Support 12tone on Patreon to help us keep making cool videos! www.patreon.com/12tonevideos Some additional thoughts/corrections: 1) Honestly there's even more to this story that I wound up cutting for time/flow, but I'd recommend reading through some of the other histories if you really want that. They're all linked in the script doc in the description, but here's the main one I used: slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/12/carol-bells-shchedryk-ukraine-leontovych.html 2) I'd intended this to be more about the music itself but I wanted to start with some history and then the story got so interesting that it just became the whole video instead. There's a lot to say on a more music-analytical side, though, too. Maybe I'll make that video next year. 3) Is Mannheim Steamroller a metal band? Not really, but they're metal-adjacent, so for the purposes of the point I was making it didn't seem worth qualifying. Sorry if you care.
I've listened to TSO *and* MS! In Home Alone, (spoiler alert) when Mr. Marley walks up to Kevin, the kids are singing... this! And Marley's motif? Those 4 notes, used as Dies Irae!
I'm Ukrainian and I was a bit apprehensive going into this video because so much of our culture seems to be misrepresented in the west (because usually the people spreading the information aren't educated on the subject), but this video turned out to be very thoughtful and very well researched. thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing what you've learned with your big audience, it means a lot. and happy holidays!
man, I'm watching you for years. And you just got my biggest respect. Thanks for remembering the Ukrainian roots of Shchedryk - and the whole bloody story of our centuries long struggle against russian imperialism, even for keeping our national songs
I will be performing soon Schedryk in a choir, and you can't imagine, how people of all different ages and backgrounds love it all the same. There is something magical about it, and I will never not love it with my dear passion. Rest in peace, Mykola Leontovich, and thank you for your work.
The hell are you talking about? Ukraine is as Russian as Delaware is American, or Rome is Italian. Pretending otherwise just leads to more "struggle". Maybe if y'all stopped worshipping Bandera, you might not have lost all your young men
I'll also say on the topic of the melody sounding "dark" or "ominous", I've certainly always felt like it sounded "dark" thematically. IMO, at least from a Western musical cultural context, a descending minor third in any circumstance is melancholic. It's either bittersweet, threatening, depressive, etc. The first example that comes to mind is Radiohead's "How to Disappear Completely" has very prominent descending minor-third melodic fragments/motifs.
It doesn't remotely surprise me that a song created with inspiration from the rites of spring is so succinctly tied to a musical motif associated with death. Great video once again. Have a good holiday and happy new year.
5:47 small correction. Poland wasn't a notable backer of Ukraine, at least initially. First of all, independent Ukraine predates independent Poland. Ukraine got it in separate brest litovsk treaty, poland got it after Versailles year later. So the most notable backer of the Ukrainian state was Germany, and to less extent, Austria Secondly, Poland was claiming and controlling most of western Ukraine, which tried to fight for its own independence but was overwhelmed. Poland did help Ukraine one time after ww1 ended to fight the soviets, but they were losing, Ukraine was swept completely, and Poland had to fight for itself and miraculously succeded Through all of that, the Entente actually was against Ukraine in whatever form, backing the whites and occupying Ukrainian ports.
Carol of the Bells is, regardless of how closely it's tied to Christmas, one of the most musically malleable and historically interesting songs tied to the holidays, and I love it because of that malleability for writing/composing with. Certified banger.
12:10 Said the RUclipsr to the Star Wars guy, Do you hear what I hear? A bar, a bar, signifying dread, that you play when somebody's dead That you play when somebody's dead
Even without Dies Irae, I think this melody would sound dark to a western ear just due to general western culture/music. It's minor, which already pushes it towards a more serious and sombre tone and then the dancing around the minor third, especially with visits to the adjacent 2nd makes it feel tense and forboding. Then you add the repetition, making it feel like a chant, and finally you have the soft innocent vocals. It just feels like a score to a horror movie, and I'm not someone who watches horror moves, so that association is through cultural osmosis rather than direct exposure. I think it's interesting how what is (or was, I don't know about modern Ukrainian culture) heard as a hopeful, beautiful piece in one culture can sound dark and threatening to another. The small range was probably a result of the songs being sung by untrained children, but I wonder why a minor key was selected, maybe it's to invoke the coldness of winter, to contrast with the warm lyrics and delivery? Or maybe Ukraine has/had a different view of minor and major?
Leontovych was one of thousands of Ukrainian intellectuals who, unfortunately, were executed by the russians. The struggle of the Ukrainian people continues to this day. Thank you for such a detailed research of this topic
There isn't a "pagan roots of Christmas". If anything, paganism stole from Christianity. It's your kind of false propaganda that keeps these lies going. Learn some real history and not this click bate demonstrably false history.
Less than fun fact: the Cheka was founded Dec 20, 1917, 107 years to the day before this video was released. Interesting that it was brought up. I had mentioned it in my morning work meeting today, and then 12tone(one of the best music youtube creators) talks about one of their missions on my lunch break. What a strange coincidence. Great video by the way. Always one of my favorites. That and Veni Veni Emanuel.
The worst part of the 24 hours of Christmas music on radio for 30 isn't the worst part. It's that their library is typically around 150 songs. The station I work for, thankfully, stopped going all Christmas in 2019
Some of my favorite Christmas songs are Sabaton's "Christmas Truce," Theocracy's "Wynter Fever," and Demon Hunter's "The Wind." Psychostick also has some funny Christmas parodies. Like Weird Al style, but metal.
This is so timely and interesting, what with the ongoing war in Ukraine and Russia. Also, with all the interesting things here, little comment was made about the fact that this carol itself SOUNDS so much like bells, a connection that was, oddly enough, only made in the last jog of its history, even though it's so key to why it works so well. This makes for some very interesting instrumental interpretations emphasizing bells and bell-like instruments , or bell-like qualities in instruments. The idea that the bells connection in the song was added so late by an American sticks out to me, especially because Ukrainian folk culture is kind of crazy about Christmas in all kinds of beautiful ways and could totally have gotten there on it's own. Anybody got thoughts on that? I'm not Ukrainian, I just went to a Ukrainian folk camp in the summer and noticed how much traditional Ukrainian Christmas-related arts stuff hung around there, even before Autumn. The same notable cultural emphasis is there for wedding folk culture, even when nobody's getting married.
wait, Folk Camp as in the one hosted in the campgrounds east of the GTA? the Kosa Kolektiv affiliate Folk Camp? holy cripes, I'm doing Koliada and New Year Melanka with them this year! Kosa Koliada has been their thing since at *least* 2014 and their repertoire has been expanding alongside the spring and summer song collection, esp now that the nonprofit vocal ensemble Sing With Ukraine is getting more visibility in the larger community! it's so great to see an affiliate here 😄😄
I love carol of the bells because my school band always played it for our Christmas concert and it’s extremely fun to play (except for the run up, that part sucks)
Carol of the Bells? Meh. Carol of the Old Ones?! *Yes, please!* Look to the sky, way up on high There in the night stars are now right Eons have passed: now then at last Prison walls break, Old Ones awake! They will return: mankind will learn New kinds of fear when they are here They will reclaim all in their name Hopes turn to black when they come back Ignorant fools, mankind now rules Where they ruled then: it's theirs again
even better, Carol of the Bird! this is a more faithful translation of the lyrics in Ukrainian by Eileen, the RUclipsr mentioned by 12Tone! Shchedryk-shchedryk, shchedrivochka Here flew a swallow from afar Started to sing lively and loud Asking the master to come out Come here, oh come, Master it's time In the sheepfold - wonders to find Your lovely sheep have given birth To little lambs of great worth All of your wares are very fine Coin you will have in a big pile If not the coin then the chaff You have a wife fair as a dove Shchedryk-shchedryk, shchedrivochka Here flew a swa---llow from afar!
This is a relatively new discovery for me in the UK. It is now heard every Christmas, but wasn't that common twenty years ago. I have always thought it sounded weird - not dark necessarily - but not very Christian. I genuinely thought it was from one of the Harry Potter soundtracks for a while. It was a revelation to learn the true history thank you for the work. and thanks to the people of Ukraine for showing the world what is right and what must be fought for.
Great video. You let the tale take you where it needed to go, and that's one of the essences of something you do well; great storytelling. gj and happy holidays.
This was the first time I've heard one of your videos. My friends and I just saw Trans Siberian Orchestra and were talking about how dark and melancholy it sounded for being a happy Christmas song. Now I'm kicking myself for not catching the dias eire since I watched a whole video of how it was used in the Frozen soundtrack. I'll definitely be watching more of your stuff.
What an awesome video; I love it when researching something innocuous turns up a good old rabbit hole to fall down! Thanks for all your great content, and happy whatever to you and yours!
With it being December, I *did* wonder whether you would ever analyze a Christmas song, but I thought that was just a pipe dream! This is a welcome surprise!
This was always my favorite part of the midnight church service as a kid. The choir would stand just outside the doors and sing it a capella, it always felt spooky and exciting. It’s always been one of my favorites to hear especially when sung a capella.
This is amazing. I was literally pondering the origins of this piece last week. I didn't have the time to do the research that day and it slipped from my mind. Thank you so much for this one! This is truly fascinating.
This is my favorite Christmas song Carol of the Bells by the Mormon Tabernacle choir. We had it on tape when I was a kid. I am related by marriage to some Ukrainians it’s cool to find out the origin of this song.
My takeaway is that the audience of a content creator will be engaged if the content creator is, themselves, engaged. If you are having fun, we will have fun. If you are interested, we will be interested. Also, "did he hear what I hear?" ... I heard what you did there.
If anyone is interested in checking out more old Ukrainian winter songs, please check out "Rozkoliada" from the ensemble KURBASY - it's a whole concert recorded with treats for the ears in the renditions they perform of old carols!
It's always been interesting to me how this song sounds so much like an array of churchbells rung by young boys pulling on bell ropes. All the more interesting in that it doesn't seem to have been built with that in mind at all.
The Trans-Siberian Orchestra interpretation (Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24)) is taken from the ending of Savatage's "Dead Winter Dead" album (TSO is just a repackaging of Savatage), a concept album that takes place in Yugoslavia from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990 to the Yugoslav Wars in 1994. The piece represents a cellist playing Christmas carols in the ruins of the city center (based on the story of Vedran Smailović, who would play Albinondi's Adagio in Dm every night to honor the dead), and is killed on Christmas Eve during an artillery strike. That is why it is so bombastic and explosive.
I know this song as Ruby Sunday's song. Before I heard it used in Doctor Who, I don't think I had heard it before. This increased my knowledge about it immensely.
0:38 Not the patriots logo im WEAK 😂😂 Also, sp glad you included the mention of Sabaton. Many people never heard "Cristmas Truce" and it is criminally underrated
I recently went to a presentation on Turkish folk music and noticed the same motif. They, however, focussed more on the 3 against 2 polyrhythm. I was surprised you didn't mention that.
My favorite version of this is the one by the Ray Coniff Singers. Definitely seems to lean into the dark vibes, particularly towards the end where it seems to turn into something that would fit more as the music for a horror movie.
The cthulu based lovecraftian cover version 'Carol of the old ones' is my antidote to xmas. Look for 'A very scary solstice' and the seaquel 'An even scarier solstice' for loads more similar covers
Thank you for explaining the whys of that ominous feeling throughout the Carol of the Bells, I just listened to a version that (to my uneducated ears) sounded so beautiful, and from beginning to end I had that weird feeling of "epic battle" while having much less "Christmas feelings" than expected. The fact that it's a "low bass singer version" (Geoff Castellucci) may have helped... 😅. I will put the link to this video in a comment about the low bass singer's video. I believe the audience will find this very interesting. 🙂 Thank you again. Merry Everything and a Happy always! 🙂
The murder of the Ukrainian composer doesn’t surprise me at all. My Ukrainian ancestors came to the US and Canada just past this time after a Russian sympathizer bayonetted my great great grandmother to death in her home for supporting independence. Now, having knowledge of the history of this carol, I will have a tangible thing to connect me with her memory.
Thanks for featuring this. What a great story. This is my favorite carol, and I agree, it's always had a little foreboding quality to it. Like, the darkest day is here, the light will return, but in the meantime, what's that behind that rock?
What year did WIlhousky work on the NBC Symph arrangement? A friend's grandfather played first violin in that orchestra... I don't know what year, but he's on the canonical recording of the Prelude to Act 3 of Lohengrin they released...
Also the chanted lyrics also sound similar to a religious condemnation by a choir after someone speaks blasphemously in a church during mass, whilst they keep singing the original hymn they were singing like a direct word from metatron itself.
So… maybe this was a joke, but for years I assumed “Mannheim Steamroller” had to be a metal or industrial band based on its name, but… they are not metal, not even a little bit. They’re like, mall music. Waiting on the phone with your bank music.
So many songs from our collective repertoire of "traditional songs" are just like the time period equivalent of a RUclips parody. Which actual RUclips parodies do y'all think will overtake the original and become commonplace in 100 years?
My go to christmas music is definitely not music really played in stores, sucb as Carol of the Bells, It's cold as fuck outside (Johnny Manchild and the poor bastards), and This Christmas (I'll burn it down) by Set it Off
The irony and insane implications of Carol of the Bells being a Ukrainian folk song and its most popular rendition being by the Trans Siberian Orchestra
Right before you said "John Williams" the theme from the Incident ar Isla Nublar danced in my head and i was sure you were going in that direction. Obviously it was fascinating it was a other Williams tune from Home Alone that matched better, but that made it even more interesting as that motif seems to have been in his stable on more than one occasion. ruclips.net/video/lsZiVLmY8k0/видео.htmlsi=f4lDK-N-1OIfPE-c
So it has nothing to do with…bells? I always thought it was meant to sound (even without actual bells) like traditional clock chimes, like Big Ben, ringing changes, etc. Just a stylistic coincidence?
I feel like a lot of that comes from articulation. People always sing the descending part with bell-like accents. I wonder if it was originally sung more legato?
I think it’s also that dies irae structure (fairly similar to part of Big Ben’s melody) combined with the steady rhythmic figure, like you might be stuck with once big bells are swinging…but good question: can it be performed in a way that definitely doesn’t make you think of bells?
A standout version from modern Ukrainian musicians Pyrih i Batih that really brings out the darkness in the melody: ruclips.net/video/zoJMMAwgJtQ/видео.html Thanks for telling the story.
C'mon... stop playing... John Williams wrote it for Home Alone... like everything else good, it was the creation of a White American Man... right? 😳😁❤️💚🧑🏻🎄🎅🤶🎄
Was hoping for an acknowledgement of the origins of Carol of the Bells. I got even more. Congratulations on being so in depth with the history of the song. It's so sad that 100 years later the same issues 😢 Glory to Ukraine. 🟦🟨
Support 12tone on Patreon to help us keep making cool videos! www.patreon.com/12tonevideos
Some additional thoughts/corrections:
1) Honestly there's even more to this story that I wound up cutting for time/flow, but I'd recommend reading through some of the other histories if you really want that. They're all linked in the script doc in the description, but here's the main one I used: slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/12/carol-bells-shchedryk-ukraine-leontovych.html
2) I'd intended this to be more about the music itself but I wanted to start with some history and then the story got so interesting that it just became the whole video instead. There's a lot to say on a more music-analytical side, though, too. Maybe I'll make that video next year.
3) Is Mannheim Steamroller a metal band? Not really, but they're metal-adjacent, so for the purposes of the point I was making it didn't seem worth qualifying. Sorry if you care.
Not to mention Celtic Woman had covered the song, too. :)
I've listened to TSO *and* MS! In Home Alone, (spoiler alert) when Mr. Marley walks up to Kevin, the kids are singing... this! And Marley's motif? Those 4 notes, used as Dies Irae!
I'm Ukrainian and I was a bit apprehensive going into this video because so much of our culture seems to be misrepresented in the west (because usually the people spreading the information aren't educated on the subject), but this video turned out to be very thoughtful and very well researched. thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing what you've learned with your big audience, it means a lot. and happy holidays!
man, I'm watching you for years. And you just got my biggest respect. Thanks for remembering the Ukrainian roots of Shchedryk - and the whole bloody story of our centuries long struggle against russian imperialism, even for keeping our national songs
It’s ok, you can have your Polish imperialism
I will be performing soon Schedryk in a choir, and you can't imagine, how people of all different ages and backgrounds love it all the same.
There is something magical about it, and I will never not love it with my dear passion. Rest in peace, Mykola Leontovich, and thank you for your work.
The hell are you talking about? Ukraine is as Russian as Delaware is American, or Rome is Italian. Pretending otherwise just leads to more "struggle".
Maybe if y'all stopped worshipping Bandera, you might not have lost all your young men
Ukraine should go back to the Northmen... you know the Dutch... the "Vikings". That would solve everything.
“Feels like cheating”
*draws Patriots logo*
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAA
Non-pats fans still malding and we're not even on top anymore lmao.
@@TheR00ndar malding? spy gate was proven true
10:30 When you pointed out that connection, I actually silently screamed- THAT’S why I feel that way listening to it! Man, the Dies Irae is so strong.
It's over... and over... and over!
I'll also say on the topic of the melody sounding "dark" or "ominous", I've certainly always felt like it sounded "dark" thematically. IMO, at least from a Western musical cultural context, a descending minor third in any circumstance is melancholic. It's either bittersweet, threatening, depressive, etc. The first example that comes to mind is Radiohead's "How to Disappear Completely" has very prominent descending minor-third melodic fragments/motifs.
Another step down song I can recall is MCR's welcome to the black parade
It doesn't remotely surprise me that a song created with inspiration from the rites of spring is so succinctly tied to a musical motif associated with death. Great video once again. Have a good holiday and happy new year.
You found a rabbit hole, and I thank you for doing it.
I didn't know any of this except that it was a "Ukranian Christmas Song". Thanks for this whole video!
5:47 small correction. Poland wasn't a notable backer of Ukraine, at least initially. First of all, independent Ukraine predates independent Poland. Ukraine got it in separate brest litovsk treaty, poland got it after Versailles year later. So the most notable backer of the Ukrainian state was Germany, and to less extent, Austria
Secondly, Poland was claiming and controlling most of western Ukraine, which tried to fight for its own independence but was overwhelmed.
Poland did help Ukraine one time after ww1 ended to fight the soviets, but they were losing, Ukraine was swept completely, and Poland had to fight for itself and miraculously succeded Through all of that, the Entente actually was against Ukraine in whatever form, backing the whites and occupying Ukrainian ports.
Carol of the Bells is, regardless of how closely it's tied to Christmas, one of the most musically malleable and historically interesting songs tied to the holidays, and I love it because of that malleability for writing/composing with. Certified banger.
12:10
Said the RUclipsr to the Star Wars guy,
Do you hear what I hear?
A bar, a bar, signifying dread,
that you play when somebody's dead
That you play when somebody's dead
This is great
Nice! I was (also) wondering if it was deliberate.
What an amazing kaleidoscope of culture that makes a verse like this so perfect 🎯
Actually, that was 2 bars
Even without Dies Irae, I think this melody would sound dark to a western ear just due to general western culture/music. It's minor, which already pushes it towards a more serious and sombre tone and then the dancing around the minor third, especially with visits to the adjacent 2nd makes it feel tense and forboding. Then you add the repetition, making it feel like a chant, and finally you have the soft innocent vocals. It just feels like a score to a horror movie, and I'm not someone who watches horror moves, so that association is through cultural osmosis rather than direct exposure. I think it's interesting how what is (or was, I don't know about modern Ukrainian culture) heard as a hopeful, beautiful piece in one culture can sound dark and threatening to another. The small range was probably a result of the songs being sung by untrained children, but I wonder why a minor key was selected, maybe it's to invoke the coldness of winter, to contrast with the warm lyrics and delivery? Or maybe Ukraine has/had a different view of minor and major?
Leontovych was one of thousands of Ukrainian intellectuals who, unfortunately, were executed by the russians. The struggle of the Ukrainian people continues to this day. Thank you for such a detailed research of this topic
Stop blaming "Russians" as a people. It is Marxism, Socialism, Communism that is the problem. That is the evil "imperialism" you attck.
My favorite Christmas carols are the older, spookier sounding ones. The pagan roots of Christmas were a much spookier time.
Someone needs to make an entire Saturnalia/Druid Christmas album. What kind of songs would have been composed if Jesus was a Roman or Celtic myth?
There isn't a "pagan roots of Christmas". If anything, paganism stole from Christianity. It's your kind of false propaganda that keeps these lies going. Learn some real history and not this click bate demonstrably false history.
It is in fact an absolute banger regardless of what it is about
Less than fun fact: the Cheka was founded Dec 20, 1917, 107 years to the day before this video was released. Interesting that it was brought up. I had mentioned it in my morning work meeting today, and then 12tone(one of the best music youtube creators) talks about one of their missions on my lunch break. What a strange coincidence.
Great video by the way. Always one of my favorites. That and Veni Veni Emanuel.
The worst part of the 24 hours of Christmas music on radio for 30 isn't the worst part. It's that their library is typically around 150 songs. The station I work for, thankfully, stopped going all Christmas in 2019
You don't need Savatage's side project to feel menaced by Carol of the Bells. That thing terrifies me.
My favorite Christmas song: "Christmas Wrapping" by the Waitresses. IMHO, it has the best, most absolutely funky, bass lines in all of Christmasdom.
Some of my favorite Christmas songs are Sabaton's "Christmas Truce," Theocracy's "Wynter Fever," and Demon Hunter's "The Wind." Psychostick also has some funny Christmas parodies. Like Weird Al style, but metal.
I absolutely will complain out loud, they never play any of the Christmas songs I like.
It’s always Mariah Carey and never the Kinks. sigh.
@@CJSports307I have an Xmas playlist called Acceptable Jinglies. It's 15 minutes long and the Kinks' Father Christmas is on it twice
Now every time I listen to Carol Of The Bells I’ll think about the war 😟. At least it will have more meaning now 😕
Fantastic video. I had no idea!
love this channel!!
This is so timely and interesting, what with the ongoing war in Ukraine and Russia. Also, with all the interesting things here, little comment was made about the fact that this carol itself SOUNDS so much like bells, a connection that was, oddly enough, only made in the last jog of its history, even though it's so key to why it works so well. This makes for some very interesting instrumental interpretations emphasizing bells and bell-like instruments , or bell-like qualities in instruments.
The idea that the bells connection in the song was added so late by an American sticks out to me, especially because Ukrainian folk culture is kind of crazy about Christmas in all kinds of beautiful ways and could totally have gotten there on it's own. Anybody got thoughts on that? I'm not Ukrainian, I just went to a Ukrainian folk camp in the summer and noticed how much traditional Ukrainian Christmas-related arts stuff hung around there, even before Autumn. The same notable cultural emphasis is there for wedding folk culture, even when nobody's getting married.
wait, Folk Camp as in the one hosted in the campgrounds east of the GTA? the Kosa Kolektiv affiliate Folk Camp? holy cripes, I'm doing Koliada and New Year Melanka with them this year! Kosa Koliada has been their thing since at *least* 2014 and their repertoire has been expanding alongside the spring and summer song collection, esp now that the nonprofit vocal ensemble Sing With Ukraine is getting more visibility in the larger community! it's so great to see an affiliate here 😄😄
I love carol of the bells because my school band always played it for our Christmas concert and it’s extremely fun to play (except for the run up, that part sucks)
Carol of the Bells? Meh.
Carol of the Old Ones?! *Yes, please!*
Look to the sky, way up on high
There in the night stars are now right
Eons have passed: now then at last
Prison walls break, Old Ones awake!
They will return: mankind will learn
New kinds of fear when they are here
They will reclaim all in their name
Hopes turn to black when they come back
Ignorant fools, mankind now rules
Where they ruled then: it's theirs again
even better, Carol of the Bird!
this is a more faithful translation of the lyrics in Ukrainian by Eileen, the RUclipsr mentioned by 12Tone!
Shchedryk-shchedryk, shchedrivochka
Here flew a swallow from afar
Started to sing lively and loud
Asking the master to come out
Come here, oh come, Master it's time
In the sheepfold - wonders to find
Your lovely sheep have given birth
To little lambs of great worth
All of your wares are very fine
Coin you will have in a big pile
If not the coin then the chaff
You have a wife fair as a dove
Shchedryk-shchedryk, shchedrivochka
Here flew a swa---llow from afar!
This is a relatively new discovery for me in the UK. It is now heard every Christmas, but wasn't that common twenty years ago. I have always thought it sounded weird - not dark necessarily - but not very Christian. I genuinely thought it was from one of the Harry Potter soundtracks for a while. It was a revelation to learn the true history thank you for the work. and thanks to the people of Ukraine for showing the world what is right and what must be fought for.
This has been my favorite Christmas song since i can remember. Its ethereal and just hits the magic spot in the heart.
Thanks 12! This was awesome! I love your format, and you're phenomenally talented! God Bless!
one of the few christmas songs I love
Great video. You let the tale take you where it needed to go, and that's one of the essences of something you do well; great storytelling. gj and happy holidays.
This was the first time I've heard one of your videos. My friends and I just saw Trans Siberian Orchestra and were talking about how dark and melancholy it sounded for being a happy Christmas song. Now I'm kicking myself for not catching the dias eire since I watched a whole video of how it was used in the Frozen soundtrack.
I'll definitely be watching more of your stuff.
What an awesome video; I love it when researching something innocuous turns up a good old rabbit hole to fall down! Thanks for all your great content, and happy whatever to you and yours!
With it being December, I *did* wonder whether you would ever analyze a Christmas song, but I thought that was just a pipe dream! This is a welcome surprise!
That's my favourite Christmas carol
This was always my favorite part of the midnight church service as a kid. The choir would stand just outside the doors and sing it a capella, it always felt spooky and exciting. It’s always been one of my favorites to hear especially when sung a capella.
This is amazing. I was literally pondering the origins of this piece last week. I didn't have the time to do the research that day and it slipped from my mind. Thank you so much for this one! This is truly fascinating.
I enjoy Christmas music. A lot of the songs are nice and they make you feel good.
I always thought this song was too good to be a Christmas song
This is my favorite Christmas song Carol of the Bells by the Mormon Tabernacle choir. We had it on tape when I was a kid. I am related by marriage to some Ukrainians it’s cool to find out the origin of this song.
My takeaway is that the audience of a content creator will be engaged if the content creator is, themselves, engaged. If you are having fun, we will have fun. If you are interested, we will be interested.
Also, "did he hear what I hear?" ... I heard what you did there.
Spookily I looked up the origins of the 'The Litte Swallow' only yesterday
If anyone is interested in checking out more old Ukrainian winter songs, please check out "Rozkoliada" from the ensemble KURBASY - it's a whole concert recorded with treats for the ears in the renditions they perform of old carols!
I knew there was something interesting there. Thank you.
It's always been interesting to me how this song sounds so much like an array of churchbells rung by young boys pulling on bell ropes. All the more interesting in that it doesn't seem to have been built with that in mind at all.
When I learned this song in America forty years ago it was called “Ukrainian Bell Carol” 🤷🏼♀️
The Trans-Siberian Orchestra interpretation (Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24)) is taken from the ending of Savatage's "Dead Winter Dead" album (TSO is just a repackaging of Savatage), a concept album that takes place in Yugoslavia from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990 to the Yugoslav Wars in 1994. The piece represents a cellist playing Christmas carols in the ruins of the city center (based on the story of Vedran Smailović, who would play Albinondi's Adagio in Dm every night to honor the dead), and is killed on Christmas Eve during an artillery strike. That is why it is so bombastic and explosive.
I know this song as Ruby Sunday's song. Before I heard it used in Doctor Who, I don't think I had heard it before. This increased my knowledge about it immensely.
0:38 Not the patriots logo im WEAK 😂😂
Also, sp glad you included the mention of Sabaton. Many people never heard "Cristmas Truce" and it is criminally underrated
Brilliant- thank you
I recently went to a presentation on Turkish folk music and noticed the same motif. They, however, focussed more on the 3 against 2 polyrhythm. I was surprised you didn't mention that.
can you start a Spotify podcast pls?
I really wanna listen to your stuff while in the car without watching it, thanks!!
they have a podcast called ghost notes!
@irisgross144 sorry for the miscommunication lol
I was saying like
this series itself
I played trumpet in high school and Carol of the Bells was my favorite piece that we ever played, also not being a huge fan of Christmas music.
My favorite version of this is the one by the Ray Coniff Singers. Definitely seems to lean into the dark vibes, particularly towards the end where it seems to turn into something that would fit more as the music for a horror movie.
That's all very nice and interesting but there's pretty much 0 melodic breakdown in this which is why I come to your videos in the first place :/
Thank you for this video 💙💛
The cthulu based lovecraftian cover version 'Carol of the old ones' is my antidote to xmas. Look for 'A very scary solstice' and the seaquel 'An even scarier solstice' for loads more similar covers
Christmas classic!
Thank you for explaining the whys of that ominous feeling throughout the Carol of the Bells, I just listened to a version that (to my uneducated ears) sounded so beautiful, and from beginning to end I had that weird feeling of "epic battle" while having much less "Christmas feelings" than expected. The fact that it's a "low bass singer version" (Geoff Castellucci) may have helped... 😅.
I will put the link to this video in a comment about the low bass singer's video. I believe the audience will find this very interesting. 🙂
Thank you again. Merry Everything and a Happy always! 🙂
The murder of the Ukrainian composer doesn’t surprise me at all. My Ukrainian ancestors came to the US and Canada just past this time after a Russian sympathizer bayonetted my great great grandmother to death in her home for supporting independence. Now, having knowledge of the history of this carol, I will have a tangible thing to connect me with her memory.
Thanks for featuring this. What a great story. This is my favorite carol, and I agree, it's always had a little foreboding quality to it. Like, the darkest day is here, the light will return, but in the meantime, what's that behind that rock?
What year did WIlhousky work on the NBC Symph arrangement?
A friend's grandfather played first violin in that orchestra... I don't know what year, but he's on the canonical recording of the Prelude to Act 3 of Lohengrin they released...
woah new vid
12:12 ringing through the sky, shepherd boy
0:56 Fun fact: Metallica have performed "Carol of the Bells"!
Happy Holly-daze! :-)
Also the chanted lyrics also sound similar to a religious condemnation by a choir after someone speaks blasphemously in a church during mass, whilst they keep singing the original hymn they were singing like a direct word from metatron itself.
I read about this on tumblr, I think I know exactly where this is going...
a ukrainian folk song to the Dies Irae is such a wild coincidence lol
No mention of Ding Fries Are Done?
Very much the peak.
So… maybe this was a joke, but for years I assumed “Mannheim Steamroller” had to be a metal or industrial band based on its name, but… they are not metal, not even a little bit. They’re like, mall music. Waiting on the phone with your bank music.
Did you just refer to Mannheim Steamroller as a "metal band"? (13:01)
I noted that too. I have a hard time thinking of Manheim Steamroller as "Metal", lol.
When I start pondering this, I can't help thinking "silver and mercury are also metals" /prog metal fan
And for younger watchers, a slightly happier version of Dies Irae is sung by AURORA in... Frozen 2.
My Favorite!!
Diing fries are done
Now I hear Dies Irae even in synths of What Is Love...
The one Christmas song I look to is Agust Burns Red version of O Come Emanuel
100th thumbs up! :)
May empires and tyrants fall, and may art ever flourish uncensored. Happy December.
So many songs from our collective repertoire of "traditional songs" are just like the time period equivalent of a RUclips parody.
Which actual RUclips parodies do y'all think will overtake the original and become commonplace in 100 years?
Fingers crossed for some Psychostick concoctions to really catch on
Sarajevo 12/24 by Savatage is definitely my favorite version of this song.
Good enough to make the video proper, Trans-Siberian Orchestra is the same group.
My go to christmas music is definitely not music really played in stores, sucb as Carol of the Bells, It's cold as fuck outside (Johnny Manchild and the poor bastards), and This Christmas (I'll burn it down) by Set it Off
ding fries are done
The irony and insane implications of Carol of the Bells being a Ukrainian folk song and its most popular rendition being by the Trans Siberian Orchestra
Fun fact: this song has a 2:3 polyrhythm while being in 4/4 time. 🥁
i mean you could just call it 3/4 though
@@kj_H65f true, but it does have a slower 4/4 feel to it despite there also being a 3/4 feeling
@@kj_H65f I suppose you're correct. Though to me it feels more like a 2:3 polyrhythm instead of a 3/4 watz.
Right before you said "John Williams" the theme from the Incident ar Isla Nublar danced in my head and i was sure you were going in that direction. Obviously it was fascinating it was a other Williams tune from Home Alone that matched better, but that made it even more interesting as that motif seems to have been in his stable on more than one occasion.
ruclips.net/video/lsZiVLmY8k0/видео.htmlsi=f4lDK-N-1OIfPE-c
TIL Mannheim Steamroller is metal.
So it has nothing to do with…bells? I always thought it was meant to sound (even without actual bells) like traditional clock chimes, like Big Ben, ringing changes, etc. Just a stylistic coincidence?
I feel like a lot of that comes from articulation. People always sing the descending part with bell-like accents. I wonder if it was originally sung more legato?
I think it’s also that dies irae structure (fairly similar to part of Big Ben’s melody) combined with the steady rhythmic figure, like you might be stuck with once big bells are swinging…but good question: can it be performed in a way that definitely doesn’t make you think of bells?
Sabaton has a version of The Carol of the Bells? I have to find it.
Probably Christmas truce. It does include modified bits. Take care & merry Christmas
Trans-Siberian Orchestra or bust. There is only one version of this song for me.
A standout version from modern Ukrainian musicians Pyrih i Batih that really brings out the darkness in the melody: ruclips.net/video/zoJMMAwgJtQ/видео.html
Thanks for telling the story.
C'mon... stop playing... John Williams wrote it for Home Alone... like everything else good, it was the creation of a White American Man... right? 😳😁❤️💚🧑🏻🎄🎅🤶🎄
I dont believe it.
Was hoping for an acknowledgement of the origins of Carol of the Bells. I got even more. Congratulations on being so in depth with the history of the song. It's so sad that 100 years later the same issues 😢 Glory to Ukraine. 🟦🟨