- Date: 1942
- Composer: Irving Berlin
- Period: Modern (1910-1949)
Review
This internationally popular gently evocative ballad was first heard in Holiday Inn (1942), directed by Mark Sandrich, with the song introduced by Bing Crosby (as crooner Jim Hardy and owner of the Holiday Inn supper club) and Marjorie Reynolds (as Linda Mason, his love interest). Crosby's baritone crooning of the tune made it the most successful and well-known of all of Irving Berlin's creations. The song also appeared in the soundtracks of Blue Skies (1946), directed by Stuart Heisler, with Crosby as Johnny Adams, nightclub singer, involved in yet another love triangle plot, and White Christmas (1954), directed by Michael Curtiz, with Crosby as Bob Wallace, part of a top song-and-dance duo with stellar Danny Kaye (as Phil Davis).The brief intro to the song expresses a sentiment that many a non-native Californian transposed to that relatively seasonless climate must feel around the end of each year: "The sun is shining, the grass is green, the orange and palm trees sway. There's never been such a day in Beverly Hills, L.A. But it's December the twenty-fourth and I am longing to be up north." The basic harmonic progression in the key of C major is a series of roots in fourths (D, G, E, A, D, G, C) but cleverly disguised with standard substitute chords when the melodic phrase is repeated. Then the chorus theme begins by climbing up chromatically ("I'm dreaming of a white Christmas") and finishes the arch by a diatonic ascent and descent ("...just like the one I used to know"). At a relaxed, "mellow" tempo there is plenty of opportunity here for rhythmic flexibility and small grace notes and turns, of which, with great taste, singers like Crosby took advantage.
The next lines create lovely harmonies through skips to the top notes of ninth chords: "...where the tree tops glisten [C major ninth] and children listen [F minor 6/9]...." And then at the line "...to hear sleigh bells in the snow," both the melody line and accompaniment create a small tone poem-like imitation of that sound with tinkling descending seventh chords over a G pedal point.
The next lines repeat the previous melodic and harmonic progressions ("I'm dreaming of a white Christmas with ev'ry Christmas card I write:...). The next line employs the first ninth chord as before, but then skips higher in the vocal line leaving the accompaniment to echo the next ninth tone in its inner voice ("May your days be merry and bright..."). The song concludes with a classical I 6/4, V, I cadence ("...and may all your Christmases be white."). ~ All Music Guide
