Theoretically Speaking, S5:E17 – What Makes Holiday Music, Holiday Music?

Um, no.

That would make a lot of Miles Davis tunes Christmas songs.

It’s late December and the holidays are upon us.

Christmas, Haunakkah, and New Year’s Day come to my Western Hemisphere-centric mind. But there are gobs of other holidays near the winter solstice. I’ve never heard of some of them.

Regular readers here are familiar with Christmas songs, but I got curious about the music of the holidays I’m not familiar with.

So I went looking for songs for all the various end-of-the-year holidays, hoping to find a common thread (perhaps it’s the minor 7(♭5) chord, after all) that would tell me what makes holiday music, holiday music.

And:

Some holidays have songs you can sing if you want, but they’re not really part of the tradition. Other holidays have no music associated with them at all. There can’t be a common thread when some holidays have no music.

That was disappointing. But I did learn some other cool stuff. So this article is not really about “what makes holiday music, holiday music.” It’s just some interesting music and stories I found while researching holidays.

It seems like a good way to wrap up this series.

Let’s start with the Zen Buddhist holiday, Bodhi Day.

It commemorates the day the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. 

Bodhi Day is observed on December 8th with different traditions around the world, but the day emphasizes mindfulness and spiritual contemplation. The focus is on meditation, discussions, and rituals to reflect on the significance of the Buddha’s enlightenment. Having said that, Buddhist chanting is pretty musical. Here’s an example.

Pancha Ganapati is a Hindu festival that runs from December 21st to the 25th and celebrates Lord Ganesha.

It’s relatively recent, introduced in 1985 by Western-born guru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, and therefore doesn’t have a long history of traditional songs associated with it.

The bhajans can be traditional or more contemporary. Some people write their own. There isn’t a universally recognized set of traditional Pancha Ganapati songs, but here’s one I liked.

Like Pancha Ganapati, Kwanzaa is a fairly new holiday, created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga.

Kwanzaa is a seven day celebration, from December 26 to January 1, with each day focusing on each of the Nguzo Saba, the “seven principles of African Heritage.” They are:

Only a few Kwanzaa songs have been written and it seems like most are for explaining the holiday to kids. This one is more Adult Contemporary. It’s “A Kwanzaa Song” by Lovely Hoffman.

Mawlid al-Nabi celebrates the birthday of Muhammad, the Islamic prophet.

The exact date varies among different traditions and communities because it’s determined by the lunar calendar.

As with Pancha Ganapati, there aren’t any Mawlid al-Nabi specific songs. But traditional devotional songs, known as nasheeds, may be sung to celebrate. Nasheeds are a form of Islamic vocal music used to express love and admiration for Muhammad, praise Allah, and convey religious messages. 

Islam is a global religion so nasheeds vary in language and style depending on local traditions.

However, there are differing opinions within the Islamic world about the use of music, including nasheeds. Some Islamic scholars and communities don’t observe it as a formal religious practice, while others embrace the celebration.

This song struck me as particularly beautiful:

We here in the west are familiar with quite a few Hanukkah songs:

Like “”Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah,” “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel,” and, of course:

One I didn’t know but like a lot is called “Al Hanisim.” It’s sung during Hanukkah prayers and expresses gratitude for the miracles and victories associated with the holiday, particularly the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem.

“Al Hanisim” uses a mode called the Maqam Hijaz. It’s common in Middle Eastern and Sephardic Jewish music. In western music theory, the Maqam Hijaz is a natural minor scale with a lowered second degree. So that makes it a half step from the first note to the second, a step and a half from the second to the third, then a half step, a whole step, a half step, a whole step, and a half step. Or as shown below, D, E♭, F#, G, A, B♭, and C.

Here’s an orchestral choir version of “Al Hanisim,” that caught my ear.

So. Now we come to Christmas. Where to begin?

We think the oldest Christmas song is “Jesus Refulsit Omnium” from 336 CE.

“Jesus Refulsit Omnium” may have been written by St. Hilary of Poitiers. He was the bishop of Poitiers in what is now France. 

My wife and I visited Poitiers last spring. It’s a beautiful town with many Medieval buildings, and I recommend you visit.

A lot of characters in Christmas songs are fictional.

I hate to break it to you but there’s no such thing as Santa Claus. There was, however, a Wenceslas. In fact, there was a whole family of them.

He rose to power through a nasty series of deaths, which he had no part in. Except his own, of course. 

His father died at the age of 33, and it’s speculated he was killed in battle fighting the Polabian Slavs. Václav’s paternal grandmother took over as regent and was quickly murdered by men working for Václav’s mother. He took the title Duke when he turned 18 and his mother was exiled by the few remaining Christians in the court.

So if Václav was only a duke, where does the “Good King” part come in? After his death, tales of Václav’s good works spread. Holy Roman Emperor Otto I awarded him the title. So, “Good King Wenceslas” it is. 

Completely unrelated, a popular song in Finland was called “Tempus adest floridum.” Written in 1582, its title means “Eastertime has come”, so it’s about a Christian holiday, but not Christmas, and about a season, but not winter. 

Fast forward to England in 1853. Songwriter John Mason Neale took the Finnish song and wrote new lyrics in English about Good King Wenceslas.

Because nothing says Christmas like family members murdering each other.

Many songs we consider Christmas songs have nothing to do with Christmas.

They have to do with winter.

“Let It Snow,” “Jingle Bells,” and “Winter Wonderland” are more about the weather than anything Jesus did in the Middle East. It rarely snows there, you know.

The same goes for Australia.

Rolf Harris, who we know from “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” and various nasty allegations, wrote a song about the difficulties Santa might have in those steamy temperatures.

Reindeer, you see, don’t do well in the heat. So Santa replaces them with six white boomers.

No.

A boomer is an “old man kangaroo.” 

Similarly, comedy duo Bucko & Champs rewrote the lyrics to “Jingle Bells,” replacing key words with Australian slang. The first line goes “Dashing through the bush, in a rusty Holden Ute.” Holden was an Australian car manufacturer, and “ute” is short for “utility vehicle.” Most of the other colloquialisms are beyond me.

Not to be outdone, Air New Zealand has put out some Christmas parodies of their own.

Reminding you that the holidays are a great time to visit a warm country like New Zealand, and would you please fly their airline to get there?

Here’s one featuring Ronan Keating from the Irish boy band Boyzone and young Kiwi actor Julian Dennison as the producer rewriting the lyrics to “Winter Wonderland.”

There’s an industry cranking out holiday tunes for Christmas, more so than any other holiday.

For those who believe that Christmas has become too commercialized: there’s another argument in your favor.

---

Thanks for hanging out with me in Season 5 of Theoretically Speaking.

It’s been fun, and we’ll start up Series 6 sometime after New Year’s Day.

We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

---

(Editor’s note:)

Let the author know that you liked their article with a “Green Thumb” Upvote!