What makes for a great Christmas song?

3 days ago 9

Every twelvemonth astatine this time, immoderate of the top songs successful the satellite popular up successful our playlists. Most of them are decades old, oregon adjacent centuries. If anyone knows what makes a Christmas opus immortal, it's Berklee School of Music forensic musicologist Joe Bennett. He's analyzed the vacation popular charts to larn precisely what makes fashionable Christmas songs fashionable – "to effort and fig retired what are the philharmonic characteristics that listeners support coming backmost to again and again implicit the years," helium said.

In fact, Bennett recovered that astir commercialized Christmas hits are astir 1 of lone six things. Those thematic characteristics see "home for the holidays" (the astir communal one), weather-themed songs (like "Let It Snow"), the story of Santa Claus, parties, being successful love, and being out of love.

Which brings america to the #1 Christmas deed of caller years: from 1994, Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You." Bennett says the opus is singular due to the fact that it hits astir of the Christmas-themed tropes: "We get Christmas presents, and the tree, and Santa Claus, and the snow. That lyric is truthful well-loved arsenic a vacation solemnisation song, 'cause it's virtually got it all."

Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You (Official Video) by MariahCareyVEVO on YouTube

A fewer years back, "Sunday Morning" visited Walter Afanasieff, who wrote that opus with Carey. "Hey, I person a #1 deed each year, but it's the aforesaid opus each year!" helium laughed.

"We conscionable benignant of, like, spell bouncing disconnected of each other, similar astatine a jam session," helium said. "No 1 successful a cardinal years would've thought, 'Yeah, we're gonna merchandise this and it's gonna beryllium a large hit.'"

Musical elements

And what does Maria Carey's deed person successful communal with astir different Christmas hits? Sleigh bells! "We recovered that much than 65% of the songs successful the corpus had sleigh bells playing 8 to the bar," said Bennett.

He said the inspiration came from galloping horses: "In the mid-1800s, the horses would really deterioration sleigh bells to pass radical that they were coming. So, you tin ideate the benignant of leather crossed the horse's mane there, and it's gonna marque a heck of a sound – you're not gonna miss that deadly sleigh coming up down you! You tin ideate a equine trotting to that, and it's eighth notes. Da-da-da-da. Unwittingly pre-composing Christmas euphony from 100 years afterwards!"

Major Key

Then determination are the method aspects of a portion of music, similar the key. According to Bennett, astir 98% of the songs successful the information acceptable that helium looked astatine were successful a large key. "On a aboveground level, Christmas euphony tends to beryllium cheerful," helium said.

"The different diagnostic that Christmas euphony has is, you privation each procreation to beryllium capable to sing it," helium added. "So that's wherefore kids' songs are often precise elemental and spell implicit smaller intervals" – similar "Jingle Bells," which is comprised of 5 notes. "And that's wherefore kids find it casual to sing!"

And definite enough: Almost each fashionable Christmas opus connected Earth has an easy singable scope of 9 notes oregon fewer: Among them, "White Christmas," "12 Days of Christmas," "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," "O Christmas Tree," "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)," "Do You Hear What I Hear?" "Silver Bells," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Frosty the Snowman," "Little Drummer Boy," and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing."

Bennett points retired 1 much communal characteristic: a astonishing fig of Christmas melodies spell close up oregon down the scale, arsenic successful "Joy to the World," "Let It Snow" and 'Winter Wonderland."

I asked, "Why bash you deliberation that truthful galore Christmas songs coiled up with these characteristics? It's not similar the composer sat down and said, 'Four-four, large key, swing'?"

"No, it's the enactment effect – that is, we lone cognize the Christmas songs that we cognize and love," Bennett said. "We disregard the experimental ones that conscionable died successful the marketplace."

A Christmas debut

Now, based connected the information I person studied connected what makes a large Christmas song, I've written 1 – and Kerry Butler has gracefully agreed to sing it for us!

Butler is simply a seasoned of 12 Broadway shows, including "Hairspray," "Mean Girls" and "Beetlejuice." She knows her mode astir a opus – and the holidays clasp a peculiar meaning for her. "My full household is obsessed with Christmas," she said. "We had our decorations up mode earlier Thanksgiving."

Asked what a Christmas opus does for her emotionally that a popular opus doesn't, Butler replied, "I deliberation it's the nostalgia. It brings backmost each these memories erstwhile we were little, singing them with our parents, and present we're older and we're singing them with our kids."

Now, songwriter Walter Afanasieff and Joe Bennett some accidental that conscionable including each the accepted philharmonic ingredients doesn't automatically marque a opus great. "It's not, like, a look oregon an algorithm," said Afanasieff.

And Bennett made an evident point: "If it were easy, a batch much radical would beryllium doing it!"

But, I had to springiness it a shot! And so, "Sunday Morning" presents the satellite premiere of "The Sound of Christmas." It's got sleigh bells, successful a large key, with a singable range, and a melody going down the scale.