Irving Berlin White Christmas
Irving Berlin White Christmas Program Notes
Irving Berlin’s family was one of the thousands that fled Russia’s pogroms, arriving to New York’s lower East side tenements in the 1890s. In 1896, he had to start earning an income on the death of his father, and sold newspapers, then singing in bars. He left home for the Union Square and Bowery portion of Manhattan, teaching himself piano after-hours. His first published song, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, met with great success, as did Blue Skies, Puttin’ on the Ritz, and many of the approximately 1,500 songs he wrote over his sixty years as an active songwriter. White Christmas became one of the most popular songs (recorded and performed) in history, part of the 1942 black-and-white movie “Holiday Inn,” remade in 1954 as “White Christmas,” and set in California. This version includes the original opening: “The sun is shining, the grass is green, the orange and palm trees sway; There’s never been such a day in Beverly Hills, L.A. But it’s December the twenty-fourth, and I am longing to be up north…” One story about the song’s first recording (and its most familiar), is that Bing Crosby recorded it in two takes, then went off to play golf. Irving Berlin Born: May 23, 1888, Russia Died: September 22, 1989, New York, New York
White Christmas is one of the most beloved songs ever written, composed by Irving Berlin and introduced by Bing Crosby in the 1942 film Holiday Inn. In orchestral concert arrangements it becomes a warm, nostalgic centerpiece of any holiday program.
Berlin composed White Christmas in 1940, and Bing Crosby first performed it on his NBC radio show on Christmas Day 1941. The recording became the best-selling single of all time for many decades.
Orchestral arrangements typically last approximately 3 to 5 minutes depending on the arranger’s treatment.
Listen for the warmth and simplicity of the melody, which Berlin reportedly wrote while feeling homesick in sunny California. In orchestral arrangements listen for how skilled arrangers use strings, woodwinds, and brass to build the song from intimate to full and glowing.
Berlin was a Russian-born Jewish immigrant who had no formal music training and could only play piano in one key, yet he wrote some of the most enduring American songs ever composed. He reportedly received a telegram from Bing Crosby after the song’s release simply reading: ‘Not bad.’
