This Christmas in particular there is a great need for its music, carrying as music does more purely and directly than anything else, the message of peace, yes, of good will and above all, of hope. Music conveys the good news that counteracts the drumbeat message of fear and impending war coming from the government and what has become its relentless agency, the media. No amount of “but on the other hand,” “be of good cheer,” and “reach out” sentiments from those sources can counter the damage already done to the nation’s psyche.

But music will do that, as it always has. All that’s needed is a willing and trusting ear, and, for as many as can, ready voices. Music’s message happens differently for everyone, and differently in the many kinds of Christmas music in so many genres, not to say, styles. Some people will listen intently to the words as well, and, when those are sung with conviction, will be persuaded by the sense of the religious message. Others, the many who are not practicing or believing Christians and the untold millions who are Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and other, will be persuaded by the spirit of the music, the calming, reassuring sense that composers have always captured. Their numbers include a great many who were not themselves Christians, Irving Berlin (“White Christmas”) as the most famous example.

Because of emotional associations, nostalgia, and other sentiments, the familiar sound of the music is by itself enough to provide a kind of comfort as well as reminder to get outside ourselves and our concerns. It doesn’t matter whether the music is from the old tradition (carols, Handel’s Messiah and the like) or of the new tradition (new pieces in “popular music” styles or old music in modern arrangements). Getting people into the spirit is the best and perhaps only redeeming effect of the wall-to-wall (Walgreen to Walmart) seasonal music drenching stores, lobbies and malls since before Thanksgiving. That the intent of that immersion is to drive the shopping impulse is universally understood and as obvious, but there’s nothing for it but to look on the possible good side.

It is unfortunate that the intrusiveness can cause resentment and eventually inure many to the point of wanting no more Christmas-related music of any kind. Enough! But as there is neither escape nor prospect of relief in places of public gathering, maybe something positive may be found in it. As annoyed by the excesses and abuses as anyone, I now begin to think of it differently even as I turn off my receptors; the annoyance is a price to pay for whatever it takes to bring the largest number of people into consciousness of the season and to thoughts of what it signifies in our troubled times. Then I say to myself, “But I don’t need that reminder; I’m all too aware and anxious, and I hate the idea of people being propagandized and variously conned into spending and indulging beyond their means.” But that’s me, and I can accept the Christmas commercialism if it brings the other good partial consequence in its wake, to whatever degree. By analogy, I don’t need peace bumper stickers, petitions, ads in the newspapers and protesters’ signs to rally me to the cause, but I’m glad they’re there for whatever effect these have on the resolve of others.

While I can say, “Whatever,” to the repertory choices and to the tastes of others, Messiah for her, “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” for him, I also counsel standing up and singing. Joining in with a caroling group that happens by, singing carols in home gatherings as well as whatever good seasonal music you can muster, participating in a singalong Messiah and muddling through, singing along with the radio and TV — anything to activate the music glands and the participatory spirits. Actually, any good music will do, restore the spirits and hope. Give music a chance. Take the holiday respite to be restored by music.

We each of us have so many memories of this season of the year, triggered by the best and worst of the music. Caroling all over downtown San Francisco by singers from Cal, an ecumenical performance of Berlioz’ L’Enfance du Christ by the 100, who comprised the combined choirs and three professional quartets of soloists of Oakland’s three major downtown churches (in those days, there was singing and downtown Oakland was O.K., cheerful in fact), a WAC huddled by herself in a booth in the PX café on a miserable Army base one wartime Christmastime, sobbing as the sound of Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas” came over the PX speakers. Years and years of Christmases past, more real than the Dickens’ story and just as poignant.

Then there are thoughts of memorable occasions of music lifting the spirits during moments in history almost as crucial as the situation today. In World War I, the sound of English soldiers singing “Silent Night” inspiring a German soldier to come out into no-mans-land between the trenches and after him, soldiers from both sides, fraternizing, swapping cigarettes, candy, singing, for a precious voluntary armistice, peace, their humanity restored, if only for the precious instant. The tale the distinguished musicologist Donald Grout told of an event in a German city he was visiting in pre-war Nazi Germany, the early or mid-thirties, in protest of Pastor Martin Niemöller’s arrest, tens and tens of thousands of citizens streaming out into the streets and squares from every direction and marching to the center, all singing with one voice, “Ein’ feste Burg,” shaking the city with the sound.

In our society, so heterogeneous in culture and religion, hard to imagine what song could be the galvinizing catalyst of such a statement by the citizenry. “America, the Beautiful” might be misinterpreted as a patriotic call to arms, though it is anything but that. We do have music of this season that signifies peace and goodwill towards humankind. “Silent Night” would do, sung by 100,000, or 10,000 or 100 or 10 or one. Try it. To paraphrase FDR during another moment of national and international crisis, we have nothing to fear but . . .

(Robert P. Commanday, the senior editor of San Francisco Classical Voice, was the music critic of The San Francisco Chronicle, 1965-93, and before that a conductor and lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley.)

©2002 Robert P. Commanday, all rights reserved

(From September 1, 1998 to October 15, 2002, we have published, in addition to the Music News, feature pieces and weekly editorials, 1275 reviews of Bay Area performances by: 43 symphony orchestras (272 reviews), 64 chamber groups (140), 32 new music ensembles and programs (152), 32 opera companies (181), 23 choral groups (84), 13 music festivals (57), 27 early music ensembles (76), 18 chamber orchestras (55), 5 musical theater groups (13), world music (11) and recitals (227), youth music (7).)