Hugh Martin
Hugh Martin's score for the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis gave Judy Garland three lasting songs: The Boy Next Door, The Trolley Song and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, now a seasonal standard across the English-speaking world.
Martin wrote music, and often lyrics, for Broadway shows including Best Foot Forward, Look, Ma, I'm Dancin'!, Make a Wish and High Spirits, and later expanded the St. Louis material for the stage. He was also a busy vocal and choral arranger on Broadway and a trusted accompanist for Garland in concert. With writing partner Ralph Blane he earned Academy Award nominations for The Trolley Song and Pass That Peace Pipe. His Christmas ballad still turns up wherever carols are rearranged, from full festive programmes to quiet flute-and-harp or solo-piano settings that treat the tune as a good melody rather than seasonal decoration alone.
Compositions by Hugh Martin appear on
Christmas Around the Piano
Tony Gould offers reflective improvised solo-piano versions of familiar Christmas songs and carols. Played without hurry and coloured by personal memory, each tune is treated as living music rather than seasonal decoration alone.
A Golden Christmas: for Flute and Harp
Elizabeth Koch and Suzanne Handel. A superb collection of popular Christmas carols and songs, arranged for the charming combination of flute and harp.
Looking to the Light: Songs of Christmas
Looking to the Light is an easy-listening Christmas collection of favourites such as O Holy Night, The Little Drummer Boy, Ave Maria and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, with Australian carols, lesser-known songs and children's numbers including All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth and I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.