- Arnold Bax wrote his symphonic poem, Christmas Eve, in 1912. He later revised the work in 1921.
- The original title of the work was “Christmas Eve on the Mountains.” In the revised 1921 score, Bax retitled the piece to just “Christmas Eve.”
- Bax wrote the following about the piece:
- “The motif of this tone-poem occurred to me whilst wandering one frosty evening last winter in the beautiful and legended Gleann na Smól, in county Dublin. I hope that the rather mystical mood of which this piece is the outcome may be sufficiently evident in the music to carry its own explanation.”
- Listen for – a variation of an Irish folk-sounding tune that Bax used in his First String Quartet.1
Sources
- “The Music of Arnold Bax,” Sir Arnold Bax Society, accessed December 11, 2025, https://sirarnoldbaxsociety.com/listen.
Cut IDs
45196