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articles / Pop Culture

A Classical Reworking of the “Twelve Days of Christmas”

Pop CultureThe State of the Arts

Today, a re-working of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” for the Classical music lover… From Steve Reich’s Drumming, to William Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices,  Haydn’s Parisian “Hen”… and beyond.

A Classical Reworking of the “Twelve Days of Christmas”
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Here are the days (click and drag across the blank areas to reveal the suggested pieces of music to accompany them)

12 drummers drumming…

Steve Reich: Drumming

11 pipers piping…

Peter Maxwell Davies: An Orkney Wedding With Sunrise

10 lords a-leaping…

Edvard Grieg: Lyric Pieces, Book 4 (Op. 47 no. 6): “A Leaping Dance”

9 ladies dancing…

Jacques Offenbach: “Can-Can” from Orpheus in the Underworld

8 maids a-milking…

Johann Strauss, Jr.: Adele’s “Laughing Song” from Die Fledermaus 
Georges Bizet: “March” from Fair Maid of Perth

7 swans a-swimming…

Sibelius: Fifth Symphony, mvt. 3
Saint-Säens: “The Swan” from Carnival of the Animals
Tchaikovsky: Scene from Swan Lake

6 geese a-laying…

Maurice Ravel: “Empress of the Pagodas” from Mother Goose Suite
Eugene Goosens: Concerto in One Movement, Op. 45

5 gold rings…

Wagner: “Ride of the Valkyries”, from his Ring Cycle’s Die Walküre

4 calling birds…

William Byrd: Mass for Four Voices

3 French hens…

Haydn: Symphony 83 (one of the Paris Symphonies) known as “The Hen”

2 turtle doves…

Ralph Vaughan Williams: “The Turtle Dove”

A partridge in a pear tree…

John Jeffreys: “The Little Pretty Nightingale” (sung by Ian Partridge)
Arvo Part: Arbos
Pop CultureThe State of the Arts
Written by:
Jeffrey Freymann
Jeffrey Freymann
Published on 01.13.2017
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