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 Cardan
Post a Comment
Read more

Southern butter mints---vegan edition

After the last post, we started to be able to see what the fuss was about.  The ones made with twice the butter were the best candy I have ever tasted.  Ever.  So then we started experimenting.  How long do you pull it?  Longer than you think.  And then pull a minute or two after that.  Suddenly every single batch was creaming, pretty much right after we would cut them. I tried adding less than double butter and I think they taste much better (more delicate, according to one taste tester). The latest experiment we did involved using Earth Balance instead of butter.  It cooked pretty much the same as usual, although I was distracted right at the moment I had to pull it off the stove so it cooked maybe a bit longer than usual.  Amanda and I each pulled a quarter, while Luke pulled the bigger half.  Luke's really wasn't turning very fast---perhaps because it was too hot when he took it off the marble.  Mine was turning faster than Amanda's so we traded for a while.  Aman
Post a Comment
Read more

Parenting successes?

Chanson at Letters from a Broad has a post which includes of one of her parenting successes , involving the benedictory smile of a Swiss cashier. I've had some of those public recognitions of good parenting, and I always try to point out to parents when their kids are doing particularly well (especially when the parents look harried). Sometimes, though, the success doesn't look like a success to outsiders. Last week we took the kids to our favorite Greek restaurant. We have been getting gyros for Amanda for a few years now (dairy, egg and nut free!), and we have typically gotten one plate of gyros for Amanda and Luke to share. We get it with french fries, and Amanda is "rewarded" for eating the meat by getting to eat as many french fries as she can (she needs all the calories she can get). Luke's idea, smart boy that he is, is that he doesn't need to eat anything other than the french fries. This week we had had enough of this, and instead of letting Luke
2 comments
Read more