Merry Christmas! I hope Santa was good to you and that, if it’s what you do, you found meaning in a church service celebrating the birth of Christ. I also hope that these Christmas Songs of the Day have added to your holiday season. (Don’t forget that they continue through the end of the year.)
For December 25, the Christmas Song of the Day is from the early part of the 20th century. It has beautiful lyrics; I’ve heard it sung solo by sopranos, tenors, and basses; I’ve heard it done by choruses. But the first time I heard the song – and frankly, the most familiar version to me – is an instrumental; in addition to its wonderful words, it has a gorgeous melody with some interesting chord changes.
And because of its title, it’s assumed to be an Italian song, as the original composition has Italian lyrics, but it was actually written in the United States, as best as I can determine.
Pietro Yon (1886-1943) was born in Settimo Vitone, near the city of Turin, Italy. Already at the age of six, he was studying organ; when he graduated from the Academy of St. Cecilia in Rome, he became assistant organist at St. Peter’s in the Vatican, a position he held from 1905 to 1907. He was not yet 21.
In 1907, Father John B. Young, the pastor at St. Francis Xavier Church in Manhattan, was in the Vatican on a business trip when he heard Yon play. Impressed, the priest offered the organist a three-year contract to relocate to New York. The three years stretched to almost two decades; Yon more or less permanently remained in the United States and became an American citizen in 1921.
Yon’s activities and influence spread far beyond SFX. He would serve as organist at legendary tenor Enrico Caruso’s funeral in 1921; he made appearances on both NBC and CBS radio in that medium’s early years; he helped design the organ at Carnegie Hall; and he was named “Titular Organist of the Vatican,” a move largely seen as Rome’s way of trying to get Yon into a more prestigious church. It worked, as he eventually became organist and director of music at famed St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, a position he held until his death. He and his brother Constantino, who had preceded him in coming to the United States, started a conservatory in the city; among the many who trained under one or the other of the Yons was Cole Porter.
But Yon also was a composer. He wrote 21 settings for the Ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei) when it was still always in Latin; numerous other sacred works; and many other songs and concertos, mostly for organ, but also for piano, orchestra, and voice.
His best-known piece, however, is “Gesu Bambino” (Baby Jesus), which he wrote in 1917, most likely for the postlude of a Midnight Mass at St. Francis Xavier, but that’s more an educated guess rather than based on documentary evidence. An early piece of piano sheet music, published in 1923, calls the melody a “pastorale” (music meant to evoke a rural setting, usually moderate to slow in tempo, and often written in 6/8, 9/8, or 12/8 time; “Gesu Bambino” is in 12/8) and contains the dedication “Most respectfully inscribed to the Academy and College of Mount St. Vincent on the Hudson,” which is where Pietro’s brother Constantino taught. The words were in Italian, and each verse concluded with the chorus of “Adeste Fideles” sung in Latin (Venite adoremus, Dominum).
Frederick Martens (1874-1932) put English lyrics to Yon’s melody in the early 1920s. The copyright date is 1924, but he may have written them earlier. Martens was an author, journalist, translator, and occasional composer from New Jersey who must have heard “Gesu Bambino” and decided it needed an English transliteration. In other words, his lyrics are not an exact translation, but fit the meter of the song and keep the spirit of the original. Martens’ work helped to popularize the song throughout the United States.
The recording history of “Gesu Bambino” isn’t clear. Possibly the first to record it was Italian tenor Giovanni Martinelli (1885-1969), a regular at the Metropolitan Opera, who waxed it for Victor in 1920, but this version is not known to survive (we know about it from session ledgers). He returned to it in 1926; this version, in English and Latin, was released and has appeared on some compilations of vintage Christmas recordings. Another early version was recorded by a group called Collegiate Choir for the Brunswick label in 1923 and again in 1927; the former is interesting because it uses the English title “The Infant Jesus” and gives co-credit to Martens a year before the copyright date on the English version. Some other known early recordings were by Lillian Hunsicker in 1927 for Victor, Amy Elkerman in 1927 for Edison, and Francesca Cuci in 1928 for Okeh. Because of the length of the song and the limitations of recording technology at the time, these versions all were edited in some way.
In all the years since, it has been recorded well over 100 times, in Italian, English, and other languages (I’ve seen it in French and in all Latin), by popular and classical singers, by a cappella choirs, by accompanied choirs, and as an instrumental. Here are several versions of “Gesu Bambino” to, I hope, add to your Christmas Day.
First, the released 1926 recording by Giovanni Martinelli with a female chorus (the verses are in heavily accented English):
Next, the Italian version with Latin chorus, sung by Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007) with the Wandsworth School Boys Choir on his 1976 album O Holy Night:
Here’s the English version, by American soprano Jessye Norman (1945-2019) with the Ambrosian Singers, from her 1981 album Sacred Songs:
Finally, the first version I remember hearing many years ago, the Percy Faith (1908-1976) instrumental with wordless vocals, from his 1958 album Hallelujah! (reissued in 1965 as Music of Christmas, Volume 2):
By the way, there is a different, even more obscure, song called “Caro Gesu Bambino” (“Dear Baby Jesus”), which is a more recent composition (copyright 1960). I’ve been known to confuse the two in the past.
CSOTDs from past December 25s
2022: “What a Glorious Night,” Sidewalk Prophets
2021: “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”
2020: “For Unto Us a Child Is Born” (from Handel’s Messiah)
2019: “Jesus Christ,” Big Star
2018: “Christmas Is a Birthday,” Burl Ives
2017: “The Christmas Guest,” Grandpa Jones
2016: “Touch Hands on Christmas Morning,” Mike Douglas
2015: “Gaudete,” Steeleye Span
Tim Neely Stuff 