🎵 🎄 🎅 Homeschool Holiday Music Month

One of the deepest purposes of a liberal education is to enable people to get jokes. David Chase’s brilliant arrangement of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” illustrates that happy principle for us as we approach the end of our Homeschool Holiday Music Month.

For Homeschool Holiday Music Month, introduce your students to the early American tradition of shape-note music by way of the beautiful carol “Star in the East,” first published in the Southern Harmony collection in 1835.

“God bless your house, your children too, / Your cattle and your store; / The Lord increase you day by day / And send you more and more.” (The Sussex Mummers’ Carol, from Percy Grainger and others, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)

“It came, a flow’ret bright, / Amid the cold of winter, / When half spent was the night.” (An ancient German carol that has been translated into many languages, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)

“We stood on the hills, Lady, / Our day’s work done, / Watching the frosted meadows / That winter had won.” (A Christmas night carol, from Bob Chilcott and Clive Sansom, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)

Introduce your homescholars (in just five minutes) to one of the world’s most famous pieces of classical music, from George Frideric Handel, for our Homeschool Holiday Music Month.

Introduce your homeschool students to an American folk tune that has now become an internationally famous Christmas carol, and invite them to think about how a single piece of music can sound very different under different vocal and instrumental arrangements.

“Methinks I see an heavenly host / Of angels on the wing; / Methinks I hear their cheerful notes, / So merrily they sing.” (Discover what Christmas sounded like at the time of the American Revolution.)

Invite your students to listen to a number of different performances of this popular American carol in a variety of different styles this week, and help them think through their preferences. It’s a great way to encourage their intellectual and artistic development.

“Antelope cantaloupe, ’lope with you!” (A happy family sing-a-long from Walt Kelly, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)

The American jazz musician Vince Guaraldi (1928–1976) wrote some of the best-loved Christmas music of our time. Why not introduce your homeschool students to his wonderful work this month.

“How do you capture the wind on the water? / How do you count all the stars in the sky? / How can you measure the love of a mother? / Or how can you write down a baby’s first cry?” (Introducing the work of the great modern carol-composer John Rutter, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)

“I want the tree full of toys and tinsel, / I want the wreath on the red front door, / I want the elves in the yard and each sentimental card / Dripping glitter on the floor.” (The great Nancy LaMott wishes you a Merry Christmas.)

If you’d like to fill your homeschool with some beautiful background sounds this season, why not tune in to the 24-hour Holiday Channel from WQXR, the famous classical music radio station in New York City. It’s one of the easiest exercises in musical education you can do all year.

“Past three o’clock, / And a cold frosty morning, / Past three o’clock; / Good morrow, masters all!” (Welcome to Homeschool Holiday Music Month! Enjoy a sprightly late-night carol, and learn the traditional call of the winter watchmen.)