Christmas Favorites

[Gunnar]

One of my favorite things about this season is the music that accompanies it. Today I heard for the first time a beautiful song in Norwegian which has become a new favorite of mine, sung by Sissel Kyrkjebø, who many agree has the world's most beautiful singing voice. She is certainly my favorite soprano. Even better than my dear sister, who is now my second favorite. Try it out! You'll love it! Mitt Hjerte Altid Vanker

Translation:

My heart always lingers
in the birthplace of Jesus
My thoughts there gather
as their main sum
There is my longing at home,
there has my faith its prize
You I never could forget,
blessed Christmas night

A sparrow though has its nest
and sacred resting space
A swallow shouldn't need to ask
for nightly shelter and peace
A lion knows its cave
Where it'll find its calm
Should then my God have to hide
in others' stable and straw?

Oh come, I will open
my heart and my mind
and full of longing sigh:
Comest thou in, Jesus
It's not a strange homestead
you bought it yourself
So you can stay here,
faithfully swathed in my heart

I'd like to see the Palm branches
Sprinkled about your crib
For you, for you alone
I will live and die.
Come, let my soul find
the appropriate joy
That you were born here.
In the deep ground of the heart

[Philo Sofee]

That was absolutely so beautiful!!! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing that link. Wow what a beautiful woman singing with such a beautiful voice. Truly wonderful! Merry Christmas my friend! That just made me tingle.......very, very souling enjoyable!

[Gunnar]

That was absolutely so beautiful!!! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing that link. Wow what a beautiful woman singing with such a beautiful voice. Truly wonderful! Merry Christmas my friend! That just made me tingle.......very, very souling enjoyable!

Merry Christmas to you too!

Sissel has the same effect on me, every time I hear her sing. I not only get tingles from listening to her, the sheer beauty of her voice often brings tears of joy to my eyes. Look her up on YouTube. She has a lot of excellent recordings. Her duet with Josh Groban singing The Prayer is the best rendition of that song I have yet heard.

And her rendition of Solveig's song from Per Gynt never fails to bring tears to my eyes, not only because of her voice, but from knowing what the song is about. My younger sister won a Sons of Norway Convention talent contest singing that same song. I wasn't there to hear her that time, but our father sure was. He said there was another woman there who same that very same song, and who also sang it beautifully, but in English. My sister sang it in the original Norwegian, which undoubtedly gave her a bit of an edge.

[Chap]

I think this carol sounds beautiful - but the words also have some relevance to a board populated in large part by ex-Mormons:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jRY8O7YX1Q

(There's a nice picture to look at while you listen to the music ...)

The words (a bit mediaeval, but I hope comprehensible) are:

Adam lay ybounden,
Bounden in a bond;
Four thousand winter
Thought he not too long.
And all was for an apple,
An apple that he took,
As clerkës finden written
In their book.
Nor had one apple taken been,
The apple taken been,
Then had never Our Lady
A-been heaven's queen.
Blessed be the time
That apple taken was.
Therefore we may singen
Deo gratias!

As you can see, the idea is that the sin of Adam was in some sense praiseworthy, since only through that act of disobedience did it become necessary for a human being to become the mother of God, and hence be honoured by her son as Queen of Heaven - an exaltation to which no member of our race would ever have attained had Adam never sinned. However, Adam still had to spend 4,000 years awaiting redemption in Outer Darkness (?right place?) before Jesus came to let him out.

I believe Mormons may recognise the general idea here ...

[Gunnar]

Another Christmas favorite, which I'm sure many of you have heard: Pentatonix's rendition of Carol of the Bells. My all time favorite version of that song.

[Gunnar]

As you can see, the idea is that the sin of Adam was in some sense praiseworthy, since only through that act of disobedience did it become necessary for a human being to become the mother of God, and hence be honoured by her son as Queen of Heaven - an exaltation to which no member of our race would ever have attained had Adam never sinned. However, Adam still had to spend 4,000 years awaiting redemption in Outer Darkness (?right place?) before Jesus came to let him out.

I believe Mormons may recognise the general idea here ...

That hadn't yet occurred to me, but I think you may be right. Thanks for the insight and the link!

[Some Schmo]

I was just saying to my wife last night that what really makes it feel like the season is the music combined with the weather. Just love it.

I'm an O Holy Night fan. I love that song, despite its religious theme. Of course, I often like to start singing...

O... holy crap...

[Gunnar]

I was just saying to my wife last night that what really makes it feel like the season is the music combined with the weather. Just love it.

I certainly agree with you and your wife on that point, especially the music part. As far as the weather is concerned, though, in the part of California I live in, where it hardly ever snows, and even on the very rare occasions when it does, it almost always melts away completely before noon. No white Christmases here, if that's the type of Christmas weather that appeals to you. We do get more rain in the winter, though.

I'm an O Holy Night fan. I love that song, despite its religious theme.

That's fairly high on my list of favorites too, but not at the very top of my list. Here is Sissel's rendition of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUgfL-2r6W8.

There are a number of carols I like even better; What Child is this is one of them.. Closely related to that one is another one of my favorites: Benjamin Britten's This Little Babe, from his Ceremony of Carols. One of my great joys in life was the opportunity to sing this one in concert with chorale group I belong to, as part of the tenor section.

Yet another one I really enjoy is Peter Paul and Mary's A Soalin', especially this version with its humorous introduction.

[Moksha]

Here are four exceptionally good Christmas/New Years/Religious-type songs:

Ring Out, Wild Bells - https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=dbnsIydaYYg

Amazing Grace/My Chains are Gone by Pentatonix - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obp-9BEZe1c

O Holy Night by Gentri - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4fvMg ... gM&index=3
even though clearly LDS and a bit schmaltzy, the overall imagery is very touching.

The Holly and the Ivy by The Mediaeval Baebes is pure ear candy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wK60zxmctI

[Gunnar]

And, of course, most people are probably acquainted with another one of my favorites, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. This rendition by Pentatonix is one of the best.