Christmas Card 2010

Even when I was about Colin's age, singing around the piano with Mom, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" struck me as an odd carol. As I got older, it was not only the weird pitch-bend at the beginning that bothered me, but also the profusion of large skips and the ominous unison passage at "the everlasting light" (why does it shift to the relative minor there anyway? It sounds more like a UFO encounter than anything out of Luke). I'd originally intended to do a Renaissance polyphony pastiche this year, but as I was exploring quarter-tone pitch space in my practicing, this idea came to me suddenly. It seemed like a good match.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Christmas
• Card
• 2010