Joyfully Singing

     And here we are on Christmas Eve. Time does pass us by so quickly. You all probably noticed how I harped on one theme and exactly one throughout this entire week and a half. That of the absolute Greatness of God in coming down to become flesh for us. I'm hoping that writing about it so many times has helped it sink in to my own life this Christmastide.   To wrap things up this season, I am doing something unusual for me. I am sharing a very modern song which isn't necessarily a Christmas song and definitely not a carol.  However, there's always room to break the mold, and this song really beautifully sums up what Christmas is all about. The Authors of this song are an Irish couple who have written a lot of really beautiful hymns and tour America very often. Let me know if you guessed who I was referring to simply by reading that sentence.      My friends, I had a commentary all prepared for this song, but then I realized t...

     It was once humorously pointed out by a friend of mine just how many of the English carols speak about snow. As one person on a youtube comment feed put it, English carols talk about Snow, inventories of the animals in the stable, snow, and more snow. In a sense this is true and the ironic thing is that there was probably no snow anywhere near the place or time in which Jesus was born. The mischief has been done though. Most of us now associate Christmas with snow.   On the whole it's quite harmless. Snow is a beautiful medium by which to remember Christ's birth. So, tonight I share with you a snowy carol, one of my favorites, with a different tune from what most of you are probably used to hearing. However, it's not the tune of "In the Bleak Midwinter" I wish you to notice tonight, as much as the actual words once one gets past the first verse! Especially notice the second verse: Our God, heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain; Heaven and earth...

        We've all heard the popular question, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it still make noise?" Many and varied are the answers given, both lighthearted and scientific, and anyone's intuition can answer the question simply, however, one child's answer has always been my favorite. In a nature magazine question forum where one child asked the question another answered saying, "but of course it makes noise because God is always there to hear it." This simple answer struck me. We can come up with scientific retorts all we want but in the end, the question is non-existent because God is always present to hear every tree that ever falls.  John Rutter is probably my favorite contemporary choral composer. Last year I shared with you all my favorite of his Christmas works, "What Sweeter Music," and this year I thought I'd share another very high on my list, "The Shepherd's Pipe Carol."     ...

         I must apologize, my friends for missing the last three days. Things got rather busy. Anyhow, at first I was worried...how would I make up the extra days. Then this afternoon I realized something....the world won't come to the end if there are only nine carols of Christmas this year, and my dear readers will give me slack seeing that I'm trying to finish up Principles of Harmony while having just played a large role in my sister getting married.        Shortly after lunch today, my two youngest brothers aged 12 and 9 went about paying me some money they owed which amounted to two dollars each. The older one, Tobias, came up first and deposited two crisp dollars in my hand saying seriously, "here you are, those are brand new by the way." Not a minute passed before the other one, Benaiah, came dashing up the stairs after having spent some time hunting down his wallet. "Two very crumpled dollars coming right...

       Heinrich Suese, the supposed author of In Dulci Jubilo, according to foklore is said to have heard angels singing the words and "joined them in a dance of worship." Whether or not this is actually the case, I am in no position to speculate, however, when sung by a choir the song really does sound like it is being sung by angels.    In my case I first knew this song as John Mason Neale's translation "Good Christian men Rejoice." But many feel that Neale was too free with his translation and lost the feel of the song. I also feel this way the more I listen to Robert Lucas de Pearsall's version, a closer adaption with keeps the macaronic nature of the original lyrics.   Macaronic, my friends, does not have anything to do with pasta. The term simply refers to a song which has been written in two different languages; in this case, German and Latin.  Neale made a very loose translation of the song entirely into English while de ...

         I think the most beloved Christmas carols of today were either written in English or translated into it very quickly. Today I wish to introduce you all to one which is best sung in its original tongue, Spanish. In fact I don't believe that a translation of Riu Riu Chiu has ever been attempted.     First off, the nonsense syllables "Riu Riu Chiu" are intended to represent the call of a kingfisher who scared off the wolf purposing to bite Mary. It is with this cheerful and somewhat absurd chorus which this lively song begins, and first verse is not much better with some rather fanciful lines about Mary, but then the song goes deep.    Take the second verse for example; it is actually quite profound. This one that is born is the Great King,  Christ the Patriarch clothed in flesh.  He redeemed us when He made himself small,  though He was Infinite He would make himself finite. As I read this ...

        They say the Irish saved civilization. Today they saved my blog. The wexford carol is a beautiful old Irish song whose tune probably originated in the late 1700's though the words probably go even further about two-hundred years. As I listened to this haunting carol, I was struck by the depth of the words and how more of us could stand to sing this song around Christmas. It begins with an exhortation reminding us about what Christ has done: Good people all, this Christmas time, Consider well and bear in mind What our good God for us has done In sending his beloved son. It continues in the next verses to detail the shepherds hearing about Jesus, rejoicing when the see Him and the wise men coming from afar to seek Him.    Many singers end this song by repeating the first verse again which I find quite appropriate. When we get too overwhelmed with the world's attempt to commercialize Christmas this season, good people, it migh...

      His parents died oversees serving as missionaries when he was six, he was raised by the Moravians and ended up running a radical newspaper which propagated ideas as shocking as abolition! However, on Christmas Eve of 1816 something strikingly different appeared in the radical pages of the Sheffield Iris it was a Christmas poem which began with the dreamy lines: Angels from the realms of glory, Wing your flight o'er all the earth, Ye who sang creation's story, Now proclaim the Messiah's birth.    It ended, however with something far more unusual and yet far more profound and in a sense, far more beautiful: Sinners rung with true repentance, Doomed for guilt to endless pains, Justice now revokes your sentence, Mercy calls you; break your chains.    Unusual for a Christmas song, yes, but, as someone else wisely pointed out, this verse is fitting as it brings us to remember that Christmas is about far more than ...

     Welcome, good people, to the glorious advent season. Normally I save songs such as the one I intend to reintroduce for further along in the month. Usually on Christmas or Christmas Eve, however, I thought this year I'd jostle it up.     It all started this morning as I was driving to a lesson. I turned on the classical station and lo and behold what was playing but the Cambridge choir; it was the Cambridge Choir no less, conducted by John Rutter himself, singing his own arrangement of O Holy Night. I must say it was so beautiful that a couple times I almost forgot that I was driving!   The interesting thing about O Holy Night is that it was actually commissioned by a French Catholic Bishop in 1847 for a Christmas mass. The poet in Question, Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure was no church man, his life was wrapped up in the selling of wines, yet still, an excellent poet. Adolph Charles Adams, the author of the tune was not one we would expect to ...

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the intriguing world of Barbershop. Remember how last post I mentioned not one but two things which had pushed me to stop stalling in the blogging world? One of those things was barbershop music. As I explored the genre this summer I kept thinking how I must share this with anyone still devoted enough to follow my blog after nearly ten months of absence.   So, my dearly beloved followers, allow me to start by explaining to any of you who are clueless, as I was when I first heard the name, what Barbershop is.  The name actually originated from the old tradition of Barbershops being the social gathering place in a town where men would catch each other up on the latest news, discuss politics and perhaps even try out a few melodies together. Barbershop music refers to the Barbershop Quartet, an a-Capella singing group usually all male. The style is characterized by consonant four part chords.The voices are the Lead, a tenor ...

         Has it been seven or eight months since I last wrote? I do believe I've rather lost track. I was considering beginning this post with an apology for my lengthy absence, but I don't think that would be quite in order considering that I made no promises at the beginning. After all who expects a full time student and teacher to keep up with blogging? Probably no more than half my readers, therefore, "I do not apologize."    So, what aroused me from my reams of books and homework assignments to make a belated visit to my poor blog?   Two things: Babershop and my sister's engagement.   The first item I shall expound upon in the next post, which might not be in a few months considering the current trend.  As for Arianne's upcoming wedding, I must say it is still rather new for me. It is sometimes hard to grasp the fact that my childhood playmate, idol, confidante, and partner in crime is actually getting marrie...

  When I was younger, a year seemed to take forever, but the older I get, the faster each orbit around the sun seems to go. This year seemed to wiz by for me; I'm still remembering the beginning of  2015; I was a high-schooler. Now I'm a college student.      A year ago, I was frantically scrambling to get my application in, for dual enrollment and trying to figure out exactly what getting a degree through Verity would look like. Now I'm getting that degree.  In January of 2015, I had no idea where I would get the money from to pay for college expenses. My income was at an absolute zero. Now I'm teaching violin and loving it. As for college expenses, the Lord has provided so far, and that, in wonderful ways.   Our pastor always gives us an admonition each year. A litmus test, as it were, for our salvation. He says, "When you look back over the past year, can you honestly say that you love God more now than you did a year ago?" What a thought. C...