Music to See You through Christmas and into the New Year

The Christmas carol that we know in English as Carol of the Bells is originally a Ukrainian New Year’s song called Shchedryk. The Ukrainian words tell of a swallow that sings of good fortune that will come with the following spring. So, it could be said to be a Christmas song, a New Year’s song and a spring song all rolled into one (which is just what’s needed at the end of a year like 2020.) My favourite version is by the Ukrainian-Estonian folk-rock band Svjata Vatra (who we’ve featured previously in this blog.) 

Shchedryk is one of the highlights of the band’s latest release Maailm sa muutud (World, you are changing). This, their seventh album, sees Svjata Vatra at the height of their powers. Lead singer, front-man and virtuoso trombonist Ruslan Trochynskyi has once again enlisted the mellifluous vocal assistance of his daughter Rute Trochynskyi, not to mention Žurba – a choir made up of Estonian-Ukrainian grandmothers. The effect of the three generations singing together is one of the things that makes tracks like Shchedryk and Ty Zh Mene Pidmanula so powerful. I recommend you check out the wonderful video of Shchedryk, just as soon as you've finished reading this blog post!

If you’re looking for something less rousing and more contemplative over the Christmas and New Year period I can recommend albums by both Benedicte Maurseth and Toby Hay.

Benedicte Maurseth is a pre-eminent player of the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle. Unlike the conventional violin, a Hardanger fiddle has four or five additional sympathetic strings that resonate, the undertones creating a darkly polyphonic sound, prized by film soundtrack composers seeking a more plaintive, other-worldly effect.

Maurseth exploits her instrument's ability to induce a meditative, trance-like atmosphere through complex rhythms and repetitive motifs. Most of the tracks on her eponymous seventh album are tunes from the 18th and 19th century but, rather than simply playing each twice through as would be traditional, Maurseth extends and improvises, adding to their hypnotic quality. 

 

The mystical minimalism of Górecki's music comes to mind, especially in the two original compositions, Etterdønning/Reverberation and Og fargane skiftar på fjorden/And the Colours Shift on the Fjord. But I was reminded most of the 1994 album Officium by another Norwegian musician – saxophonist Jan Garbarek. Garbarek's album was recorded in an Austrian monastery; Maurseth's was recorded, fittingly, in Strandebarm Church, Hardanger.  

Maurseth's album is by no means easy listening but, if you need the aural equivalent of a palate cleanser after too many Christmas songs, no one can doubt the honesty and sincerity of this transcendent music. 

And, finally, to Toby Hay...

In the early 60s, when stereo was a novelty, record labels released demonstration albums introducing listeners to the wonderful world of stereophonic sound. Imagine the 12-string guitar had only just been invented – Toby Hay's album New Music for the 12 String Guitar could do the same for those hapless music-lovers who only know the pleasures of a 6-string. 

Welsh guitarist Hay spent just two days in the studio recording this album 'live' and solo, with no overdubs, on a custom-built Fylde instrument. Many of the 12 tracks have an improvised quality while the use of a wide range of alternative tunings add variety and differing textures so the guitar sounds almost like a sitar or an oud, especially on The Last Mountain Hare and The Summer the Sky Cried for Rain. 

While tracks like the glimmering evocation of home Cynefin and the medieval-sounding The Falconer’s Knot will delight any time of year, the only traditional tune, Auld Lang Syne, is a risky inclusion (given its limited appeal for 364 days of the year.) However, if you need a quiet, reflective version of Auld Lang Syne to see the New Year in, Toby Hay is your man. 

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

and here's the link again to Svjata Vatra's Shchedryk.

• Maailm sa muutud (World, you are changing) by Svjata Vatra (Nordic Notes)
• Benedicte Maurseth by Benedicte Maurseth (Grappa/Heilo)
• New Music for the 12 String Guitar by Toby Hay (state51 Conspiracy)