The Music of Christmas – Day 1: “The Music of Christmas”

“The Music of Christmas”
By Steven Curtis Chapman

Nearly fifteen years ago, I started writing this exact same musical exploration on LiveJournal. The song that inspired that journey was first in the list, and it’s the same today — “The Music of Christmas” by Steven Curtis Chapman. I first heard this song over twenty years ago, when a brand new radio station started broadcasting. While they waited to debut their true format, they played Christmas music 24/7, and I enjoyed it so much, I made it one of my presets on my car radio. This was one of the songs that frequented their playlist.

The song starts out with a guitar arrangement of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, but after the first stanza, it changes into a full band song called “The Music of Christmas”. It’s still a guitar piece, but it’s upbeat and cheerful. Surprisingly, it includes a children’s choir, which is something I normally do not like in any song. But here, it’s used as background vocals and never upstages Steven’s singing in the chorus.

As you could guess, this song is about music — “Listen for the sound of hope…. it’s the music of Christmas.” I think this song quite accurately describes what I like about Christmas music, so that’s part of why it makes my list.

I’ve also learned that there are certain chord structures and progressions that just resonate with me. I can dislike a song but still find a few notes that are just beautiful. The chorus in this song has a great chord progression that has dissonance and tension and resolution, with great harmonies. It will be hard to take this off my holiday playlist.

Tomorrow – it’s a song that I remember from my childhood, but it’s no wonder that I like a slightly more modern take on it.