Christmas on the Piano

 

Some of Tomoko’s favorite composers wrote Christmas music for the piano.

Liszt, for example, composed a suite of twelve pieces: Weihnachsbaum (Christmas tree). Several of the pieces are based on traditional Christmas carols. He dedicated this work to his first grandchild Daniela von Bülow, who was born on Christmas Eve. This suite was first performed on Christmas Day, 1881, in Daniela’s hotel room in Rome.

Another composer who was inspired was Bartok, who heard regional traditional Romanian carols, called colinde, and transformed them into two series of piano pieces totaling 30 works.

It is not surprising that Cesar Franck composed four Christmas piano pieces. He was a major French Romantic composer and music teacher. In his thirties he became the organist for the Basilica of Sty. Clotilde in Paris, a position he held until he died in 1890. One of his most famous compositions was the communion anthem “Panis Angelicus,”  but he also wrote a set of four piano pieces specifically for Christmas, again based on traditional carols: “Christmas Carol from Anjou,” “Now Tell Us, Gentle Mary,” “Old Christmas Carol,” and “Whence Comes This Rush of Wings?”

Christmas traditions also inspired composers, such as Berlioz. In 1844 he composed “Rustic Serenade to the Virgin on the Theme of the Roman Pifferari” for the melodium organ, which was invented by an organ builder friend of his. The inspiration came from his time in Rome. While he did not enjoy Rome itself or think much of the music from there, he was impressed with the traditional oboe called a pifferi. The pifferari were rural wandering musicians who performed devout concerts before images of the Virgin Mary.

Another Christmas tradition moved Schumann. His miniature piano composition “Knecht Ruprecht” refers to St. Nicholas’s attendant. This character was a wild country foundling whom St. Nicholas raised, and helps give out presents – or punishments to naughty children. Schumann’s piece is part of his Album for the Young collection, written in 1848.

Mendelssohn also wrote piano works for children. His Opus 72, 6 Kinderstücke (Children’s Pieces), was original not tied to the holiday, but the 1847 English edition of the work was named Six Christmas Pieces.  He wrote this opus specifically for children and adapted his style to children’s musical development (e.g., using fewer accidentals and more familiar time signatures). At the time of this composition, Mendelssohn and his wife lived with a relative who had seven children.

Especially as Tomoko enjoys her grandson Kai, she may well be playing some of these Christmas pieces for him.