Vladimir Sterzer: Christmas in minor - Weihnachten in Moll

After my first listen to Vladimir Sterzer's Christmas in Minor - Weihnachten in Moll, about all I thought was that the songs were really short (the 16 songs clock in at just under 19 minutes) and that the album may not have been worth posting about.  During my second listen, things clicked when "Santa's Coming Tomorrow" came on and I started thinking that it sounded like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" done in a minor key - at that point, the full meaning of the "minor" in the title hit me like a ton of bricks and the entire album suddenly became much more interesting.  Yes, this is a collection of German Christmas carols arranged in a minor key!  I don't know if knowledge of music theory is required to really appreciate something like this - I am by no means an expert on it, with just a couple of high school and university courses under my belt - but I'm pretty sure that most people would pick up on the fact that there is something different about these versions of "Silent Night" and "O Christmas Tree", to cherry pick a couple of familiar songs.

I still think that the album is too short, but at this point it's because I feel like it has barely whet an appetite I never knew I had - I'd love to hear more Christmas songs done like this!  What do you think?  Do you like the sound of Christmas carols done in a minor key?  I'm sure it's not for everyone, but for those like hearing Christmas carols done a little differently, this is definitely worth a listen.  Happy listening!

URL:
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/102525

Christmas 2011

Hey everyone, how's it going?  I've been listening to Christmas music for a couple of weeks now, and I think I'm finally ready to start writing about it.

I haven't had a lot of time for blogging this year (in fact, I think I only managed to make one post on my other blog all year, and that was back in January), but I'm hoping to be able to make some time for Christmas music posts over the next few weeks.  I think one reason I've been so hesitant to post anything is the fact that I like to be very thorough about things, which ends up being very time consuming - it takes multiple listens to an album before I feel ready to write about it, and it also takes a long time to write the actual post.  I'm going to try relaxing a bit this year - posts probably won't be as long and detailed as in past years, and I won't be overly concerned with having to say something about every single song on an album.  In a way, this could end up being even more challenging for me than trying to write a new post every day!  But for the love of free Christmas music (which hasn't diminished a bit - I still find myself scouring multiple sources whenever I have the time, looking for new songs and interesting takes on old songs), it should be a lot of fun.

While I finish figuring out just how I'm going to approach this, I welcome any comments that anyone may have.  Is there anything you'd like to see posted here - maybe a song, an artist, or a style that hasn't been covered before?  Got a link to some good Christmas music?  Please post it!  After all, this blog would not exist without you, my readers, so if there's any way I can make it a better experience for you, please let me know.


Also, just for fun, I've decided to create a Google+ page about the blog.  There's nothing there yet, and to be honest I'm still not certain what kind of content will be there, but if you're on Google+ and would like to circle the page, please do!