Track Listing

1. This Is Christmas - Jimmy Joyce 16-Voic
2. Christmas Cometh Caroling
3. Ah, Bleak and Chill the Wintery Wind
4. Come, Dear Children
5. Some Children See Him
6. Sleep, Baby Mine
7. All on a Christmas Morining
8. Caroling, Caroling
9. The Star Carol
10. We'll Dress the House
11. Christ in the Stranger's Guise
12. Nigh Bethleham
13. What Are the Signs
14. Jesu Parvule
15. O Hearken Ye

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66572 in Music
• Released on: 2008-11-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Album Description
An American Christmas classic, originally recorded in Hollywood in 1963 and digitally remastered in 1995, these performances by the Voices of Jimmy Joyce capture on CD the original arrangements of all 15 Christmas classics by Alfred S. Burt. This recording was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1964. It includes This is Christmas, Some Children See Him, and The Star Carol.

Customer Reviews

Definitive arrangements of Burt Carols
I was sorry to see the negative review by the gentleman from Nebraska. As a composer, I found these arrangements to be sensitive as well as musically sophisticated. The feeling for the text is magical--the music underlying the emotional content of the words superbly rendered. The music of the original Burt arrangement is present in the last verse of each carol, while the arrangements done for Joyce comprise the first verses. I found the poignancy of these performances touching and heartfelt. I recommend this recording with no reservations.

An Excellent Christmas CD
This recording of the Carols of Alfred S. Burt is one of the few

ones that attempted to put the complete carols before the public

There was one with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians which is

available on CD just search for Fred Waring and look over the

page that comes up very carefully you will see an ad for it.

The other was made by the Warner Bros. label. As far as I can

tell it is not currently in print. This CD issue from Collegium

brings to CD one of the better acapella performances of these

modern carols I have yet to hear. Many reviewers have commented

that these performances lack spirit and heart, I must disagree

the Jimmy Joyce Singers deliver plenty of heartfelt and sincere

spirit. They do something special here, they just sing the carols

without any affectation or any other such devices. All you get in

this CD is wonderful performances of Alfred Burt's carols.

This is a Christmas CD Keeper.

A Tall Order, but a Good Effort
(I own the original LP version of this album, so I am here commenting on the musical content only, not the quality of digital transfer, remastering or what-have-you.) Overall I was quite pleased with this album, my only previous exposure to Burt's carols being the selections performed by Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians. I will say that those remain my favorite performances of those particular tunes, as they are very simply interpreted and altered very little, if at all, from Burt's original scores, and that seems to yield the best results. However, I don't think the Joyce Singers' re-arrangements are inappropriate, as some other reviewers have expressed. In a few cases the arrangements get more elaborate than they maybe need to be, but I would not go as far as to say they are in bad taste. Burt's melodies are very strong --they do not suffer from the changes in the supporting parts, and if I am not mistaken, each cut on the album contains at least one verse of the composer's original part-writing. I have yet to hear an album of exclusively Burt carols that I've enjoyed more; very good overall. But, to my knowledge, nobody's recorded the perfect one yet.