Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Christmas Hymns and Carols

Update: Here's an updated link to hear/download Uncle Warren's Attic #14.

My favorite all-time music of this season is from the Robert Shaw Chorale: Christmas Hymns and Carols, Volumes I and II. On the day after Thanksgiving, Mom would break out the 33 1/3 rpm Robert Shaw records, slap them (OK, place them gingerly) on the turntable and it was Christmastime: "Joy to the world! The Lord is come ..." (You can hear that moment recollected in UWA #14.)

Of course, the day I discovered eBay I started looking for the 78 rpm version of those albums, which were recorded in the post-war 1940s, a cappella with gorgeous vocal arrangements. Here's a threesome of how good it sounded ...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I too listened to those two records every Christmas from the early 50s when my father bought them. I loved them and we played the records over and over. Volume 1 was reissued many times on vinyl, and then on CDs. But Volume 2 I never saw again in any form. And this Christmas is wonderful becuase I just found a website where I was able to buy a CD of Volume 2! It's going to be a VERY merry Christmas.