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

My hero, Helen Parr

Otherwise known as Elastigirl , a.k.a Mrs. Incredible. She is a stay at home mom ( SAHM ), she clearly feels that what she is doing is important and is willing to give up a lot to do it (remember her comment in the intro: "I'm at the top of my game! Leave saving the world to the guys? I don't think so.") But she is finding fulfillment in leading her family from day to day, in doing a hard job well. She also knows that she is very talented, and that knowledge helps her see beyond the repetitive drudgery of staying home. My favorite scene is from the deleted introduction, where she talks with a "career woman" who is of the opinion that staying home is fine for people who can't do anything else. She responds that taking care of her kid is at least as hard as saving the world, and is valuable contribution to society. The point for me is that someone has to do the job that I'm doing, and it's not something that you could pay someone to do. I see...
8 comments
Read more

Comfortable

Last night Amanda was sent to bed early for gross insubordination. I did snuggle with her for a bit, but then went to wash dishes and other exciting stuff. When I came upstairs, 20 minutes after her usual bedtime, she was still awake and flopping around. "Amanda, are you comfortable?" I asked. "No," came the answer. "What do you need?" I asked, thinking she wanted water, to be tucked in, her doll, something like that. "A mama," she answered. I could do something about that. I snuggled her for about 5 minutes and she fell fast asleep.
2 comments
Read more