Mannheim Steamroller
and a German Christmas
German Christmas Carols
Chip Davis’ German Christmas Music
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All these years I've wondered how Mannheim Steamroller got its name, but only now have I solved that mystery. You'd expect a German connection, and there is one. But first, let's talk about Chip Davis, his unique orchestra, and his German Christmas music.
The band known as Mannheim Steamroller was founded by Louis Davis, Jr. (aka Chip Davis) in 1976. Davis was born into a musical family in rural Ohio. He studied music at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1969. Although he had earlier toured with the Norman Luboff Choir, it was as an advertising jingle writer in Omaha, Nebraska in the 1970s that Davis came to write and produce the 1975 country hit "Convoy," which eventually sold 10 million copies. Davis was named Country Music Writer of the Year in 1976.
Only a few years before that, Davis had been experimenting with a new sound for his Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant Boys, a unique band he had formed to record non-country music. In the process, he discovered a style he labels "18th century classical rock," a unique blend of acoustic and electronic music. In 1974 he recorded "Fresh Aire," an innovative album which Davis was unable to sell to mainstream record companies. Since they viewed his music as a bit too innovative, Davis was forced to be innovative in marketing his first album. He founded his own record label, American Gramaphone (they still made vinyl records in those days) and renamed his band Mannheim Steamroller. Since the first "Fresh Aire" album in 1974, there have been seven more, all of them popular around the world.
The Christmas Albums
Davis again defied conventional wisdom when he announced his intention to produce a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas album in 1984. Since that first one, the Christmas albums have all become true seasonal classics. Each of the five Christmas CDs has at least one Austrian or German carol on it, some have several. (See the "Christmas CDs" sidebar.) With the release of each successive Christmas album, more German carols or orchestral pieces have been added. The first Mannheim Steamroller Christmas album, released in the 1980s, was entitled simply Mannheim Steamroller Christmas. Of that CD's eleven songs, only one, an instrumental rendition of the Austrian "Stille Nacht" ("Silent Night"), was "German." The German title of that world-famous Austrian carol also appears on the album.
The second holiday album, A Fresh Aire Christmas, appeared in 1988. It contains the Austrian carol "Still, Still, Still" sung in English by the Cambridge Singers of London. The CD liner has the English text of "Still, Still, Still" (but not the German). This album also offers up three more German Christmas carols: "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" (Did you know that one is an 18th century German song?), "Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming" (15th century), and "In dulci Jubilo" (16th century), but as instrumentals only. This album's very international mix also includes the 19th century French carol "Cantique de Noel" ("O Holy Night"), which is also popular in Germany (as “Minuit Chretien”). Notes Chip Davis: "Since this piece is from around the time of Beethoven, I gave it a little Beethoven in the introduction with the melody in the bass."
In 1995 Mannheim Steamroller released the third Christmas CD, Christmas in the Aire. It has the voices of the Bielefelder Kinderchor (Children's Choir), under the direction of Dr. Jürgen Oberschelp, singing the German words to "Kling, Glöckchen" and "Adeste Fideles," better known in English as "O Come All Ye Faithful." This album also contains a German orchestral piece, "Gagliarda," composed by Johann Hermann Schein, which is said to be one of the first Christmas celebratory musical compositions ever.
Christmas Live, a compilation of previous Christmas albums, came out in 1997. It offers "Gagliarda," "Stille Nacht," and "In dulci Jubilo" from earlier albums.
For 2001, there was yet another Christmas album. This one is called Christmas Extraordinaire and it features a unique arrangement of "O Tannenbaum" (sung in English by the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club and Johnny Mathis) and Leipzig-born George F. Handel's "Hallelujah Chrorus" from "The Messiah." The Extraordinaire CD also includes Irving Berlin's classic "White Christmas" and other American, Russian and Spanish songs of the season.
According to the Christmas in the Aire liner notes, in addition to their home in Omaha, Nebraska, Chip Davis and his family (wife Trisha, children Kelly, Evan, and Elyse) have a house in northern Germany. Christmas in the Aire also lists two German "assistants" for the Bielefeld recording session.
How Mannheim Steamroller got its name: Chip Davis decided to call his band "Mannheim Steamroller," an amusing, "colloquial joke name" for an 18th-century musical technique known as the "Mannheim crescendo." The orchestral crescendo was pioneered by Johann Stamitz and the Mannheim Orchestra. The Mannheim sound built intensity by adding layers of sound, color, texture, other instruments—and, especially, volume. To Davis, it was like a steamroller. Hence, the name.
NEXT > The Albums and Songs
MORE > German Christmas Carol Lyrics
Christmas in German
All of our German Christmas pages.