For anyone who has memories of Christmas as a child, there more
\nthan likely is one album or song that captures the mood or the
\nmemories more than anything. In my case, that album was a
\ncollection of songs performed not on the most modern equipment that
\ncould be found in the mid-’70s (when I was a young child), but on
\nmusic boxes dating back to the 19th Century.<\/p>\n
\nA Music Box Christmas<\/i> featured selections as heard on
\nantique music boxes from the collection of Rita Ford. (Side note: I
\nfinally used the Internet to locate her shop in New York, with the
\nhopes of calling her and thanking her for creating an album that
\nhas had such lasting memories. To my disappointment, I was informed
\nshe died a few years ago – though I’d like to thank whoever took my
\ncall at the shop for not treating me as some crank caller.)<\/p>\n
Now, I know that many people hear the words “music boxes” and
\nthink of the small clank boxes that you can find in jewelry boxes
\nor children’s toys. No, these are much more elaborate machines –
\nmachines that were meant to recreate the richness of an orchestra
\nin one’s living room during the Victorian Era. Long before the
\nadvent of the radio or the record player, the music box was a form
\nof entertainment – and a beautiful one it was.<\/p>\n
All you need as proof is the beauty of the first song, “Silent
\nNight, Holy Night”. The richness of the music box (there are
\nseveral different boxes featured on this disc) just might throw you
\nfor a loop in the beginning, but you’ll soon find yourself overcome
\nby the charms of this ornate device. Songs like “Hark! The Herald
\nAngels Sing” and “Ave Maria” almost make you wonder why the music
\nbox did not remain a popular form of entertainment.<\/p>\n
Because some of these boxes are over 100 years old, some of the
\nChristmas carols that are featured on
\nA Music Box Christmas<\/i> will probably not be familiar to you.
\nBut this does not take away any of the beauty of the songs or the
\nrichness of the tones of these devices. (Sometimes, it almost
\nsounds like these songs were recorded in Ford’s shop; more than
\nonce, I swore I heard a door slamming.)<\/p>\n
I have mixed feelings about
\nA Music Box Christmas<\/i> these days. On the plus side, I am
\nthrilled that Columbia Records has not shoved this album in the
\nvaults to be forgotten about; I almost lost my teeth the day I saw
\nthis one on CD. They obviously know that there’s magic in them thar
\nboxes, and they have done a great job preserving this now three
\ndecade old album.<\/p>\n
But the negative of it is that many people who never heard the
\noriginal album might not be willing to give such an album the time
\nof day in 1998. That’s an unfortunate thing, because the magic of
\nhearing the richness of such tracks like “Spin, Spin”, “O Holy
\nNight” and “Jingle Bells” still sends chills up my spine – and I
\nthink I’ve heard this album over 200 times over the past two
\ndecades.<\/p>\n
\nA Music Box Christmas<\/i> always seems to transport me back to
\n1975, and I can still see my mom putting up the family’s Christmas
\ntree (with the artificial pine scent), and me running around the
\nliving room, excited that Christmas was coming. This is an album
\nthat is value-priced these days, and is worth the few dollars it
\ncosts to hear how magical a Victorian Christmas must have been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6030],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36086","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-rita-ford","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36086"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36086"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}