Holiday MIDI Files

More recently popular holiday songs, often introduced through film or other entertainment media, tend to be specifically about Christmas or have a wintertime theme. They are typically not overtly religious. The most popular set of these titles—heard over airwaves, on the internet, in shopping centres and lifts, even on the street during the holiday season—have been composed and performed from the 1930s onward. “Jingle Bells”, “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas” and “Up on the House Top”, however, date from the mid-19th century.
The largest portion of these songs in some way describes or is reminiscent of Christmas traditions, how western countries tend to celebrate the holiday, i.e., with caroling, mistletoe, exchanging of presents, a Christmas tree, feasting, jingle bells, etc. Celebratory or sentimental and nostalgic in tone, they hearken back to simpler times with memorable holiday practices—expressing the desire either to be with someone or at home for the holidays. Many titles help define the mythical aspects of modern Christmas celebration: Santa Claus bringing presents, coming down the chimney, being pulled by reindeer, etc. New mythical characters are created, defined, and popularised by these songs; Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman were both introduced by Gene Autry a year apart (1949 and 1950 respectively).[n 1] Though overtly religious, and authored (at least partly) by a writer of many church hymns, no drumming child appears in any biblical account of the Christian nativity scene—this character was introduced to the tradition by Katherine K. Davis in her “The Little Drummer Boy” (written in 1941, with a popular version being released in 1958).
This excerpt is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_music

Comments are closed.

Holiday MIDI Files