Does your family have that one Christmas album that gets played every year, even though several members of your family really don’t like it?
Maybe it’s a brass brand. Maybe it’s the Chipmunks Christmas album. Maybe it’s even this.
Well, if you’re looking to break with tradition and find a new holiday album, I’d like to suggest Oskar Schuster’s Tristesse Telescopique.
Okay okay, it’s not, technically speaking, a Christmas album. Or a Hanukkah album. Or related to the holidays in any possible way. But that’s the point. It’s not filled with slightly different versions of the same songs that fill every grocery store and coffee shop at this time of year. Instead, it’s filled with short instrumental pieces that convey peace, whimsy, joy, magic…all the things that most holiday albums try and fail to convey.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. It’s got a toy piano. Makes me think of snowflakes.
2. It’s got quiet percussion that chugs away intermittently in the background. Makes me think of a train set on display in a store window.
3. It’s got an unusual time signature. To me, a song in 6/4 always feels like a song in 4/4 that’s tugging on your shirt, trying to get your attention.
Recommended listening activity:
Exploring the smells in the spices aisle at the grocery store.