THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY - PENTATONIX This a cappella version of the The Little Drummer Boy by Pentatonix is beautiful. On November 25, Pentatonix released this YouTube video as part of their album titled A Christmas Album (Bright Eyes album). Within approximately nine days the video gained over 8,974,232 views. It is never too early to listen to Christmas carols and it is fun to read about their origins. The Little Drummer Boy (originally known as Carol of the Drum) was written by the American classical music composer and teacher Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. It was recorded in 1955 by the Trapp Family Singers, but the classic recording is from the 1958 recording by the Harry Simeone Chorale. In the lyrics the singer relates how, as a poor young boy, he was summoned by the Magi to the nativity where, without a gift for the infant Jesus, he played his drum with the Virgin Marys approval, remembering I played my best for Him and He smiled at me. The song was originally titled Carol of the Drum and was published by Davis as based upon a traditional Czech carol. Daviss interest was in producing material for amateur and girls choirs: her manuscript is set as a chorale, the tune in the soprano with alto harmony, tenor and bass parts producing the drum rhythm and a keyboard accompaniment for rehearsal only. The story depicted in the song is somewhat similar to a 12th-century legend retold by Anatole France as Le Jongleur de Notre Dame (French: Our Ladys Juggler), which was adapted into an opera in 1902 by Jules Massenet. In the French legend, however, a juggler juggles before the statue of the Virgin Mary, and the statue, according to which version of the legend one reads, either smiles at him or throws him a rose (or both, as in the 1984 television film, The Juggler of Notre Dame.) youtube/watch?v=qJ_MGWio-vc
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 02:15:17 +0000