Random Musings

It’s never too early to celebrate Christmas, right?

Anyway, here’s my first ever attempt at writing a Christmas carol. It is heavily styled after John Rutter, who is one of my most-admired composers. I presented this song (with Betty doing a great job on vocals) at last night’s Songcraft session.

I envision for this song to be sung by a church children’s choir.

It would be my utmost dream if one day some church children’s choir would sing this song for Christmas. (Hint hint to all church children’s music leaders out there, haha! Just kidding.)

Enjoy! 

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/17390143/view]

Christmastime
Music & Lyrics by Jeremy Yew
Vocals by Betty 

Hear the bells are ring-a-ling ding ding
Fireside the children listening
Christmas time and all is white
As snow fills up the night

In the cobble streets the choir caroling
Experiencing the joy of bringing
Hope to all and peace on earth
From the infant Saviour’s birth

Chorus:
And it’s Christmas time in the busy city
Christmas time for friends and family
Christmas time and the world is bright
From the Saviour’s holy light

Celebrate the joy of giving
Little things we love receiving
Yuletide cheer for friend and kin
Let patient love begin

Oh, so merrily we tell the Story
Immanuel in all His glory
Place the star on the Christmas tree
Let it shine eternally

Chorus: 
And it’s Christmas time in the busy city
Christmas time for friends and family
Christmas time and the world is bright
From the Saviour’s holy light

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born
He is Christ the Lord
He is Christ the Lord
Hallelujah, Amen
Amen, Amen

…

Composer’s Notes

- The entire song’s melody didn’t take too long to come up with. I had the melody down quite quickly. But it was the piano arrangements which gave me the biggest headache. I took a very long time to decide on the final piano arrangements for this piece, from the intro, to the accompaniment in the chorus, to the ornamentations, to the modulation of keys, etc.

- This is probably the most “Christmasy” tune I’ll ever come up with. I don’t know how to describe it, but I just have a feeling that this melody brings out the whole “Christmas” spirit quite well.

- As you can probably tell, the main “hook” or “motif” of the song is the opening two lines of the song, i.e. 3-4-5-1(high)-5-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-3-2-1-7(low). For this song, I basically milked the hook for all it’s worth. (Why waste a perfectly good hook right? Haha!) The hook and it different variants appears in the song no less than eight times. Once in the intro, four times in all the four verses, once in the “special bridge”, once more in the repeated first verse, and once in the “outro”.

- The melody of the hook utilises a form of “variation”, and the rhythm of the hook utilises “repetition”. These two elements can be very powerful tools in the construction of strong melodic lines. Broadway composers were excellent at utilising such tools in their melodies.

- I am particularly pleased with the entire portion where it goes “Today in the town of David…”. I consider it more than a “bridge”. Let’s just call it a “special bridge”, cos I feel it’s much more elaborate than a normal bridge. I decided to use my favourite Christmas Bible verse, Luke 2:11, for the lyrics to this “special bridge”. This is the verse I always quote when writing my Christmas cards, so what better way to show my fondness for this verse than by using it in the song?

- For the “special bridge”, I wanted to give it a totally different mood. I wanted the song to enter into a totally different “phase”, so to speak. Hence, I modulated the key to Bb, and I changed the rhythm and pattern of the melody to achieve the desired effect. I also re-introduced the hook briefly (albeit in Bb major) at the end of the last “Amen, Amen…” so as to remind the listener of the song’s hook. It was also a way of playing around with motifs in the way all the classical composers used to do. I thought it would have made an interesting touch. Plus, it served as a good way to lead back into the main “phase” of the song, which is in C major.

- Carrie mentioned the lyrics are rather old-school, and I totally agree. It’s exactly the effect I wanted to create with my lyrics. I’m a totally old-fashioned guy at heart (even though I’m only 27!), so I wanted to recreate the typical Christmastime scenes of the past, e.g. “fireside”, “cobble streets”, “hear the bells”, “tell the Story”, etc.

- I particularly like the lines “Oh, so merrily we tell the Story, Immanuel in all His glory”. The “Story” here, of course, refers to the story of Jesus’s birth in the manger, hence the capital “S”.

- Yep, I believe “Christmastime” is a proper word. I’ve checked on Google!