"Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" is an

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...

medley of " God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" and " Shchedryk", first released on the

Savatage Savatage () was an American heavy metal band founded by brothers Jon and Criss Oliva in 1979 in Tarpon Springs, Florida. The band was first called Avatar, but, shortly before the release of their debut album '' Sirens'' (1983), they changed t ...

album ''

Dead Winter Dead ''Dead Winter Dead'' is the ninth studio album by the American heavy metal band Savatage, released in 1995. It is a concept album, that tells a story from the perspectives of a Serb boy, a Bosniak girl and an old man. The story of the album is ...

'' in 1995 as "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)." It was re-released by the

Trans-Siberian Orchestra Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) is an American rock band founded in 1996 by producer, composer, and lyricist Paul O'Neill, who brought together Jon Oliva and Al Pitrelli (both members of Savatage) and keyboardist and co-producer Robert Kinkel ...

, a side project of several Savatage members, on their 1996 debut album ''

Christmas Eve and Other Stories Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, i ...

''. The piece describes a lone

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

player (based on Vedran Smailović) playing a forgotten

Christmas carol A Christmas carol is a carol (a song or hymn) on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French ori ...

in war-torn

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

Composition

"Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" consists of four sections, alternating between soft and loud, as well as between the two component pieces in the medley. Part one consists of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" performed on a cello, accompanied only by a picked electric guitar and a flute in

round Round or rounds may refer to: Mathematics and science * The contour of a closed curve or surface with no sharp corners, such as an ellipse, circle, rounded rectangle, cant, or sphere * Rounding, the shortening of a number to reduce the number ...

. After a short ritard, part two abruptly begins, with " Shchedryk" (recognizable in the English-speaking world as the melody from "

Carol of the Bells "Carol of the Bells" is a popular Christmas carol, with music by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914 and lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky. The song is based on the Ukrainian folk chant " Shchedryk". The music is in the public domain; Wil ...

") being played at full volume, full orchestration and the synthesizers and electric guitars taking lead melody. The time signature also abruptly shifts from cut time to a driving

triple meter Triple metre (or Am. triple meter, also known as triple time) is a musical metre characterized by a ''primary'' division of 3 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 3 (simple) or 9 ( compound) in the upper figure of the time signature, with , , ...

, which persists through the rest of the piece. After a short transition, the third section consists of a piano solo, featuring motifs from both melodies being played simultaneously, with light string backing that builds through the section. The transition to the fourth and final section is again abrupt; the final section closely resembles the second, with "Shchedryk" being the central melody, again led by guitar and synthesizer with piano added. The coda consists of backing strings continuing softly after the fourth section ends, fading to a close. Both of the tunes used in "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" were in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

in 1995: "Shchedryk" was released in 1918 (although the English lyrics to "Carol of the Bells," dating to 1936, were still under copyright and were not included in the recording), while "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" dated back several centuries.

Background and writing

Paul O'Neill explained the story behind "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" in an interview published on ChristianityToday.com: The story is a slightly altered version of the real-life story of Vedran Smailović. Despite O'Neill's description of Smailović as "white-haired", he was only 36 years old during his 22-day vigil. Smailović did not actually play any Mozart or Beethoven pieces, but he did play Remo Giazotto's "

Adagio in G minor Adagio in G minor for strings and organ, also known as Adagio in Sol minore per archi e organo su due spunti tematici e su un basso numerato di Tomaso Albinoni (Mi 26), is a neo-Baroque composition commonly attributed to the 18th-century Veneti ...

" each day among the bombed ruins of Sarajevo in honor of each person killed in the bombing. He was not the only cellist who played through the siege; the Sarajevo String Quartet, which did have elderly members, were also noted for their continuous performances throughout the siege.

Chart performance and sales

On the week ending January 6, 1996, "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)" (with the artist listed as "Savatage") both debuted and peaked at No. 34 on ''Billboard'''s Hot Adult Contemporary Track Chart. With the artist name changed to Trans-Siberian Orchestra, the song charted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 again in the first weeks of January 1997 and January 1998, peaking at No. 49 both times. The song also charted on ''Billboard'''s Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart on the week ending January 3, 1998, peaking at No. 29. As of November 25, 2016, total sales of the digital track stand at 1,300,000 downloads according to Nielsen SoundScan, placing it third on the list of all-time best-selling Christmas/holiday digital singles in SoundScan history, falling short only to Mariah Carey's " All I Want for Christmas Is You" and the song "

Do You Want to Build a Snowman? "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" is a song from the 2013 Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disney 3D computer-animated musical feature film ''Frozen (2013 film), Frozen'', with music and lyrics composed by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. , ...

" from the movie ''Frozen''.

References

Trans-Siberian Orchestra official website
* CD jacket of ''

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12 24 1995 singles Atlantic Records singles Lava Records singles Music medleys Rock instrumentals Savatage Trans-Siberian Orchestra songs Warner Music Group singles 1990s instrumentals Christmas songs