I was reading on another forum a couple of days ago about whether a certain band would release such-and-such a track from their new album as a christmas single. One of the comments that came up was that one track would sell well around christmas time because it "fits the season." Another track was described as summery.

Obviously the first piece that comes to mind is Vivaldi's Four Seasons but this was written intentionally to reflect the seasons. Does different music please us in different ways depending on the time of year?



(Yes it was the Queen forum! )

Not sure this really answers the question, but personally I hate hearing Christmas music - especially from that Godforsaken album released in the '80s - before December and refuse to let my pupils play any unless they're preparing for a concert and have to practise (bah, humbug!).

I went for ten years once before I could listen to Messiah.

I haven't noticed a difference otherwise. An interesting thought though!

I once sang bass in a performance of Messiah in Liverpool Cathedral (and tenor in the Chichester Psalms on the same programme)

p.s. Yes

I've never really seen The Messiah as Christmas music - it's really the whole story, not just the birth, though of course many of the later bits get cut so that the performance isn't too long.

I think it's easy to see why songs are labelled "Christmassy" or "summery", because of the lyrics, but instrumental music is less clear cut. It's partly the association - because you always hear Christmas carol tunes at Christmas, they are labelled in your mind, just as it's impossible to hear Mendelssohn's Wedding March without thinking of weddings. I'm not sure someone dropped in from outer space would automatically think of a wedding when they heard it though.

Talking of visitors from outer space, in relation to music, has anyone read Childhood's End (Arthur C Clarke). They couldn't understand the point of music at all - still less associations with the seasons.

Do they have seasons in outer space?

If your planet's orbit is eliptical and/or your planet is inclined to the eliptic, then yes, you will have seasons to some extent. Same would apply if you were living on a moon orbiting a planet, assuming the moon is not tidally locked to the planet it's orbiting.

Getting back to the topic...
Has anyone heard joby Talbot's "Once Around the Sun"? If I remember correctly, he released twelve pieces, one each month, a few years back for Classic FM. They were supposed to reflect the mood of the month. Some of them really work...

of course it does

Never heard of this but it reminds me of Tchaikovsky's The Seasons which also consist of 12 pieces, one for each month.

I'm glad to find I'm not the only one who went through a period of not being able to listen yet again to "Messiah"

After 20 odd years in France where you don't hear it every Christmas and Easter because it's a very English work I now find I can really enjoy it again.

After playing it many times with local groups to earn pin money as a student I had heard more than enough of it. I decided to put off listening to it for five years but that became ten! When the Academy of Ancient Music released a new recording I began to enjoy it again.

I love this CD. Probably the aliens would have difficulty telling which piece matches which month, but it is nevertheless highly atmospheric music that has distinct mood changes as it travels through the whole cycle. I'd highly recommend it.

I always associate baroque music with winter, classical music with spring, and romantic music with summer, skewing the pieces I play accordingly. Can't think of a convincing reason for this...