I’ve always loved this old, old Burgundian Christmas carol, Pat-a-Pan. Here we have it performed by Yure Lytkin (mandolin) and friends… in what seems to be somebody’s living room.
“Willi, bring your little drum…” Fife and drum for Christmas. It has always worked for me.
Requested by Teddy Kiara–and you’re right, Teddy: it’s very hard to keep a dry eye while watching this.
Narrated by Hugh Bonneville, backed up by the Tabernacle Choir and a cast of re-enactors, It Is Well With My Soul was written by Horatio Spafford who, in 1873, after he’d lost most of his wealth in the Great Chicago Fire, then lost his four children in a shipwreck.
That was when he composed the hymn.
Mr. and Mrs. Spafford were to have further troubles in their lives (only two of their seven children survived to adulthood).
But as you will hear, they never gave up.
[16 minutes, but well worth your time: very inspiring]
Requested by SemperSoloDeoGloria, we have O Holy Night performed by Tomee Profit with Tauren Wells and Svircina.
I’ve never heard it done so energetically.
We can’t celebrate Christmas without Handel’s Messiah, can we? This version of Unto Us a Son Is Given is by the London Symphony Orchestra.
Requested by Thewhiterabbit.
[Ach! I want my cigar! But now it’s snowing. Well, I think I’ll break for a while and watch it come down.]
I couldn’t find the version Erlene requested–but you can’t post Christmas carols and leave our Joy to the World, can you? I don’t know who these performers are, but I like the way they sing this hymn.
[Sorry there’s no Christmas Carol Contest this year. I can’t see it prospering with such a late start.]
Requested by Phoebe, sung by Mediaeval Baebes–The Holly and Ivy. Gee, I was all set to post this before I heard from anybody.
I am too weak this year to trim a Christmas tree, let alone bring it through the door. So we’ll need a lot of hymns.
Look at that–11:00 already. And my typing is a total mess, takes twice as long as it should take to create a post.
Nevertheless, I felt a need to hear this hymn and to share it with you; In the Sweet By and By, sung by the Mennonite Singers.
And if I ever told you how LOOOOONG! it took to post it, you simply wouldn’t belive me. Unless you’d already had chemo brain yourself.
Requested by Erlene: Hava Nagila, with LaDonna Taylor on the violin.
I used to play this on the little organ we had in the living room. I could “b’lev sa ma’ach” with the best of them. I’ll bet I could still play it, even if I’ve forgotten what the words mean.
Ahhh! This is one of my very favorite hymns: We Have Heard the Joyful Sound (Jesus Saves!), as sung at the United Reformed Church’s 2012 synod. That’s the Hudson River Valley in the background–beautiful works of God’s hands.
(Boy howdy, do I need saving!)
Let’s hear it from the Voice of Eden, our brothers and sisters in India–Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary.
God knows we all have burdens and we all need help.