Chanukah, called the Jewish Festival of Lights, begins on the darkest night of the year and brings light to darkness. The celebration commemorates the defeat of Syrian tyrant Antiochus IV and the rededication of the reclaimed sacred Temple in Jerusalem. After cleaning the Temple of Syrian idols to prepare for their celebration, the Jewish people found only one small cruse (bottle) of pure olive oil with which to light their holy lamps. Miraculously, the cruse provided oil lasting eight days, hence the eight day celebration. The tradition of Chanukah is continued each year by lighting the Menorah and telling the story.

It is a common myth that “Greensleeves” was written by King Henry VIII. However, we know he did not compose the piece. The song was first published in 1580, but the original lyrics had nothing to do with Christmas. William Chatterton Dix, a manager of an insurance company, wrote the carol “What Child is This?” in 1865 after a near death experience brought a spiritual awakening in him. No one knows who paired this carol with the melody from “Greensleeves”, but it has since become a popular holiday song.

“The Polar Express” is an animated holiday movie that was released in 2004. The story is about a young boy who has grown skeptical of Santa Claus and is shocked to see a train stop outside his window on Christmas Eve that is destined for the North Pole. When he accepts an invitation from the conductor to climb on board, he embarks on a white-knuckle ride to Santa’s headquarters, where he makes fast friends and learns an invaluable lesson about the true spirit of Christmas. This concert suite features “Believe,” “The Polar Express,” “When Christmas Comes to Town,” and “Spirit of the Season.”

“Rocky Point Holiday” was a commission from Frank Bencriscutto and the University of Minnesota band for a tour of Russia. It was composed between 1968 and 1969. Bencriscutto had heard Nelson’s orchestral work Savannah River Holiday and decided he wanted something virtuosic to take with him on the Russian tour. When asked about the limitations of the band, Bencriscutto told him there were none. “I’m going to write a tremendously difficult piece,” Nelson warned him. “That’s fine,” replied Bencriscutto, and thus Rocky Point Holiday was born. Nelson says, “This was a pivotal moment in my notion of wind ensemble scoring, in which I focused on orchestrating in an extremely transparent way.”

The bulk of the work on the composition occurred while Nelson was on vacation at a Rhode Island seaside resort. Rocky Point is an amusement park over a hundred years old, located in Warwick Neck, RI. It was closed down in the mid-1990s due to a lack of funds.

In Leroy Anderson’s words:

“I began Sleigh Ride in the summer of 1946 in a cottage in Woodbury, Connecticut, where my wife and I were spending the summer with our 18-month-old daughter. The original version began with what later became the middle section.  I recall working on it in the middle of a heat wave, so there is no basis for the music except the title itself.

That same summer I also worked on Fiddle-Faddle and Serenata.  After moving to Brooklyn, New York in the fall I finished Fiddle-Faddle on January 1, 1947 and Serenata on February 12, 1947 in addition to making arrangements for the Boston Pops concerts in the spring.

I had felt that the original theme of Sleigh Ride was not strong enough to start the number but would make a good middle section.  I finally worked out a satisfactory main theme, introduction and coda and finished the orchestra score on February 10, 1948.  Sleigh Ride was first performed on May 4, 1948 in Symphony Hall, Boston as an extra at a Pops concert conducted by Arthur Fiedler.  Lyrics by Mitchell Parish were added in 1950.”

Sincerely, Leroy Anderson