D-rock

One of my favorite Christmas albums is Sufjan Stevens’ Songs for Christmas.  Admittedly, not a connoisseur of any genre other than classical music, I am drawn to music with which I can find lots of correlations to the music I listen to all the time.  This album is a collection of tons of off-the-cuff, somewhat improvisatory-sounding arrangements of traditional Christmas songs and carols, as well as some originally-composed songs of varying seriousness and integrity. 

The aspect I find most appealing about this album is that Sufjan takes not only the lot of carols you’d find sung at a typical Methodist Church in the United States, but also more esoteric carols that you might find in a choral book.  The excerpt from the album I have posted here is Sufjan’s unique treatment of Once in Royal David’s City.  This is a great example of an improvisatory arrangement using classical forms.  There is a treble instrumental ostinato above the vocal line for the whole piece; furthermore, between verses one finds an appealing ritornello reminiscent of the Baroque — just with electronic instruments, banjos, and sleigh bells!  An Very Merry Christmas to you all.