God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

After a long absence, I have returned to celebrate Christmas with you! It's not as long of an absence as you might think, since sometimes I've come here to update the broken links from old posts, or to re-record songs I shared previously, but it has been a year since I added a new song.

We don't know who composed the melody, or even the lyrics, to this song. It's just been passed down through the years. Maybe an entire church or family gathered together to create the song, each contributing a few lines of verse, then forgot who had written the melody. Hymnary estimates that the song dates back to the 18th century.

Who knows - perhaps a church singer wrote the song themselves, but didn't want their name to be written down for credit.

James Cooper writes on his website, WhyChristmas (where I learned a lot of information about Christmas traditions, as well as some reasons why Jesus was probably not born in the winter), that "Merry," a few centuries ago, did not have the exact same meaning as "Happy." It could also mean pleasant, successful, or having plenty. To "rest merry" was to remain in a state of plenty. Plenty of assurance, perhaps, that "Christ our savior was born ... when we were gone astray."

(Can't see a video? Click here to listen on YouTube.)

Keep filling your teacup with music!
~Liya

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Listen to the song here
(Can't see an audio player? It might not work if you're viewing this in an email client. If you are on the site directly, you may need to try a different browser.)


Once you finish making a recording, it's fixed forever. Thankfully, musicians have a tool that can help them control their need for perfection. We can play a song better later and re-record it. This brings the two sides of the coin together: we can listen to how we sounded in previous years, use our new knowledge, consider all the ways we could have done it differently, and actually do it differently.

In fact, in case you're curious, that’s what I’ve done with today’s recording.

Enjoy your last 10 days of 2023 - and keep filling your teacup with music!
~Liya 

 

Carol of the Bells

We usually associate "Carol of the Bells" with Christmas because of its English lyrics. (I've seen many versions, but they're all about Christmas.) However, the original Ukrainian version of this song, "Shchedryk," was about the New Year. In 1919, Mykola Leontovych wrote it based on Ukrainian folk chants. The lyrics describe a little bird coming to a home, proclaiming all the good fortune that is on its way. If only it could visit us this year...

Listen to the song here
(Can't see an audio player? It might not work if you're viewing this in an email client. If you are on the site directly, you may need to try a different browser.)

 

In my last 2 posts, I wrote about how recording is a way of defining how you played at a certain time. It also lets you see all your mistakes and missed opportunities.

If I feel like recording your music doesn’t just entail perfectionism, but is perfectionism, how do the professionals feel?

How do they work up the courage to lay their music down on records? They’re in a public position, representing the peak of piano playing. The consequences of slipping up on a famously difficult section, or missing some information about how the music should be played, are an order of magnitude greater.

Now think about professional musicians in the early 1900s, the start of the recording era, who are now being listened to over 100 years later! They put their playing on full display, with limited editing capabilities, for future generations to hear. I was pleasantly surprised to find how many of these recordings we still have!

 

O Come, O Come, Immanuel

Listen to the song here
(Can't see an audio player? It might not work if you're viewing this in an email client. If you are on the site directly, you may need to try a different browser.)


Recording your music gives you a window into your past playing. On the other side of the coin, it can be more stressful than even a live performance. Once you play the notes, they don’t disappear in the air; they’re saved for you or others to listen to at any time. The recording defines how I sounded playing today’s song in 2021.

I'm happy with how this recording turned out, but oftentimes when I listen to my old recordings, I think of new techniques I’ve learned that I could have used. Sometimes I’m even disappointed with how I stumbled through a difficult section. 

I think I'm forced to be a perfectionist in some sense when I record. I can't escape it; it's just part of the process to keep trying until your recording is the best it can be.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Listen to the song here
(Can't see an audio player? It might not work if you're viewing this in an email client. If you are on the site directly, you may need to try a different browser.)

 

I’m planning to post 4 Christmas songs this week, but I can’t think of 4 ideas to write about, so I’ll take my 1 idea and split it up. Who knows, maybe you don't have the time to read 4 posts in one week!

Today’s recording has gone through a long wait to be posted here, so now is the time. One advantage of making recordings is that I get to hear what my playing sounded like 2, 3, or 5 years ago. I don’t have to sit and try to remember; I can just listen!

Nocturne in Ab, "The Murmur"

At long last, Maria Szymanowska is coming back. Here is another piece I know by her, a Nocturne in A flat. It was written for 3 hands, so I layered two recordings of myself together.


Listen to the song here
(Can't see an audio player? It might not work if you're viewing this in an email client. If you are on teawithliya.blogspot.ca, you may need to try a different browser.)

Prelude in E

Today, I am playing a Prelude in E Major by Maria Szymanowska. It is the third in her set of 4 Preludes. Szymanowska was a Polish composer who doesn't get nearly as much attention as Chopin, but could be considered a forerunner of him. Who knows how many composers there were like her who have simply been forgotten despite their achievements?

Listen to the song here
(Can't see an audio player? It might not work if you're viewing this in an email client. If you are on teawithliya.blogspot.ca, you may need to try a different browser.)