Search - Franz Xaver Gruber, Morten Lauridsen, Mykola Dmytrovich Leontovych :: Christmas

Christmas
Franz Xaver Gruber, Morten Lauridsen, Mykola Dmytrovich Leontovych
Christmas
Genres: Special Interest, Pop, Classical
 
  •  Track Listings (18) - Disc #1


     
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CD Reviews

Particular interest in the song, "Sweet Little Jesus Boy."
10/21/1998
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Please note that Sweet Little Jesus Boy is not, as presented, a "Traditional" song. The composer is Robert Hunter MacGimsey, who wrote the song on Christmas Eve in New York City when he observed how the celebration of the birth of Jesus had degraded into shameless drunkedness and commercialism, with the message of His ministry all but forgotten. He went to his apartment and began writing a lament: Sweet Little Jesus Boy, we didn't know you come to save us, Lord, look how we treated you...Our eyes was blind, we couldn't see, we didn't know who you was. My name is Glen Stockton. Bob MacGimsey was my uncle. Throughout his life he wrote hundreds of songs based on the old Negro style, including Shadrach, Jonah and the Whale, Jeri Jericho, Daniel in the Lion's Den, Down to the River, Were You There When They Crucified My Lord, and Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen. If you have ever heard genuine old Negro spirituals, most likely they were songs written and published by Bob MacGimsey. He passed away in 1979; his 100th birthday would have been September 7, 1998. He was also known as the world's greatest whistler, able to whistle in 3-part harmonies with perfect pitch. Most celebrated artists of the 1920's to 1940's sang his songs, and millions heard him whistle on NBC radio during that period. He worked at the Walt Disney Studios on the movie, "Song of the South," and was the whistling heard in many of the Disney classic animated features."
Superb tone and execution
09/02/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Maestro Salamunovich does a superb job of blending the Chorale in an unbelievable combination of tones with superlative diction. The great organs and symphonies of the world are something to be experienced, but Maestro Salamunovich brings expression of the music from a brilliantly-tuned instrument of voices and instruments. O Magnum Mysterium is a piece which one must listened."