Today, a re-working of the Twelve Days of Christmas for the Classical music lover, complete with drummers, pipers, lords and the like … all the way to a self-indulgent seasonal pun.
Here are the days (on desktop machines, click and drag across the blank areas to reveal the suggested pieces of music to accompany them – on mobile devices, scroll down for the selections)
12 drummers drumming…
11 pipers piping…
10 lords a-leaping…
9 ladies dancing…
8 maids a-milking…
Georges Bizet: “March” from Fair Maid of Perth
7 swans a-swimming…
Saint-Säens: “The Swan” from Carnival of the Animals
Tchaikovsky: Scene from Swan Lake
6 geese a-laying…
Eugene Goosens: Concerto in One Movement, Op. 45
5 gold rings…
4 calling birds…
3 French hens…
2 turtle doves…
A partridge in a pear tree…
Arvo Part: Arbos
Steve Reich: Drumming
Peter Maxwell Davies: An Orkney Wedding With Sunrise
Edvard Grieg: Lyric Pieces, Book 4 (Op. 47 no. 6): “A Leaping Dance”
Jacques Offenbach: “Can-Can” from Orpheus in the Underworld
Johann Strauss, Jr.: Adele’s “Laughing Song” from Die Fledermaus
Georges Bizet: “March” from Fair Maid of Perth
Sibelius: Fifth Symphony, mvt. 3
Saint-Säens: “The Swan” from Carnival of the Animals
Tchaikovsky: Scene from Swan Lake
Maurice Ravel: “Empress of the Pagodas” from Mother Goose Suite
Eugene Goosens: Concerto in One Movement, Op. 45
Wagner: “Ride of the Valkyries”, from his Ring Cycle’s Die Walküre
William Byrd: Mass for Four Voices
Haydn: Symphony 83 (one of the Paris Symphonies) known as “The Hen”
Ralph Vaughan Williams: “The Turtle Dove”
John Jeffreys: “The Little Pretty Nightingale” (sung by Ian Partridge)
Arvo Part: Arbos
