Thoughts on Christmas in the Americas: Hot Music for a Cold December From the icy snows of Canada to the spicy heat of Latin America, the sights and sounds of Christmas are as diverse as the many cultures that shaped us. Africa, Spain, France, England, the missionary church, even Hollywood, had a voice in creating the music of the Americas. Sometimes the descendants of Old World Christmas carols were reformed as they took on the colors of the New World. Sometimes the distinctive sounds of Old World and New fused together in a dazzling burst of creativity to conceive an entirely fresh music. Whatever the result, our holiday music sings in a particularly “Americas” voice. Each country within our two vast continents owes a great musical debt to Europe, and still reflects the influences of the colonial powers that dominated various regions. We hear it in the traditional carols that grace our holiday time, such as the very English Masters in This Hall and the Spanish import Fum, Fum, Fum, both arranged by one of the elder stateswomen of American composers, Alice Parker. The voice of France is heard in Quebec composer Donald Patriquin’s ethereal setting of the ancient French carol What is This Lovely, Wondrous Fragrance? and surprisingly in the Huron Carol, a French air brought by missionaries to Native Canadians who then sang it with their own text. But a New World brings about new music, and the vitality of the Americas is reflected in the creative power of the songs that had their birth here. Several familiar carols were written in the United States, including two audience sing alongs, We Three Kings and It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. Some of the liveliest songs reflect a fusion of cultures, for example in the folksy Navidad Nuestra and the striking Gloria a Dios, with their strong Spanish and African rhythmic interplay. The African influence in the Americas has percolated everywhere and produced a prolific stream of vigorous and irresistible music, such as the Haitian Noel, with its vocally generated instrumental sounds, and the playful spiritual Children, Go Where I Send Thee. Christmas in the Americas ranges from our beginning, including the sturdy Shepherd’s Carol by American Revolutionary War era composer William Billings, to the present. It encompasses a vast range of styles and intentions, from Canadian Healy Willan’s stunningly romantic The Three Kings to the sentimental crooning of Hollywood’s Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas to the delightfully silly Good King Kong, from the madcap pen of Peter Schickele’s P.D.Q. Bach. It circles almost half our globe as it explores the incredible musical diversity to be found in the Americas. So how does Christmas sound in our immense and energetic region? Listen and find out!