Favorite Christmas Carols and Songs.

[Matilda]

Thought I'd start a new thread just for Christmas - here are some of mine:

The Silver Stars are in the Sky (Sleep, my little one, sleep)
Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
O Holy Night (but it needs to be sung well, and often isn't!)
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

I do enjoy the great standards Adeste Fideles (yes, in Latin, but you don't hear that very much
these days - I can still remember 1 1/2 verses), the First Nowell, Good King Wenceslas, and of
course Silent Night are some of my favorites.

What are some of yours?

[CBHagman]

1. Yay!

I was hoping to have a thread like this in this particular group.

For Christmas and Advent, I particularly like the following:

People, Look East
Shiloh
Josef liebster, Josef mein
Tomorrow Will Be My Dancing Day
Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen
The Angel Gabriel
Once in Royal David's City
The Rebel Jesus
Past Three O'Clock
The Boar's Head Carol
Riu, riu, chiu

Looking at that list, you could possibly guess that my favorite Christmas albums are The Bells of Dublin (by the Chieftains and others), Bright Day Star (by the Baltimore Consort), and A Waverly Consort Christmas.

[Maeve]

2. Some of us might guess that!

People Look East--best Advent song
Rebel Jesus--best alternative song for the season
Good King Wenceslas--best St Stephen's Day song (okay--virtually the ONLY song for that day we hear in the US!)

But my top favorite remains--I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day

[CBHagman]

4. I do like I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

True story: I was at work Sunday night because of the Bush speech on Iraq, and I was dismayed that Bush appropriated some lyrics from that particular song. But that's another forum. :-)

By the way, there are other St. Stephen's Day songs that I know of, including Elvis Costello's "St. Stephen's Day Murders" ("The whole family tree you've neglected to bury are feeding their faces until they explode") and some Irish tunes.

My brother happened to be born on St. Stephen's Day. Poor Mom! :-(

[Matilda]

7. The lovely Coventry Carol is a St Stephen's Day carol.

I didn't know until recently, although I always wondered why the words were so sad.

Sometimes I'm a bit slow on the uptake.

[Maeve]

9. Yes, there are other St Stephen's Day songs, but I'll stick with King W

Surprised no one mentioned The Wren Song, also a St S's Day tradition.

Merrily, merrily, y'all! :hi:

[Matilda]

3. There are a few on your list that I don't know.

Your list is quite exotic compared to mine.

I have a fondness for children's choirs, especially at Christmas, and
I guess the fare is often more conservative, but I've noticed in recent
years a revival of some quite old Christmas songs that are really
lovely. My local classic FM station has been featuring releases
by different children's choirs this week, and I'm loving it. I have
the radio playing quietly all day while I work.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. We're singing

Tomorrow Will Be My Dancing Day
The Angel Gabriel
Once in Royal David's City

and a host of others (Poulenc's O Magnum Mysterium, Britten's A Boy Was Born in Bethlehem, Bennett's Sweet Was the Song the Virgin Sang, and I don't recall what else) between our Lessons and Carols service, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day.

[CBHagman]

8. I need to go to your church!

That sounds really beautiful.

The schola at my church does a good many works by the less familiar composers.

Then again, one of my happiest memories is being moved to tears as we sang "Adeste Fideles" on Christmas Eve at a Newman Center vigil mass.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. I listened to Lessons and Carols from King's College this morning, and

it all sounded verrrry familiar, since we basically use their prayers and readings. Our choir director is from England, so we've been learning the English choral repertoire, and each year, I'm more and more able to sing along--although I wouldn't want to in this case. I prefer to listen.

But it's very humbling to think that these pieces that we sometimes struggle with were mostly written to be sung by eight-year-old boys.

[shrike]

5. God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman

"To Save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray ..."

There's something a bit melancholy in this tune. I guess I just have a thing for songs in a minor key.

[Matilda]

10. Just got back from Midnight Mass.

It's 1.50 a.m. here now on Christmas Day.

The Mass was very good - celebrant was Fr. Frank Brennan, a Jesuit
who's very big on social justice. I did the Isaiah reading, but we
ditched Paul - it's such an anti-climax after Isaiah, which is so
inspiring.

We had a bigger choir than usual, and they sang from the loft instead
of on the floor as they've been doing for some years, and it was
so much better. A couple of new carols, thanks to a new musical
director - still a bit safe, but a change from a program that hadn't
varied for about eight years.

The Holly and the Ivy
We Three Kings of Orient Are
The First Nowell
While Shepherds Watched
When a Child is Born
Once in Royal David's City
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
O Holy Night
O Come All Ye Faithful
Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
Silent Night
Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Happy Christmas everyone!

[shrike]

11. I love all of those songs

Pity we only hear them a few times a year.

P.S., you must be an Aussie. Should have known by your name. We've visited your country twice and love it. Great place, great people. (Forgive me if I've erred and you're actually a Kiwi -- or something else.)

[Matilda]

14. Replying a little late - busy with Christmas -

but yes, I am an Aussie.

[elshiva]

13. Great topic, Matilda!

Favorite Advent song- Come O, Come Immanuel
"Come O Come, Wisdom from on high...and show us in HER ways to
go..." One of the few traditional hymns that refers to
the Divine as female...

Favorite Christmas songs- "Silent Night" "All is calm..." YEP!

Hark the Herald-very upbeat.

[CBHagman]

15. Okay, it's late enough to revive this thread.

We lighted the first Advent candle on Sunday, and today is St. Nicholas Day.

Have at it, DUers.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. Well, we had our First Sunday in Advent Carol Service, featuring:

Rorate Coeli (Palestrina)
Canite Tuba (Guerrero)
Laetentur Caeli (Byrd)
Ave Maris Stella (Grieg)
Adam Lay Ybounden (Ledger)
Hymn to the Virgin (Britten)--hard to believe that he wrote it when he was 17!
The Palestrina Advent Introit ("I look from afar")
O Come O Come Emmanuel

Advent music is some of my favorite, and it's too bad that so many churches push it aside in favor of premature Christmas carols.

[hedgehog]

17. Can I interrupt these good feelings with a gripe?

Every year our choir director has a children's chorus sing before the 5PM Children's Mass on Christmas Eve. This is a big production - no small children allowed. The problem is that she doesn't have them sing Christmas carols but rather what sounds like selections from a Baptist Children's Vacation Bible School. "Kids telling kids about Jesus"? It's Christmas, for Heaven's sake!

[LibDemAlways]

23. I have a similar complaint.

The past two years Christmas Mass has been ruined in my parish by the music director who brings in electric guitars and drums and wails away during the collection with a raucous rendition of something that goes "Children Go Where I Send Thee...How Shall I send thee? I'm gonna send thee one by one...two by two...three by three" (etc.) building up to ten by ten and then counting back down (sort of like 12 days of Christmas only annoying as hell) each time - complete with clapping, stomping of feet, etc. It is awful. Undignified. Cringeworthy beyond belief.

This guy thinks he's God's gift to music, and while he does have a decent enough voice, he can't resist the urge to create a big noisy production in a parish largely made up of seniors who, I'm sure, would like nothing more than some lovely organ music and traditional hymns.

Complaints to the pastor fall on deaf ears. He lets Mr. Loud and Noisy do whatever he wants.

[Matilda]

18. Beautiful music on my radio this week ...

I keep my radio in my office on our ABC Classic FM station, as I find it helps me focus. This week
and last they've been playing beautiful carols through the day - perhaps one or two each program.
Mostly traditional, sung by superb choirs for the most part - chamber groups and church choirs,
and there really is nothing to match them. They even played Adeste Fideles yesterday - yes, in
Latin.

My pet hate is carols sung by pop singers full of false emotion and wobbly vibrato - they have no
idea. I'm sure I'm becoming a cranky old lady, but there is nothing like the perfect harmonies
of a good choir, or the pure tones of a classical singer.

[shrike]

19. O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

Of course. All of the religious carols -- O Holy Night. O Little Town of Bethlehem. I'm sure I'll think of more as time goes on.

[CBHagman]

20. We sang that tonight at mass.

I think we were having trouble with the key. The organist, who is a true artist, and the cantor appeared to be leaving the rest of us in the dust. Maybe we'll do better next year.

It is a great work, though.

We also sang "Creator of the Stars of Night," another centuries-old chant.

[CBHagman]

21. "In Dulci Jubilo."

We sang that at Mass this morning with the updated English lyrics ("Good Christian friends, rejoice"). I never tire of this particular carol, even if I didn't grow up on it.

[shrike]

22. Lo A Rose E'er Blooming

I think that's the exact title -- had forgotten about it. Heard it on Sunday and today on Chirstmas

[CBHagman]

24. A beautiful song. Here's the English text.

What the article on Wikipedia doesn't mention is that the musical setting most often used is by the composer Michael Praetorius.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo%2C_How_a_Rose_E%27er_Blooming

[DemBones DemBones]

25. "What Child is This" is my very favorite of all, though

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" is a close second. I like all those you named, too, plus "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "We Three Kings of Orient Are."

I'm not sure I can think of a Christmas carol I DON"T like, actually! O8)