BAD CAUSE, GOOD TUNE:

If there are any Christians among our readers who find themselves so preoccupied with the traditions and trappings, the lights and the carols, that they haven't set aside the time to examine the meaning of the Nativity, it's not too late. Today, I offer you a bit of inspiration to get started: Alfred Reed's magnificent "Russian Christmas Music."

Reed called music "the greatest of all the communicative arts," and "Russian Christmas Music" is Exhibit A. It begins with the mournful sounds of a world mired in sin, without joy or hope. In the final strains of the closing movement, when the Son of God has broken through eternity into time, when He's left his throne in heaven to assume our mortal flesh, and the angelic host fill the sky proclaiming the miracle of Christ's birth, the music swells to a glorious crescendo of pealing bells, thundering percussion, and brass. This is the kind of music that captures the awesome wonder of Christ's Incarnation and birth, and it is guaranteed to give you goosebumps. 

There's a fascinating story behind the composition, explained on Music Program Notes. In 1944, Reed was doing his military service with the Army Air Corps Band and only 23 years old--

 

when he was called upon to create what has become a masterpiece of the wind literature. It was in 1944, when optimism was running high with the successful invasion of France and Belgium by the Allied forces. A holiday band concert was planned by the city of Denver to further promote Russian-American unity with premiers of new works from both countries. ... The Russian work was to have been Prokofiev's March, Op. 99, but [the music director] discovered that it had already been performed in the United States ... . With just 16 days until the concert, ... Reed [was asked] to compose a new Russian work for the concert. Scouring the Corps' music library, Reed found an authentic 16th-century Russian Christmas Song "Carol of the Little Russian Children" to use for an introductory theme. Drawing on his investigations of Eastern Orthodox liturgical music for other thematic ideas, he completed the score of Russian Christmas Music in 11 days; copyists took another two days to prepare parts for rehearsal. The music was first performed on December 12, 1944, on a nationwide NBC broadcast. A concert performance was given in Denver two days later. 

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