During November and December the forces of commercialism and religious tradition converge to predetermine the set lists of musicians more than any other time of the year. Christmas is a busy time offering working musicians, who typically live hand-to-mouth, many opportunities to earn much needed cash for the holiday season. Thanksgiving through the New Year is the equivalent of Black Friday for many of us who, due to the law of supply and demand can easily earn twice the normal rate playing company Christmas concerts and parties, with a New Year's Eve gig frequently paying 4-5 times more than usual.
Many musicians I know, especially those with a choral background, are Christians, and for them the Christmas season is therefore a double bonus. More than anytime of the year they get to unabashedly sing the praises of their savior, Jesus Christ, not just in church on Sunday, but in many of the public and traditionally secular venues where these kinds of religious expressions would normally be inappropriate.
Polls show that even though the number of Americans who identify as atheists has grown from 1% to 5% in the last decade or so, and although I guess that among the general arts community that figure is probably higher, I am certain that atheist musicians like me are overwhelmingly outnumbered. Polls also indicate that 23% of Americans identify as something other than Christian so the circumstance of us non-Christians hiring ourselves out as musical mercenaries can't be that unusual.
A great irony of the Christmas music genre is that a lot of the enduring, popular American Christmas songs we sing and play every year like "Let it Snow," "Winter Wonderland," "Silver Bells," "White Christmas," "I'll be Home for Christmas," and "The Christmas Song," to name a few, were written by Jews. Many talented Jewish composers penned Christmas songs during and following WWII following the huge commercial success of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" in 1942. In fact, these non-religious songs effectively take Christ out of Christmas, and turn it into a festival of sleigh bells, winter snow, family, companionship and love, thus providing the non-Christian community a significant repertoire to choose from that really has nothing to do with Jesus, allowing us to participate in a national winter holiday without the whole son of God, Savior of man conflict. There are even examples of agnostics writing inspirational Christmas music such as the great English composers Ralph Vaughan Williams ("Fantasia on Christmas Carols) and John Rutter ("Candlelight Carol").
Sixteen years ago I took a seasonal gig directing a kids' carolers group for a holiday/Christmas party produced for the members of the large private health and wellness club where I was working as a supervisor. I started from scratch with nine children, my three year old daughter being the youngest. I accompanied them on guitar and some sequenced arrangements. Our first performance was outside on a 40deg night for an audience of about twenty. Over the years I added musicians and singers and the performance grew into a moderately large stage production under a big tent with sometimes over twenty singers, props, lighting, choreography, a pit band of eight to nine professional musicians and an audience of about 350. I have written all the arrangements and usually compose an original number each year.
I generally choose secular songs and add in a couple of traditional Christian carols. There is plenty of secular music to choose from like "Jingle Bells," "I'll be Home for Christmas" and "I Saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus," but people still expect to hear at least some "traditional" Christian carols like "Joy to the World" and "Silent Night." After one concert when I had focused on multi-cultural music celebrating harvest and winter solstice traditions from around the world, an audience member approached me and got in my face for not having any music mentioning Jesus. He reminded me that Jesus was the reason for the season and basically accused me of being a fraud. His pious ambush caught me unprepared and all I could really tell him was that I was a musician and not a minister and that we were not a church but rather a secular business. He unhappily stormed out, unimpressed with my response.
Like many musicians, atheist or not, I'm used to performing overtly Christian music. As an undergraduate I sang in all the choirs where there was so much Christian repertoire it would have been impossible to participate without singing the praises of God and Jesus, or intoning the stories Absalom and how Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho on a regular basis. Even though the texts were often sacred I loved singing the music because it was beautifully written by immortal composers the likes of Palestrina, Des Prez, Bach, Handel, Mozart and many others. Even in vocal jazz groups I have sung Hard Bop numbers like "Sermonette" and "Moanin'" inspired by the Black American gospel and spiritual tradition. There is no sense fighting it. For me the melodies, harmonies and rhythms transcend the text.
I learned from an experience when I was in the fourth grade that unless absolutely necessary, it is best not to tell people I don't believe in God, but because of my association with the kids carolers, people often just naturally assume I am a Christian. This can sometimes lead to awkward moments, especially when they try to use their devotion to Jesus as leverage, thinking it will gain them some favor. One man who knew I conducted the carolers asked if I would allow him to use our facility for a weekly bible study group and was genuinely taken back when I told him no because we were a secular business. He had of course assumed I'd be sympathetic and said as much. When I told him I wasn't really religious he was offended that I had the nerve to make money by performing Christian music.
On the other hand, every season I take the carolers to sing in local senior care facilities and I derive a lot of satisfaction from seeing the residents' faces light up and hearing them join in singing with us. When they thank us with "God bless you," I am sincerely touched and happy to thank them in return for their blessing. Even though I don't believe in their God, I know it brings them comfort to share the good will of their faith.
Both my daughters sang in the group from the time they were toddlers until their sophomore years in high school and as a funny consequence they tell me they often amaze their friends and acquaintances at parties by being able to sing all the verses from dozens of famous and not so famous carols. My oldest daughter told me just yesterday that she had a dispute with some friends who were insisting that "Over the River and Through the Woods" was a Thanksgiving song and not a Christmas song. She was able to end the controversy by singing through the verses that say "For it is Christmas Day." And so it is one of the ironies of life that this atheist has come to be known in my community for conducting a children's Christmas choir and that my children know the repertoire of Christmas carols better than most Christians. Merry Christmas.
Tue Dec 23, 2014 at 9:34 AM PT: It has been brought to my attention that "Over the River and Through the Woods," was originally a song for Thanksgiving but that "Thanksgiving" was replaced with "Christmas" somewhere along the way to Grandmother's house. It is something I never considered, and frankly it doesn't change my opinion on the song except to maybe make me like it more. I think next time we perform it I will change the lyrics back to the original. Altering or completely changing lyrics of songs is not unusual and one of my least favorite examples is the amorous, secular Renaissance ballad, "Greensleeves," to which lyrics were replaced in the 1860's by William Chatterton Dix, morphing it into the Christian Hymn sung every Christmas in the U.S. as "What Child is This." Thanks for all the great comments everyone. Merry Christmas and may you find peace through music this year.
Tue Dec 23, 2014 at 1:48 PM PT: Out of curiosity I did a Google search for "Over the River . . ." and found that 2 of the 7 results I opened had it as Christmas while the other 5 had Thanksgiving. The song has many different versions but all are based on an original poem called "The New-England Boy's Song About Thanksgiving Day," by Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880). Because there are12 stanzas to choose from, several delightful ones haven't made their way into the popular musical settings, at least not the versions I have heard so far. Here is a link to the full poem: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/...