Don's Weekly Christmas Listen

When composers write vocal music, they usually start with the lyrics and then write the music.

But what is a composer to do when the musical materials come to him first, but he doesn’t yet know the words? Most composers over the centuries have answered that question by cheating: they find an existing text that fits the music 85% of the way, and then shoehorn it into the piece. It takes a lightning bolt of either inspiration or luck to pull off that trick without some major seams showing.