Fermarono i Cieli

 I have mentioned the Chieftains' Christmas in Rome album before on this blog (here and here in case you want to look them up). It is a bit of an odd outing for the traditional Irish band-- even when they do World-Musicky albums (such as Santiago) they tend to simply throw a bunch of music at you. There may be a theme to the album, but in general, it is a collection of music. Christmas in Rome does do that too, but it also uses tunes (most notably The March of the Three Kings and Canzone de Zampognari) as reoccurring motifs that anchor the various orchestral and traditional pieces into a unified whole. The album does have a both a distinctive Italian and an Irish vibe, as one would expect from such an album title, coming from such a band... But there are also random odd things in there, such as a very French version of O Holy Night, and Silent Night in various languages, and a Bulgarian carol... and a German carol... and an Irish Gaelic carol, sung by the monks of Glenstall Abbey.... and most inexplicable of all, the Harlem Gospel Choir, doing very Gospel covers of songs which-- given the album's lush mix of classical orchestration, the Chieftains' distinctive sound, and traditionally approached European carols-- is rather jarring to my ear. Unlikely the aforementioned Santiago album, which has no real unifying theme, other than to look at Spanish (including New World Spanish) musical traditions, Christmas in Rome is at once a more focused and a more scattered collection of music, which nonetheless, manages to mostly work, and which is still one of my favourite out-of-the-box Christmas albums. 

A particularly beautiful Italian carol is featured in it. Fermarono i Cieli is sung by Paola Cecchi, and a beautifully arranged by Monsignor Marco Frisina. The words are written by St. Alphonsis de Liguori (who also wrote Tu Scendi dalle Stelle a.k.a. Canzone de Zampognari) and a translation can be found here. On the CD, this song medleys into an Irish Gaelic lullaby, which is quite charming, but I thought I'd like to just share the beautiful Italian Christmas song on its own, so here it is:

On the Second Day of Christmas.....

 ..... I discovered a new song. I do not believe that this is meant specifically to be a Christmas song, though it is from Andrea Bocelli's Christmas concert in Assisi. It is composed by Riz Ortolani, an Italian film composer, and (judging from the notes provided by Senore Bocelli) this particular song appears to be from the movie Brother Sun and Sister Moon.* In spite of both of these facts, it seems a good song to share with everyone on this, the feast day of the first martyr, the great St. Stephen:

*A movie I have not seen, nor intend to see, understanding that it is gravely deficient from a Catholic point of view, and makes poor St. Francis out to be something along the lines of a hippie. Why exactly, people have to devalue the knightly heroism of St. Francis by turning him in to a flower child is beyond me, but it is one of those odd and niggling things that never seems to entirely go away. 

Canzone de Zampognari

Posting that Chieftains song yesterday reminded me that they did a second Christmas album that sounds not a thing like their first. Silent Night: A Christmas in Rome has a more classical, and Italian flavour to it-- though, of course, infused with a solidly Celtic vibe; sort of pan-Celtic, as there is a Breton carol on there, and some of the musical tones sound somewhat Galician to me. (Both of those are Celtic region in Mediterranean countries: France and Spain respectively).

I have decided to highlight a song from that album tonight, the Overture for the whole recording, but it is, properly speaking, merely a traditional Italian carol, set to orchestration. You are getting it for a couple reasons. The first is that it struck me that a carol outside of the Anglo/Germanic tradition might be nice for a chance. The second is that this particular tune is a special favourite of mine.* The words and melody were written by St. Alphonsus Liguori. When sung, the titles is Tu Scendi delle Stelle, but the tune is also strongly associated with Italian pipers, and so it is also known as Canzone de Zampognari-- or the Piper's Carol. This arrangement-- lushly orchestrated as it is-- makes room for the traditional bagpipes, and the Choir of the Basilica of S. Giovanni in Laterano give us the sung version, which run as follows:

1. Tu scendi dalle stelle,

O Re del Cielo,

e vieni in una grotta,

al freddo al gelo.

O Bambino mio Divino

Io ti vedo qui a tremar,

O Dio Beato

Ahi, quanto ti costò

l'avermi amato!

2. A te, che sei del mondo

il Creatore,

mancano panni e fuoco;

O mio Signore!

Caro eletto Pargoletto,

Quanto questa povertà

più mi innamora!

Giacché ti fece amor

povero ancora!

1. From starry skies descending,

Thou comest, glorious King,

A manger low Thy bed,

In winter's icy sting;

O my dearest Child most holy,

Shudd'ring, trembling in the cold!

Great God, Thou lovest me!

What suff'ring Thou didst bear,

That I near Thee might be!

2. Thou art the world's Creator,

God's own and true Word,

Yet here no robe, no fire

For Thee, Divine Lord.

Dearest, fairest, sweetest Infant,

Dire this state of poverty.

The more I care for Thee,

Since Thou, O Love Divine,

Will'st now so poor to be

* Why is this a special favourite you ask? Well, after all it is called Canzone de Zampognari and how can a piper not like a carol associated particularly with the pipes? But there is another reason as well: when I first started playing bagpipes (the Scottish ones, of course) my Auntie Ginia (an Italian great aunt) told me that her great grandfather, back in Italy, had played bagpipes. Indeed the Abruzzi region where the Italian side of the family comes from, has a strong piping tradition, which makes me feel like I am carrying on that tradition, for all I am on Highland pipes, rather than Italian ones. Furthermore, there is an Italian legend of a Christmas piper playing for Our Lady on the night Christ was born, and while this obviously is not the tune that would have been played, it puts me in mind of that legend as well, and makes me rather proud of being a piper. 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Gesu Bambino, performed below by Giorgio Tozzi, is one of my very favourite Christmas songs. As you no doubt could guess from the title, it is originally in the Italian. I find this version to be particularly fine.

Gnocchi

Today, my family and I spent the day baking and cooking for Christmas - sugar cookies, snowballs, chocolate-covered pretzels, chocolate chip cookies, truffles, biscotti, pizzelles, until the fragrant smell of the baking, mixes with the savoury smell of the meat sauce I made for my part of Christmas dinner. We are a very tradition-minded family, and Christmas dinner menu is unalterable: gnocchi and ham. Gnocchi is a lesser-known pasta, made out of potato, with a bit of egg, olive oil and flour, kneaded out like bread, and cut into wee little dumplings. Does that sound complicated? It isn't really, and for proof, I present The Crazy Gnocchi Guy for your education and amusement.

We do not bother with the grater to roll out the gnocchi, as he does, and our meat sauce is a fantastic concoction, with chunks of pork and beef in it. Served over the gnocchi, and with a side bit of ham, and it is the very essence of festivity. We are quite smug about our Christmas dinner, and firmly believe that no one has such a dinner as we do!