Composer Daniel Pinkham died yesterday, December 18, 2006 in Natick, Massachusetts. He was 83 years old. A full biography can be found by clicking here. Although I was saddened by the news of his passing, the mere mention of his name brings a smile to my face, particularly during the holiday season.
Brass players and choruses worldwide have embraced Daniel Pinkham’s Christmas Cantata for several decades now, and it has become an absolute staple in the repertoire. Composed in 1957 when Pinkham was 34 years old and teaching at Harvard University, Christmas Cantata, or Sinfonia Sacra as it is subtitled, is scored for 10 brass instruments in double choirs, organ and chorus. It is written in three movements and the text is Latin.
I first performed the Christmas Cantata as a high school student. My teacher, Jerry Shaw, had assembled a group of brass players to accompany the choir of St. Mary’s in Taunton, Massachusetts. This may have been the first paying gig of my career, plus I was thrilled to be playing with my teacher and many of the best brass players in S.E. Massachusetts. As icing on the cake, we played the Cantata on two separate nights, and they not only paid us but also fed us a great dinner before each concert. I must have been thinking to myself that this would be a really cool thing to do for a living.
That was around 1980, and I would guess that I have performed the Pinkham Christmas Cantata at least once each year since then, always during the weeks leading up to Christmas. I can say without hesitation that I have probably earned enough money playing the Christmas Cantata over the years to pay for at least 1 or 2 new bass trombones. To say that I am grateful to Mr. Pinkham for his composition would be an understatement. In many ways, the holiday season does not seem quite whole to me unless I have a chance to play this work. If you have not had a chance to hear it, you may not have to look much further than your local church choir or choral society, as it seems everyone does this piece at this time of year. There are also several recordings out there, and there is an excellent one which I recorded with The Washington Chorus on their Sing Noel CD, which you will find on my discography page.
As an ironic aside, I should note that Mr. Pinkham was one of my music history professors at New England Conservatory. I pinned him down after class one day and asked him about the Christmas Cantata, and he laughed. It seems that he made very little money from the composition, yet it went on to become one of his most popular works. He said that you just never know how your works will be accepted, and that one was no exception. I recall buying the work from Robert King Music Company in N. Easton, Massachusetts for just a handful of dollars as a student (it currently retails at about $20 for a full set of parts with score).
Brass players, at some point this holiday season, raise a glass and toast Daniel Pinkham for all that he has done for us, and for helping to make the holiday season a little brighter for musicians and audiences alike through his work.