The Sound of Christmas is sleigh
bells and Santa Claus, laughter and snow crunching under foot —
but most of all it is the voices of children. That is why, for the second
year in our "Sound Of Children" series, we decided on a
Christmas album.
Having made the decision, we tackled
the matter of repertoire. Christmas songs are as many and varied as a
field of wild flowers. Which ones to pick for our Christmas bouquet?
We called a rehearsal of our
children's chorus, which consists of twenty-two youngsters between the
ages of eight and twelve ( the number varying slightly according to the prevalence
of mumps, chicken-pox and head colds ). After the initial fidgeting was
over, we signaled the rehearsal pianist to go into "Jingle
Bells". The kids joined in, and as the song ended, one of them
started singing "Silver Bells". From that point it was a spontaneous
"community sing" type of rehearsal. With no preconceived
notions, or inhibitions to hinder them, the youngsters went from
"Adeste Fideles" to Irving Berlin's "White Christmas",
then back to "Deck the Halls" with no trouble at all.
It was just what we wanted. We let
the youngsters lead into any Christmas song they wanted. In this way we
found the ones that flowed naturally, and the ones with which they had the
most fun. It wasn't until after this rehearsal that we made our final
selections and went into arrangements.
The result is a natural grouping of the
Christmas songs any group of children might sing if they gathered around
an open fireplace during the Yuletide season. We suggest you place this
record on your machine and go on about your chores decorating the tree or
wrapping packages. The
Sound of Children At Christmas will become
part of a happy holiday for you.
Merry Christmas!
"The Sound of
Children at Christmas"
Hugo & Luigi
with Their Children's Chorus
RCA Victor LSP-2254
Produced by Hugo
& Luigi
Recorded in Webster
Hall, New York City, 1960
Recording Engineer:
Bob Simpson
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