Christmas Postlude
  • BethE
    Posts: 14
    Does anyone have a suggestion for a Christmas postlude based on a familiar hymn tune that is also musically interesting?
  • Dave
    Posts: 64
    Charles Callahan has written two brief sets of music (for manuals only) that are based on familiar carols and hymns, ranging from quiet to bright and festive (particularly "The First Nowell" and "Go Tell It"). I'm not plugging his music overall (because he often gets repetitive and predictable), but those collections are an exception. Morningstar Music, Concordia, Wayne Leupold and The Organist's Companion have also published many good collections of Christmas music. (Full disclosure: I have no financial or other connection to the aforementioned aside from being an occasional customer.)
  • BethE
    Posts: 14
    I'm looking for something longer than those Callahan settings. As I was continuing to search I found Gerald Near's Carillon on a Ukrainian Bell Carol which is more in line with what I'm looking for.
  • Protasius
    Posts: 468
    I once found something at IMSLP on Adeste Fideles, but I'll have to search for that.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcsFcQJeycM
    Thanked by 2Gavin PolskaPiano
  • Kevin814
    Posts: 42
    Last year I discovered Michael Bedford's 'Seven Chorale Preludes for the Christmas Season', published by Harold Flammer. I've enjoyed playing all of them. The last one is a French-style toccata for full organ on the tune 'Antioch.' It's about 2-3 minutes, depending on how fast you take it.
  • Marc Cerisier
    Posts: 517
    Two that I use are Craig Phillips' Toccata on Antioch and Keith Chapman's Bring a Torch.
  • ClergetKubiszClergetKubisz
    Posts: 1,912
    Concertato on I Know That My Redeemer Lives by Hal H. Hopson. I've been enamored with that one for a while. It's got a great organ part and includes SATB with congregation.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    I have a couple of postlude pieces but they are demanding. One is for trumpet and organ, other for organ (and could include a trumpet). Will try to put up audio sims here today.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Here is a Christmas Medley I composed a couple of decades ago (at least). It is for chamber group, but is easily adaptable to organ solo, organ with trumpet, etc.

    A Christmas Medley (how many carol titles can you hear?)

    Hear A Sibelius Simulation

    If you are interested in this I will put it up on my website where I publish music (MyOpus.com)
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    Every year I work on a difficult postlude for midnight mass that is too hard and too long. I end up playing to a nearly empty church. This year I will use one of the several organ trumpet pieces I tend to keep practiced. Bah humbug!
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    O Charles... Don't worry about playing for PEOPLE... just play for God.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    God may have already heard E. Power Biggs play it. That's what scares me. LOL.
    Thanked by 3JonLaird Adam Wood CHGiffen
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    lol... yes, but no one plays it like CW.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • Bobby Bolin
    Posts: 417
    I love Quem Pastores here:

    http://www.morningstarmusic.com/viewitem.cfm/item_id/10-160
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    Gaston Marie Dethier (1875-1958)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_Dethier

    Christmas : organ piece for an opening (1902)
    [Adeste Fideles][O Come All Ye Faithful]
    http://imslp.org/wiki/Christmas_(Dethier,_Gaston_Marie)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ETgLmkqzxI
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CgdYNl-fc
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,943
    Perhaps a chaconne on this theme (adapt to minor mode)?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25KSyr0XttE
    Thanked by 1Ben
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    Page Carroll Long (1933-)

    Toccata on "Adeste Fideles" [(c)1998]

    (digital score, easy purchase, quick download)
    http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtdFPE.asp?ppn=MN0017536

    (soundfile, sorry none discovered)
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    Well, not a hymn tune, not a chant tune, but ...

    Herbert Henry Murrill (1909-1952)

    Carillon (1949)

    http://www.ohscatalog.org/cermusfororo.html

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO3dl2oTCKU
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    Pietro Yon (1886-1943)

    Advent 'First Religious Suite for Organ' [1943]
    4. Toccata on Creator alme siderum (Creator Of The Stars Of Night)

    http://imslp.org/wiki/Advent_'First_Religious_Suite_for_Organ'_(Yon,_Pietro)

    http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/listings/2001/0151/
    timestamp == 0:00:00 (sorry will not play so cannot specify start time)

    http://stemikmusic.com/blog/?page_id=22
    scroll down to "Toccata on Creator" and click Play button
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    Alexander Guilmant (1837-1911)

    Offertoire (Opus 60 Book 1 Number 1)
    sur les Noels: Grand Dieu! & Allons Pasteurs Que L'on S'eveille

    http://imslp.org/wiki/Livre_de_Noëls,_Op.60_(Guilmant,_Alexandre)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJqr-B9RpZU
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,464
    Oh I remember the composer Yon. He was part of duo called Hither and Yon.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • pgonciarz
    Posts: 8
    The best Christmas postlude known to man is a Toccata on Mendelssohn (Hark the Herald) by David Wilcocks. (It seems like it was written to follow his own hymn arrangement of the same tune) It can be found in the Oxford Book of Christmas Organ Music, and the piece is worth the price of the book alone. I bought the book last year and will be using the piece every year until I find something better. I would rate the piece as moderately difficult, but once you get the toccata pattern down, it's not bad at all. Another idea is to use the Rhapsody on Christmas Carols by Gigout. It's a long (8 minute) ABA piece, with a soft B section. Although this is not kosher, I used to break the piece up, and play A and B during my prelude program, and then use the return of the A theme as a postlude. But the Wilcocks is just a solid postlude all around, can't go wrong.
    Thanked by 3Gavin eft94530 BethE
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    A rather grand and not at all difficult one is Bach's In dulci jubilo. Not the ones that are organ chorales, but the one that is for what would have been congregational singing, with great flourishes at the end of every line of the tune. BWV 729 I think. It's in A-Major. Play it slowly with a plenum and lots of panache. It's just long enough for the congregation to have exited.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen rich_enough
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,694
    I second BWV 729. Haven't played that in years but will dust it off... Perhaps Holy Family.
  • pgonciarz
    Posts: 8
    Another one is Emma Lou Deimer's setting of Joy to the World, although I must say it's rather snarly and edgy harmonically. I am a big fan of BWV 729, although I feel that here in America, In dulci jubilo never really made it as a top 10 favorite Christmas tune (sadly), although I always use it in hopes that I can change the world. For my Christmas postlude, I always look for something on one of the big name tunes, like Antioch, Mendelssohn, Gloria, etc. You just can't go wrong with those.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,694
    http://www.lorenz.com/product.aspx?id=70_1848L
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    A few years back, I played "Festive Trumpet Tune" by David German as Midnight Mass postlude. It was a big hit, so much so, that folks practically insist I play it every year. Midnight Mass is the only time I play it during the year. Be careful what you start...
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,694
    I typically end Midnight Masses with the Franck Sortie/Grand Choeur pour Noel. This year I'll have a trumpet with me. It's quite fantastic.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haWtDQA4GBA
    Thanked by 4ZacPB189 CHGiffen Allan D JonLaird
  • David AndrewDavid Andrew
    Posts: 1,204
    I've typically done BWV 729 at Midnight, although I've also used Mullet's Carillon-Sortie, which I'm told others do.

    With respect to "edgy" postludes, the tradition at St Thomas Fifth Ave is Messiaen's Dieu parmi nous. Now there's some edgy for you!
    Thanked by 1BethE
  • kevinfkevinf
    Posts: 1,183
    Tournemire- Piece Terminale pour la fete de Noel. The last movement of the l'Orgue Mystique Suite for Christmas. A bear but absolutely wonderful.
  • PhatFlute
    Posts: 219
    "X - mass" is a solemm festival, so rule is no music ? Silence is the silver bell !

    Ph
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,295
    What makes you say that?
    Thanked by 1eft94530
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    Yes: silence!
    Silence is golden.
    Silence is pregnant.
    Silence is profound.
    Silence is deafening.
    Silence is heard.
    Silence is the bearer of theological depths which no utterance can convey.
    Silence is a silver bell!
    (God enters in silence - he seldom will compete with noise.)

    By all means let there be (some) silence during the solemn festival of XP-mass.
    During mass.
    During the day.
    During the season.
    And (especially!) during Advent.

    Many thanks, PhatFlute!
    Thanked by 1Claire H
  • Patricia Cecilia
    Posts: 397
    My present organist negotiated not having to play a postlude at the two Christmas Eve services--let the strings (and flutist-conductor, moi) play something! (He's such a good organist and reliable service-player that he's in great demand--his former employer asks him back for the odd Mass here and there, like Christmas morning, or a Sunday 7 am--so I think he's quite intelligent for not wanting to do a big postlude twice on Christmas Eve! He does something huge every year at the one sung service on Easter. I say 'service' because we work for the local not-headed-for-Rome-yet Anglicans.)
  • LarsLars
    Posts: 116
    A Solis Ortus by De Griny, especially the last part with pedal point, is it suitable for Christmas postlude?
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,721
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbnoLqxCJ4M
    Angels we have heard on high by Richard Elliott is a great little work. I get some mileage out of this every year (albeit usually the Sunday after Christmas.)
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