“Thewhiterabbit” has requested Once in Royal David’s City, and I thought this performance of it by Libera rather nice.
Running out of time, folks, to request Christmas hymns–so if you’ve got a request to make, sing out.
Tag: Christmas music
‘Silent Night’ (Andre Rieu)
My aunts used to have Andre Reiu on TV all thoughout the Christmas season. Now the house is gone, my aunts are gone, and the memories stand. Christmas is a good time for memories, and an even better time for hope. Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
Anyway, I’m standing on the hilltop, waving the Christmas flag. Please feel free to join in with a hymn request of your own.
‘I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day’ (Burl Ives)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote these words in 1864. His wife had just died in a fire that burned down their house, and the nation was in the third year of the Civil War–to this day, the bloodiest war ever for America. That any man could write such a hymn as this, still sung 150 years later, displays the image of God in us.
And nobody sang it like Burl ives…
The Oldest Christmas Carol?
So what is the oldest known Christmas hymn? Probably this–Jesus Refulsit Omnium (“Jesus Illuminates All”), written by St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, in 336 A.D. The hymn is preserved in a few ancient books dating from over a thousand years ago.
Sung by the George Watson College Chamber Choir.
‘Go Tell It on the Mountain’
This is the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir, from South Africa, singing Go Tell It on the Mountain.
I’ve been trying for 60 years to learn how to snap my fingers, and still haven’t managed it.
‘Away in a Manger’ (Fountainview Academy)
Youtube has this mislabeled as Joy to the World, which is what I expected to hear when I clicked it. But what comes out is this beautiful performance, by the kids at Fountainview Academy, of Away in a Manger.
Think about it. To a world boiling over with wickedness, suffering, sin, and death, God sends, to repair it and redeem it… a baby in a manger.
Christianity is an excitingly wild idea. The more you think on it, the wilder it gets. But as C.S. Lewis said, “He’s not a tame lion.”
By Request, ‘Good Christian Men, Rejoice’
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“Thewhiterabbit” asked for this one, Good Christian Men, Rejoice: with a beautiful performance by the Robert Shaw Chorale.
we’re going to keep on posting Christmas hymns for the full 12 Days of Christmas–so keep your requests coming.
‘While Shepherds Watched’
Following a suggestion by our esteemed colleague, “thewhiterabbit,” [you wouldn’t believe the typo I just corrected: “thewhiterabbi”] I’m going to keep posting Christmas music until the 12 days of Christmas are fulfilled. So keep those Christmas hymn requests coming!
While Shepherd Watched came out in 1703, while good Queen Anne was on the throne of England. Lyrics by Nahum Tate, melody by Handel. And if you’d like to know what it sounded like back then, I can’t do better than assign that job to Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band.
‘Do You Hear What I Hear?’
One glimpse at the news this morning, and I’m just not ready to stop posting Christmas music. Lord, if we ever needed you, we need you now.
So, here is Do You Hear What I Hear, by the Harry Simeone Chorale.
And again, we’re still taking requests.
Encore, by Request: ‘Mary, Did You Know?’
We say yes to all requests for Christmas hymns here, so this encore is for Linda: Mary, Did You Know?
If nobody objects, I’d like to keep on posting Christmas hymns for the rest of the week. We’ll never use them all up.