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.
