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Deck The Halls

from Carol Colors by Rudi Seitz

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Most listeners will know Deck The Halls as one of the cheeriest of all Christmas carols, and the arrangement here is one of the few places in the album where I've deliberately subverted the expectations we attach to the tune. Midway through my work on this arrangement, I stumbled on the idea ending each phrase with a surprise shift to the minor mode (the tune is in the major mode, often associated with brightness, and ending a phrase in minor represents a sudden turn to darkness or melancholy). This concept appealed to me because I thought it could evoke the shifting moods of the holiday season -- generally a time of good cheer, the holidays can also be a time of sadness when we think of lost or distant friends and relatives or perhaps when we quarrel with those who are near. While the minor phrase endings were meant to be surprising, I found them too abrupt in my initial draft, so I looked for a way to hint at the transition from C-major to C-minor before each cadence. Although I wouldn't expect most listeners to be aware of this on a conscious level, you can hear an E-flat introduced a beat and a half before most of the cadences, in preparation for the upcoming C-minor chord. While the very last chord in the piece may sound exceedingly dark, it's quite simple as a chord -- again, it's a C minor triad with a few notes doubled -- but its darkness is increased by the expectations we have of hearing a bright or happy sound in that place. Another technical detail of this piece is the use of triplet rhythms in the accompaniment in certain places to signal excitement, such as where the words would be "meadcup" and "barrel."

Instrument: piano
Style: a mix of harmonic and contrapuntal styles

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from Carol Colors, released December 15, 2014

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Rudi Seitz Boston, Massachusetts

Rudi draws upon his passion for the counterpoint of Bach and Renaissance masters, his delight in the expressive poignancy of Schubert and Chopin, and his fascination with jazz and the musics of North and South India to craft compact works in which every note counts. Along with composing, he sings and plays guitar. Rudi lives in Boston, MA. ... more

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