On the hunt for a flurry of contemporary classical works to soundtrack your holiday season? Look no further than DASHING VOL. 5 from Navona Records. This installment of the series unwraps the spirited, uplifting, and grandiose qualities of classical holiday music. Featuring an array of instrumental and vocal music from several lauded composers and performers, DASHING VOL. 5 serves as a cheerful reminder that music may be the greatest gift of all.
PARMA Senior Content Writer Shane Jozitis recently connected with the composers of DASHING VOL. 5 to learn about the inspirations, processes, and realizations behind their works. Read on for an exclusive deep dive into the creative minds of Christopher Hoh (CH), Michael Roush (MR), and Sarah Wallin Huff (SWH).
DASHING VOL 5 explores new interpretations of mainstay melodies, sonic interpretations of snowfall, delicate carols, and more. Where does your piece fall on this spectrum, and what should listeners expect to discover within your work?
CH: I love the Dashing series — holiday music that’s fresh as new snow! I was glad to be on the first one several years ago and am delighted my work appears on this album. It presents a suite of Christmas carols I set for chamber orchestra. Because these five tunes are heard less often than the most popular yuletide songs, listeners should discover at least one that’s new to them or unfamiliar.
With each arrangement I tried to bring out the essential character of the carol by exploiting the colors and techniques of the instruments at hand. Some movements indeed are delicate, like “Gesù Bambino” or “Greensleeves Reverie” (“What Child Is This?”). But others are robust, in your face romps. For the medieval melodies, which originated in dance, and I wanted music that’s light on its feet.
MR: Flurries is my first foray into a winter-themed composition. As it is a story-driven ballet piece, it was easy to imagine elements one might associate with stage setting (the edge of a forest), falling leaves and a “winter wind” with the change of the season, all manner of animals quietly grazing in the woods, the first hints of flurries falling, leading to heavier snowflakes, etc.
For me it was a question of closing my eyes, imagining a stage awash in colorful whites, blues, browns and so forth, characters emerging from the wings, and a gradual story unfolding. I remember opening my eyes that first time, looking at the blank score, and I started piecing together what I thought would be appropriate musically for the lead characters: something sprightly such as the Piccolo, something a bit warmer and assured such as the flute, and so on.
As there’s a bit of magic and ethereal wonder to the story I also wanted the harp, tubular bells and, initially, hand bells and glass harmonica. While it became apparent that some of my ambitious instrumentation would’ve been next to impossible to play, I became very excited at the thought of reverse-engineering some of that, swapping out some of the more unique sounds in favor of more strings, woodwinds, and percussion. Mixing and matching instrument tones, as well as experimenting with tempo changes (especially in Part 3 with the “blizzard” sequence) became a very fun and rewarding challenge.
What emotions do you want your music to evoke during the holiday season? Joy, nostalgia, reflection, or something else entirely?
SWH: With this work, I intend to evoke a sense of tranquility and humble gratitude during this frequently tumultuous time of year. An enduring sentiment that remains relevant today is that amidst the responsibilities of holiday festivities, may we pause to recognize and appreciate the individuals and environments that genuinely enrich our lives.
CH: All of the above! I think any good composition takes the listener (and performer) on a journey. So the emotional mood will shift and evolve somewhat. That’s true within each movement here; but it’s a wider expanse hearing the Divertimento as a whole. Let’s go back to the ballet idea. The first movement sets the mood — cold winter weather, warm holiday spirit, goodwill to all. Next the carol “Gesù Bambino” announces the Christ Child’s birth in a tender manger scene. It’s full of love and awe. “Shepherd’s Echo” depicts excited, simple folk hearing the angels’ news and hurrying to see the miracle for themselves. The fourth movement, “Greensleeves Reverie,” is somber. It’s a pause for reflection, contemplating deeper meaning as the story says Mary did — “treasuring all these things and pondering them in her heart.” For believers one aspect is Jesus’ suffering to come. But beyond religion, the holidays are often bittersweet, with memories of loved ones passed and opportunities lost as the year winds down. Finally, “Glad Day Melody” is an exuberant joy; the original finishes “Noël, Noël.” So it’s a dance and a celebration. Overall, you get a complete holiday package in under 18 minutes!
Do you have a favorite holiday memory that may or may not have influenced your music?
MR: There are too many to mention, and certainly EVERY Christmas with my children as they grew up. Music was always playing somewhere in the background: older classics such as Vince Guaraldi Trio, Ray Coniff Singers, Bing Crosby, etc. We don’t get much snow in Southern California, but in seasons past, snow (and flurries) was a key component: as a kid in Philadelphia, huddling around the radio listening for school closures while eyeing the Christmas tree nearby. While in college in Colorado, walking with my girlfriend on a snowy night, stopping at a promontory to look out over the City of Boulder and all the twinkling Christmas lights below. Holiday lights take on a magical, colorful and fuzzy glow as it snows — very romantic.
Most memorable, the Christmas Eve Blizzard of 1982 in Denver. My father had been in the military, so he was disciplined when it came to crisis management. Shovel snow, go in for a couple hours, shovel snow, go in for a couple hours… It was coming down faster than I could get rid of it. By the time it stopped on Christmas Day we had the only pristine blacktop driveway while the rest of the neighborhood was buried under waist-deep drifts. We were completely snowed-in for days and couldn’t go anywhere, but maybe my Dad (former Air Force) thought if a B-29 needed to land, we had a clear runway.
SWH: My most cherished holiday memories revolve around piling into the car on Christmas Eve and traveling to my grandparents’ home in a neighboring city. This annual gathering would bring the local family together for a home-cooked meal and the exchange of gifts. The tree was always the same real tree, kept alive in a pot in the backyard year after year, which we kids would get to help decorate prior to the family gathering. I remember the absolute thrill of looking out the car window at all the lights decorating the street on the way to my grandparents’, loving the smell of the winter-time air (even in Southern California) as we approached Family Christmas.
Drawing upon a Fine Arts focus which began at a young age that included extensive Choral, Drama, Theory/Composition, Music Appreciation and more, Michael Roush continued his passion for music while attending The University of Colorado at Boulder. After successful stints behind the scenes in the concert industry, Roush's broad array of high profile, live performance production experience would later give way to independent film and, eventually, creative writing. His love of narrative filmmaking brought him to Southern California, where he continues to shepherd numerous projects through creative development as a Producer, Director, and Writer.
Sarah Wallin Huff is a music lecturer at California Polytechnic University of Pomona, teaching “History of Technology in Music,” for which she published an original textbook with Great River Learning in 2019. She received her M.A. in Music Composition at Claremont Graduate University in 2008, and was the Professor of Composition and Advanced Theory — as well as conductor of the Chamber Ensemble — at The Master’s University in Santa Clarita from 2012-2016.
“Full of charm and shapely allure” (Opera News) and “a tapestry of immense grace” (Textura) are some of the praises Christopher J. Hoh has received for his music. He grew up in Reading PA and was influenced as a young singer and accompanist by great works under conductors in Pennsylvania, New York, and Washington. He has been in Alice Parker’s composer seminar as well as workshops with Jean Berger, Daniel Moe, Robert Page, and Craig Jessop.
