By Matthew Longcore
Traditional, classic, timeless – these are the hallmarks of Ivy Style. All of these are woven together by nostalgia.
Nostalgia – that sentimental, wistful affection for the past – is heightened during the holiday season. Although we celebrate the holidays with our loved ones in the present moment, we are never exclusively in the present. Holidays remind us of the past, the individual past of our lived experience and the collective past of our cultural heritage.
Nothing is quite so nostalgic as music, and Christmas music is perhaps the most evocative of all. Since the appreciation of music – very much like that of clothing – varies tremendously according to personal taste, I will not attempt to curate a “definitive” playlist for Ivy Style. Such a list would be impossible for us to agree upon.
Rather, I will share some of my own Christmas music favorites, and I encourage readers to do the same.
Fittingly for Ivy Style, let’s start with music from scholastic and collegiate traditions. This week happens to be a very good week for Christmas music here in Connecticut with two wonderful events which are bookends for the season.
The Yale Whiffenpoofs, the oldest and most well-known collegiate a cappella group, performed their annual Christmas Concert at Trinity Episcopal Church in Southport. Next weekend will mark the 84th Annual Staples Candlelight Concert in Westport.
The first songs on my Christmas playlist are “Welcome Yule” and “Sing We Noel” – traditionally the first two songs performed by the Staples Choir as they process down the aisles dressed in robes and holding candles at the annual Candlelight Concert.
Staples High School Candlelight Concert
“Welcome Yule” and “Sing We Noel”
Trinity College, my undergraduate alma mater, was founded by Episcopalians and follows Anglican tradition with their annual Christmas Festival of Lessons and Carols.
Trinity College Christmas Festival of Lessons and Carols
Trinity College has wonderful a cappella groups, including The Trinity Pipes and The Trinity Quirks. Here are their beautiful versions of “Silent Night” and “Carol of the Bells.”
The Trinity Pipes
Silent Night
The Trinity Quirks
Carol of the Bells
Yale University, where I earned my M.A. and my current employer, is home to The Yale Whiffenpoofs. This group travels the world to perform but during the academic year they can be found at Mory’s, a New Haven social club for Yalies founded in 1849. Here is their rendition of “O Holy Night.”
The Yale Whiffenpoofs
O Holy Night
I studied abroad at Oxford, and I am partial to English choir music. St George’s Chapel Choir and Ely Cathedral Choir is particularly inspiring, especially their performances of Good King Wenceslas and The Holly and The Ivy.
St. George’s Chapel Choir
Good King Wenceslas
Ely Cathedral Choir
The Holly and The Ivy
Perhaps the greatest choir of all is the King’s College Choir at Cambridge, world famous for tradition of Nine Lessons and Carols. Here are some of their best performances, including Johann Sebastian Bach’s In Dulci Jubilo (1708-1717) and George Frideric Handel’s Messiah (1741-1742).
King’s College Choir, Cambridge
I Saw Three Ships
Suo Gân
In Dulci Jubilo
Silent Night
And The Glory Of The Lord Shall Be Revealed
For unto us a Child is born
The Lord gave the Word
In additional to English choir music, I appreciate Celtic folk music and Polish choral music, the latter of which I was introduced to by my wife who is from Poland. Loreena McKennitt and Passeres Dei are among my favorites.
Loreena McKennitt
Good King Wenceslas
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Passeres Dei
Dzwoneczków dźwięk (“Szczedryk”, “Carol of the bells”)
My Trzej Mędrcy (“We Three Kings Of Orient Are”)
Finally, it would not be Christmas without classic crooners. In my opinion, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Nat King Cole are the best.
Bing Crosby
Do You Hear What I Hear
Frank Sinatra & Bing Crosby
White Christmas
Nat King Cole
The Christmas Song
What is your favorite Christmas music?
My favorite by the Gloucester Cathedral Choir: ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAjT9df1lko
Jeremy, truly a a moving piece of music. Thank you for sharing.
What a fun seasonal topic!
Well, it wouldn’t be Christmas without listening to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College on Christmas Eve morning via BBC Radio 4 online! Used to hear the service for many years on BBC World Service.
However, my favorites would have to be various German language carols beginning with Stille Nacht (Silent Night) that has to be one of the most beautiful hymns ever written. A wonderful blend of wistfulness and hope in the lyrics, and the melody is masterful. No doubt, and on some level, these must speak to my German heritage on both sides and time spent in that country. How strange that I found the Grand Duchess, a German speaker speaker herself (and the greatest gift ever Christmas, birthday, or otherwise).
While there are many pop standards by various artists that are fun to hear (many times) each December (Nat, Bing, Sinatra, the slightly inebriated Dean Martin, et al), it is The Christmas Song by Mel Torme and Bob Wells, in its various guises, that is probably my favorite popular tune at this time of year, but there are too many to mention by name.
On that note, I must also come clean and admit to having a soft spot for many of the overplayed seasonal numbers by rock and pop artists of the 1970s and 80s (my own childhood and formative years into young adulthood). I know, I know. . .
Kind Advent Regards,
H-U
I too came of age in the 1970s and 1980s and find music from my childhood especially nostalgic. Burl Ives is in that category, especially “Silver and Gold” and “A Holly Jolly Christmas” from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Thank you for this post, Matthew. The Anglican tradition is quite beautiful. By comparison, the secular, American pop style is tolerable in small doses. The same old argument, too commercial.
I find the Lutheran tradition to be something that never gets old, as old as it is.
https://issuesetc.org/lutheran-public-radio-music/ Just press the “Music” button.
BTW, we are not in the Christmas season yet. We are in Advent. Liturgically, Christmas begins at sundown, 24 Dec, and continues for 12 days. This applies in Anglicanism, too. I find adhering to that schedule makes things easier.
Also, there are Bach Cantatas, and the Christmas Oratorio. Admittedly, if one isn’t singing in the choir, these can be a chore, as is Bach’s counterpart, Handel’s The Messiah. Maybe that’s just me.
Thank you for the reminder about Bach. In Dulci Jubilo from King’s College, Cambridge most certainly belongs on my list. I am adding it to the post.
Very nice choices. A cappella choirs also a favorite of mine.
Thank you, Randy. I plan to share another post on collegiate a cappella choirs. The Princeton Nassoons are a favorite. They also dress very Ivy Style. https://www.nassoons.com/
Wonderful choices, Matthew. My wife and I were just listening to Kings College Choir over the weekend. A wonderful Advent and Christmas to all.
Thank you, a wonderful Advent and Christmas to you as well.
“Once in Royal David’s City” Choir of King’s College Cambridge, 2016.
https://youtu.be/eHLy6bu955M?si=8EGFM5E1-npXbmgy
When you invoke “the collective past of our cultural heritage“ and almost exclusively focus on white, upper class Anglo-Saxon traditions you are telling on yourself.
Dexter, respectfully I must reiterate that these musical selections are my own personal favorites. As I stated in the post, this is not a “definitive” playlist for Ivy Style. This post is certainly not a representative sample of cross-cultural holiday traditions, and never claimed to be.
I’ll politely-and-gently push (nudge) back — a wee bit. Since the style in question is American Ivy, which is sartorially “formal yet low church,” I’ll offer a working hypothesis that the Quaker/Friends tradition is the ideal — the paragon. Less Trinity and Sewanee Neo-Gothic; a great deal more Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore stone-and wood farm (and meeting) house. The English heritage is acknowledged (salute to George Fox), and the prevailing style is plain, rustic, and bucolic/pastoral. If Ivy is a Founding Brother (ridiculous, I know. But still.), then John Dickinson wins — every time. A runner-up is New England Congregationalism, guided by (and revealing) a similarly unadorned, unpretentious charm.
It’s helpful to recall the essentially casual, unembellished nature of American Ivy: inevitably button-downed, tweedy, sacked, penny loafered; fuzzy and heathery. Again, and at the risk of redundance: less Book of Common Prayer and more unrehearsed plainspeak about friendship and nature. Proper and ordered, yet neither liturgical nor ceremonial.
Thank you for sharing this well-written, thought-provoking commentary. I too am interested in the high church-low church continuum. It is a central topic of my dissertation on Collegiate Gothic architecture. To your point, whereas Gothic architecture is Medieval English (high church), Georgian architecture is Colonial American (low church).
You make a compelling argument for American Ivy as a low church aesthetic, compared to more high church British Oxbridge. I would agree about that distinction. Whereas the 3/2 roll sack suit and the OCBD shirt are Madison Avenue, the double breasted suit and the spread collar shirt are Savile Row.
However, I am not sure that I see a stylistic connection to Philadelphia Quakerism and New England Puritanism. Sociologist E. Digby Baltzell covers these denominations in his book Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia. He also describes “the Episcopalianization of the American business aristocracy” – a process whereby the descents of Puritans and Quakers shed the denominational affiliation of their ancestors and became Episcopalians.
This is intertwined with American Anglophilia in all matters of taste, from architecture to clothing. The emergence of Ivy Style is certainly connected to this chapter of American history. More St. Grottlesex and less Abington Friends School.
Wonderful discourse! Would love to see this elaborated as a stand-alone post. Well covered (or mentioned) regarding American Anglophilia with some references to high church – low church continuum, but very interested to see this relationship further explored.
addendum to previous post: admittedly I admire from afar, I’m low church ritual episcy: chant, Byrd and Tallis, and simple evensong. Country church preferred.
Matthew,
Such a perfect post for the season and wonderful selection of music from you and readers.
Nostalgia indeed is the word. Memories of childhood and Polish Christmas celebrations back home in the 1950s. Allow me to suggest a Polish carol your wife may know.
Lulajze Jezunia. A favorite of Chopin and this colonial college graduate – still some IVY in me.
Merry Christmas to all.
Al
Al,
Thank you for the recommendation. My wife knows the song well.
We found a wonderful version of it:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kyXJTzWrswc
Merry Christmas!
Matthew
Elvis, Ramsey Lewis, Ottmar Liebert and Kew Rawls.
No way Jose to Burl Ives, Brenda Lee or Mariah Carey.
Merry Christmas, Baby
Praetorius, M.
Es ist ein Ros Entsprungen.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=95aG2Q59w4g
Excellent selections! A “New world” take on a British classic i believe the group will enjoy is the Wexford Carol performed by YoYo Ma and Allison Kraus. Happy Christmas!
Johnny Mandels “ ‘ all I want for Christmas is you’