight soloists, two choirs (adults and children), and a full orchestra.

Each month, Naxos Music Library presents a themed playlist for our subscribers to enjoy. We know that a database of nearly 1.5 million tracks can be a bit daunting, so we'd like to highlight some of the amazing music that is available to you. Let it kickstart discovery!

The New NML Mobile App Is Here!

Naxos Music Library is proud and excited to introduce the brand new NML mobile app! Ain't it pretty?

Of course, it's not all about appearance; that would make us shallow, horrible people. The new mobile app comes with greatly improved stability as well, and it boasts cleaner and more logical usability. Further features:

1. Create a user account on the go! The old process of creating an account from a computer is still available, but now mobile users who are on their school or library's wi-fi can sign up directly from the app. Additionally, if an institution provides users with a mobile access code, it can be used to sign up from anywhere! Find out more here.
2. Create playlists directly on the app. Previously users could only stream playlists created from a computer, but now they can add any track to any playlist from anywhere.
3. The player includes improved and expanded controls, including the ability to shuffle, scrub, rewind, or fast-forward through tracks.

If you already have the old mobile app, the new one will be available as an update. If you have not downloaded our mobile app yet, you can easily find it by searching "NML" or "Naxos Music Library" in the app store. At this time, the new app is available for iOS only, but an Android version is expected to follow within a month, and iOS and Android apps for NML-Jazz after that.

Did we mention that the mobile app is still free? Because it is. So download it today, and take 100,000 albums with you in your pocket wherever you go!

How to Access the NML Mobile App

To gain access to the Naxos Music Library app, you will need to create a mobile login. This quick process will connect you with your school or library's specific NML account, which is necessary for letting you access both your institution's and your personal playlists.

If you have ever created your own playlist in NML, then you already have access to the mobile app. Simply log in using the same email address and password you use to reach your playlists. If you have never done this before, there are three ways you can set this up. Don't worry, it should only take a moment.

Option 1: If you are on a desktop or laptop right now, you can access NML as you normally do, then click on the Mobile App link at the top of the page (1). Follow the instructions there (2), and once you click the activation link in the confirmation email (3), you can then use the credentials you just created to sign in to the app.

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(2)

(3)

 

Option 2: If you are on a mobile device and using wi-fi, and if you are on campus or at your library, you can sign up directly in the mobile app through the link at the bottom of the app's front page (1). How do we know which institution to match you up with (2)? Magic! Not really. We just match up the IP address you're using with the institution that claims it. Once you click the link in the activation email (3), you're good to go!

(1)                                                           (2)

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Option 3: If you are on a mobile device but not on campus or the library premises, after you click the sign-up link on the front page of the app (1) and the app fails to link your IP address with your institution, you will be sent to a screen (2) where you can use a mobile access code that your professor or librarian may have provided to you. It could be in an email they sent out, or in a course syllabus. If you have this, then you can sign up for a mobile account anywhere! The app will use this code to match you up with the right institution. Then you can create your login for the app (3) and activate via email (4). 

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(3)                                                           (4)

If you do not have an access code, try following option 1 (above) in your mobile browser as though you were on a computer. Some mobile devices and/or browsers can have a little trouble streaming audio, but you can log in this way long enough to sign up for access to the mobile app as you would on a computer.

Note that confirmation emails can sometimes end up in your junk folder, so don't forget to check there if you don't see it in your inbox. In the unlikely event you're unable to find this email in your inbox or junk folder, contact us at NMLHelp@NaxosUSA.com (U.S. and Canada) or Customer.Service@Naxos.com (all other countries) and let us know through which institution you receive access to NML and which email address you used to sign up. We'll get you activated right away.

Once you are signed up and activated, enjoy taking Naxos Music Library with you wherever you go! And make yourself a playlist or two so you can listen to all your favorite recordings in one place. Happy listening!