Carols Galore!

Image result for images of quokka jumping

G’day! Byron the Quokka here–and if you want to listen to a bunch of really beautiful Christmas music, hop on over to Lee’s “Playground Player Chessforum” on http://www.chessgames.com/ . Our friends OhioChessFan, Jessicafischerqueen, Count Wedgemore (from Norway, with a Swedish carol for us), and Diceman have loaded it up with Christmas carols today. Just click “chessforums” at the bottom of the page, then scroll down until you find the little green dinosaur and “Playground Player,” and click that. Let us know if you have any trouble connecting to it, although I don’t think you will.

Oh! And please let us know if you go crazy or something because of too much Christmas music, which Science says is bad for you–nyah-nyah to that!

We’d post ’em here, only suddenly it’s an embarrassment of riches, dontcha know–nowhere to put ’em all. But if enough of you ask for it, I’ll try. Maybe one a day. That’d work.

It’s going to be a merry Christmas, everybody!

P.S.–Come to think of it, I think I will post them here over the next few days. Just in case you can’t get there.

‘God Bless Us Everyone’

If all has gone smoothly (wow!), I’ll be out Christmas shopping while you’re listening to this: God Bless Us Everyone, composed by Nick Bicat for A Christmas Carol (1984), starring George C. Scott. A wonderful production! Almost impossible to believe it was a TV movie. But then how many times do you get George C. Scott and Clive Donner on board for anything on television?

By Request, ‘How Unto Bethlehem the Pilgrimage of Kings’

Here’s another one I’d never heard before: requested by Phoebe, How Unto Bethlehem the Pilgrimage of Kings?, sung by the Robert Shaw Chorale. Can anybody identify the artist whose work illustrates this hymn?

By Request, ‘What Child Is This?’

Requested by TheWhiteRabbit: What Child Is This?, performed by Anthony Way (I couldn’t resist the stained glass). The lyrics are from 1865, but the melody, “Greensleeves,” is much older than that. It can be found in songbooks printed in the 1500s.

‘Once in Royal David’s City’

No one has asked for this yet, but here it is–Once in Royal David’s City, by the Kings College Choir at Cambridge. Ahhhh….!

By Request, ‘Mary Had a Baby’

Requested by Phoebe. I’d never heard this carol before–but there are more Christmas carols than anyone can listen to. Mary Had a Baby (Yes, Lord) is a traditional carol, here with an arrangement by P.M. Adamson. I do like that Nativity set. Oooh! Almost time to start setting up our tree…

By Request, ‘Ring Christmas Bells’

Requested by Joshua. The Carol of the Bells is a striking piece of music with sort of boilerplate Christmassy lyrics. Here, Ray Coniff has kept the melody and plugged in more explicitly Christian lyrics–and three cheers for him!

‘On This Day Earth Shall Ring’

This one goes all the way back to the 14th century–On This Day Earth Shall Ring, here sung by St. Malachy’s College Choir, Belfast. The hymn is also sung as Personent Hodie, as it appeared in a Finnish hymn book from the 1500s.

By Request, ‘Angels We Have Heard on High’

I muffed this when Phoebe asked for it, so this morning, here it is–Angels We Have Heard on High, performed by the Christendom College Choir with Schola Gregoriana… and a nice long “Glooooooooooooria”!

By Request, ‘Gloria in Excelsis Deo’

One of the most gorgeous pieces of music I know, sometimes I post it when it’s nowhere near Christmas: requested by Joshua, sung by the Libera boys’ choir, Gloria in Excelsis Deo, by Camille Saint-Saens. You don’t mind that the lyrics are in Latin, do you?