CELEBRATING THE SEASON IN SONG

Songs give voice to our joys and sorrows, celebrations and commemorations. Visit times past through Library of Congress songs and musical compositions and view the way Americans gave voice to their thoughts, opinions, passions, and sentiments. Presented by staff specialists at the Library of Congress.

I. Customs

Food

· "Christmas Breakfast," (Sadie Miller, recorded Sept. 1995), Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cmns:@field(DOCID+@lit(cmns001763))

• "The only time we had fruit cocktail, it was once a year at Christmastime." (Felix Garcia, interviewed on Sept. 6, 1994), Working in Paterson: Occupational Heritage in an Urban Setting
  http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/afcwip:@field(DOCID+@lit(tca01802))
• "Mrs. Fogarty’s Christmas Cake," 1939, California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties
  Sound recording:
  http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cowellbib:@field(NUMBER%2B@band(afccc%2Ba3369b2))
  Sheet Music, Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885
  http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mussm:@field(NUMBER+@band(sm1883+01980))

Gatherings

• ”It Was My Father's Custom. A Merry Christmas Song,” America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets.
  http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/amss:@field(DOCID+@lit(sb20198b))
• "Tipperary Mans Courtship," America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets
  http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/amss:@field(DOCID+@lit(as113780))

· "I’ll Be Home for Christmas," I Hear America Singing: Patriotic Melodies
Sixty second clip of melody:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200000010/default.html
Sheet Music: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.100010539/contactsheet.html

NOTE: To find other Christmas sheet music, use the word “christmas” and search I Hear America Singing at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/html/search/ihas-search.html

Gifts

• “I never quilt in the summertime.” (Lura Stanley interviewed in Laurel Fork, VA, 1978), Quilts and Quiltmaking in America: 1978-1996
  http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/qlt:@field(DOCID+@lit(a0138))

· "Merry Ole Christmas," 1840, Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mussm:@field(NUMBER+@band(sm1840+380460))

• "The Christmas Dream," 1882, Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885
  http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mussm:@field(NUMBER+@band(sm1882+18383))
• "Santa Claus Hides in Your Phonograph," 1922, Inventing Entertainment: The Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies
  http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/papr:@field(NUMBER+@band(edrs+50999r))

II. Religious Celebration

· "Christian Children, Hail the Morn; Christmas Carol," Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mussm:@filreq(@field(NUMBER+@band(sm1884+23862))+@field(COLLID+sm1870))

· Christmas carols and Christmas music in the special presentation, Music Published in America, 1870-1885: Religious and Devotional Music, Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885

Special Presentation: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/smhtml/smessay9.html
(Scroll to last paragraph for links to Christmas music, Christmas carols, and secular music for Christmas.)

· "One of the Twelve. A Christmas Carol." The Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ncps:@field(DOCID+@lit(ABP2287-0053-38))

· "A Christmas Symphony," The Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ncpsbib:@field(DOCID+@lit(ABP7664-0003-53_bib))

· "Adeste Fideles," Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1899
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/berl:@field(NUMBER+@band(berl+130559))

· "A Christmas Ode," America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/amss:@field(DOCID+@lit(as102090))

· List of eleven Christmas songs in Spanish, Hungarian, and Portuguese, California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cowellbib:@FIELD(SUBJ+@band(+Christmas+music++))

Examples:

"Santos reis = Wise men," 1939 (in Portuguese, with an iron triangle)
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cowellbib:@field(NUMBER+@band(afccc+a3874b1))

"Venid pastores = Come, Shepherds," 1939
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cowellbib:@field(NUMBER+@band(afccc+a3866a4))

· Noite de reis = Epiphany, California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cowellbib:@field(NUMBER+@band(afccc+a3876a1))

· "Twenty-fifth of December," 1943, "Now What A Time": Blues, Gospel and the Fort Valley State College Folk Festival
http://memory.loc.gov:8081/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ftvbib:@field(DOCID+@lit(6992a1))