The Brockport College-Community Chorus, led by music director Elizabeth Banner, will celebrate the holidays with their “Sounds of the Season” program on Sunday, December 5, at 7:30 p.m. The concert will take place at the Seymour College Union Ballroom, Residence Drive, Brockport. All tickets are $5 and are available online at http://fineartstix.brockport.edu, by phone at 395-2787, or in person. SUNY Brockport’s up-to-date COVID-19 prevention guidelines can be found at the ticketing website, the Fine Arts Series Facebook page, and at brockport.edu/coronavirus. Compliance with campus protocols is required in order to attend any of our performances or events.
The music in the chorus’ program spans centuries, and encompasses both liturgical and secular music, including many holiday favorites. Two of those favorites were not even intended to be holiday songs but have become associated with Christmas through the years.
“Carol of the Bells” began as a Ukrainian folk song. Written in 1916 by Mykola Leontovich and titled “Shchedryk,” the original lyric tells the tale of a swallow flying into a household to proclaim the plentiful year that the family will have. For a Christmas concert, a choir director commissioned Leontovich to write a song based on Ukrainian folk melodies, prompting him to write the song we know today. Similarly, “My Favorite Things” was written for the classic 1959 Broadway musical The Sound of Music, in which it is sung by Maria and the Mother Abbess (unlike in the movie, in which it is sung by the postulant-turned-nanny and her seven charges). Years before she was cast in the film, Julie Andrews sang the song on a holiday-themed episode of The Garry Moore Show. But it was pop crooner Jack Jones who was the first artist to include “My Favorite Things” on a Christmas album in 1964, a few months ahead of the film’s 1965 release. Film executives feared the movie would flop without an advance radio hit, so they approached Jones’ record label for publicity. They pitched “My Favorite Things” for Jones’ album, suggesting, “Just add sleigh bells.”
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