HOLIDAY TUNES: Do You Hear What I Hear?

I enjoy identifying musical intervals in songs and collecting them into a little spreadsheet. Not sure why. Some things in life just give you a little thrill, ya know?

‘Tis the season, so here’s a list of musical intervals and a holiday song that exemplifies each one. You may notice some intervals are missing, as I wasn’t able to think of examples for them. If you think of ones, please let me know!

Major second ascending - “Silent Night” (“Si--”)

Major second descending - “We Three Kings of Orient Are” (“We three”)

Minor second ascending - “White Christmas” (“I’m dream--”)

Minor second descending - “Carol of the Bells” (“Hark! How”)

Major third ascending - “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (“Have your--”)

Major third descending - “Christmastime Is Here” (“Christmas--”)

Minor third ascending - “Angels We Have Heard on High” (“we have”)

Minor third descending - “Frosty the Snowman” (“Frosty”)

Major fourth ascending - “Feliz Navidad” (“Feliz”)

Major fourth descending - “O Come All Ye Faithful” (“come all”)

Perfect fifth ascending - “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” (“rest ye”)

Augmented fifth ascending - “Believe” by Josh Groban (“sleeping”)

Major sixth ascending - “The Stowaway” (“Once I”)

Major seventh ascending - “River” by Joni Mitchell (“It’s com-...”)

Perfect octave ascending - “The Christmas Song” (“Chestnuts”)