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.

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