Merry Christmas! While searching YouTube, I came across this 1915 track, Christmas Day in the Morning ~ Olive Kline with Chorus and Orchestra. The rest of this post will be more conventional.
She turns 70 today! (HT, David.) The Holly and The Ivy – Annie Lennox.
Something from the third A Very Special Christmas (1997). Children, Go Where I Send Thee – Natalie Merchant.
We had a carol sing at my church 11 days ago, but we didn’t sing one of my favorite Christmas hymns, Lo, How A Rose e’er Blooming (Praetorius), performed here by the Atlanta Master Chorale.
In high school, we often sang Carol of the Bells. It always seemed too… chirpy. Then, a couple of years ago, after Russia invaded Ukraine, I heard a slower and, therefore, more melodic version by a Ukranian choir. Here’s Shchedryk (Carol of the Bells) by Bel Canto Choir Vilnius.
One of my wife’s K-girls: The Wexford Carol – Alison Krauss and Yo-Yo Ma. (HT, Gus.)
The Shepherds’ Farewell by Hector Berlioz features an inverse pedal point, one of my favorite musical effects. The Brandenburg Camino, Step5 performs it.
Kelly linked to Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. One familiar segment for me is Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light, by the College of King’s College. In the post, Kelly pointed out that he refuses to associate Handel’s Messiah with Christmas (for him, “that work is all about Easter.”) Yet I have sung the Christmas portion at least a half dozen times during Advent. So there’s that. Here’s Handel Messiah (Christmas Portion) – Robert Shaw and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus.
