(Cartoon by Pablo Helguera, courtesy of Deceptive Cadence)

For the first part of the “H.O.L.I.D.A.Y. Music” Project, I have selected five pieces of purely instrumental music from my iTunes library for your listening pleasure.  Some of them have an explicit link with Christmas, while others are justified through a series of impressionistic reasons that may lead you, the reader, to hold in doubt my grasp on reality.  If you missed the introduction to this project, click here for to see what it’s all about.

♪ Maurice Ravel – Rapsodie espagnole: Feria

First, we have this joyful little romp from Ravel.  The prominence of the piccolo and flute, the lilting waltz-like metre, and the heavy use of the tambourine – silver bells, if you would! – in the main theme suggest to me that this is the orchestral version of a holiday party at the optimal level of inebriation.  Keep an ear out for some crazy trombone glissandos in the last minute or so; maybe that’s when your friend has had one too many chocolate martinis?

♪ Igor Stravinsky – Three Movements from Petrouchka: The Shrovetide Fair

“Three Movements from Petrouchka” is an arrangement that Stravinsky made of his eponymous ballet for the piano.  What I love the most about the Three Movements is how Stravinsky managed to replicate the various colours of the orchestra for the piano without forgoing the very musical essence of the piano itself; plus, Yuja Wang’s command of piano technique is just sterling.  This last movement, The Shrovetide Fair, makes me think of a bustling village Christmas market.

♪ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – German Dance No. 3 in C major, K. 605 (“Sleigh Ride”)

This is the eighteenth-century version of “Sleigh Ride” and finds Mozart at his breeziest and most facile.  It even features bells.  Alas, there are no horse-mimicking sound effects, but one can imagine them easily enough!

♪ Marin Marais – La Sonnerie de Sainte-Geneviève du Mont-de-Paris

I heard this absolute jewel of the French Baroque on the radio last year and instantly began scouring the internet for a recording of it to add to my music library.  It always brings to mind this church that I visited when I was in Paris (scroll all the way down to the bottom of the post for pictures), due to its connection with the saint.  I associate this piece with denizens of the ancien régime dashing through the streets of Paris to Christmas Mass, a fresh snow swirling through the air as the bells toll the late hour.

♪ Arcangelo Corelli – Concerto grosso fatto per la notte di Nitale No. 8 in G minor, Op. 6: Pastorale (Largo)

Known as the “Christmas Concerto,” this work by Corelli is just so sweet – perfect for curling up in front of a fire with a good book and cup of hot cocoa in hand.  I featured the Adagio from this concerto in my Christmas mix from two years ago, but this final movement, the Pastorale, rivals it in loveliness.