Skip to main content

Christmas Carols

I was inspired by reading some other blogs to post my favorite Christmas carols. My top three are:
  • Of the Father's love begotten. 5th century Latin poetry, 11th century music. Mysterious, eerie, chill inspiring (in a good way =). It really manages to integrate doctrine and music; you get an idea of what questions the Christians were asking at the time from what Prudentius writes about in the hymn.
  • Lo, how a rose ere blooming. 15h century German lyrics, music by Praetorious. I love the rhythms and the harmonies, which can be difficult to sing unless you have training from a young age in the Lutheran church...
  • Hark the herald angels sing. Charles Wesley could certainly write a good tune (that is understatement, by the way). Fun to sing as loud as you can, with trumpets and organ, if you can find them.
The girls like Away in a manger and Silent night, probably because those are the ones I can remember all the words to, those are the ones I sing to them at night, and those are the ones that talk about the Baby Jesus. They have much more experience with babies than, say, angels and begottens.

The only Christmas hymns I really don't like are O Holy night and O little town of Bethlehem. I think I have heard them too many times over-emotionalized by soloists, and I hate having my emotions tugged at without my consent. O Holy night ranks up there with Danny Boy in my (small) list of songs I will skip when I'm listening to a CD. I know lots of people really like these ones, though, so probably I'm just crazy.

What are your favorites/least favorites?

P.S. Carol singing at my place, Saturday. Email for details =)
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
I've always loved "The Holly and the Ivy" (esp George Winston's arrangement), but I do have that same early Lutheran appreciation for Lo how a rose ere blooming...
December 17, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Gary said…
Bummer- we missed caroling!

I love 'em all, but "Lo How a Rose" is especially lovely. I also love "Angels We Have Heard on High". My guys love "the manger song" for the same reason as your little folks love it, and I have been singing "Silent Night" in German (the first verse, anyway). "Still, Still, Still" is also a good one to sing auf Deutsch.

-Lenise
January 5, 2009 at 9:15 PM
mathmom said…
Hi Lenise! Next year, we're having caroling at some other time than Christmas =) People are too busy.

I don't know the German, but I do sing Adeste Fideles for the girls. They're impressed (but they're pretty easily impressed).
January 5, 2009 at 10:25 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Ca...
Post a Comment
Read more

Books I like: reality edition

Here are some more books from my childhood and later. I read a lot as a kid, and these books are the ones that stand out in my memory. I figure that if I can remember them 25 years after I read them, they must be pretty good. I'm calling this the "Reality Segment," not fantasy, not science fiction, not history, just real life. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin : This is probably my favorite children's book of all time. I read it in 3rd grade or so, then read it again to clear it up more. Then I read it in 6 th grade and finally understood what was going on during the second reading of the will. In more recent readings I've understood more about Sydelle Paulaski and the relationship between Dr. Denton and the lovely Angela. What a pleasure. Ellen Raskin has written many other good children's books (all quirky and surprising) but this is the jewel. Bruno and Boots books by Gordon Korman : As the FNDP (Friendly Neighborhood Developmental Psychologis...
2 comments
Read more

Books I like: magic/science fiction

I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy when I was younger, so I was surprised when I was thinking about this list at how few books were on it. The other thing that is interesting is how many books I just remember a few details from, but not anything useful like a title or author. Half Magic and the whole series, by Edward Eager: My favorite is Knight's Castle, although I suspect I would have enjoyed it more if I had ever read Ivanhoe... Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald: I'm not sure when it happened, but I now identify with the parents rather than the kids. The Seven Citadels by Geraldine Harris: I came back to the Jr. High library to check this out even after I moved on to the high school. Girl with the Silver Eyes by Wilo Davis Roberts: I always wondered what would happen if I had ESP and other "special" abilities. The OZ books, by L. Frank Baum: I read almost all of these (all the ones I could find in the library, rather). My favorite is Tik - To...
5 comments
Read more