Wishing you and your loved ones a blessed celebration of Our Lord’s birth. For your listening pleasure, here is a wonderful performance of Handel’s Messiah. It’s long, so you may enjoy having it playing in the background as you go about about your special day.
From 2018. Sadly, this church building burned last year, but the church continues . . .
One of the activities I’ve missed since the beginning of the pandemic is playing in the handbell choir in church. They started up again in September, but because of another obligation, I’ve opted out for now, though Greg and I have had the pleasure of hearing them a couple of times when we’ve attended worship in person. Here is the Desert Cross Lutheran Church Ringing Praise playing “Angels We Have Heard on High” in 2017.
I discovered a wonderful virtual handbell concert recorded last year. The program includes:
And finally, I think you’ll agree that it takes careful choreography for four musicians to play the Hallelujah Chorus on handbells.
If you’re not yet all handbelled out, check out these handbell posts from 2020 and 2019.
Merry Christmas! May God’s Love indwell you today and always.
Only one more week till Christmas.
One of the things I miss most during this pandemic is the opportunity to play in my church’s handbell choir, Ringing Praise. I love the camaraderie with my fellow ringers (they are the nicest people). The sound of bells lifts my heart, especially at Christmastime. I’ve put together a little virtual concert of Christmas music. (And if this is not enough for you, you can listen to the handbell post I put together last December.)
Joy to the World:
Solo: Angels We Have Heard on High:
Coventry Carol:
All I Want For Christmas Is You:
Sing We Now of Christmas:
Christmas Fanfare:
Fum, Fum, Fum:
A Midnight Clear: A Christmas Nocturne:
We Three Kings:
The Bell Daze of Christmas:
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer:
Silent Night:
For your listening pleasure during this holiday season, here are some of the best ever performances of some of the best ever Christmas music. I hope you will bookmark this article and listen to a little bit every day this month.
I was introduced to Handel’s Messiah when I was in high school. It was a tradition for our premier chorus, the Tower Singers, to sing the Hallelujah Chorus, along with all chorus alumnae, at the annual winter holiday concert. I go to live performances of Messiah whenever I can. (Not this year, of course.)
Another favorite for Christmas is The Nutcracker Ballet. We went as a family several times when our children were young.
When I attended Duquesne University, our Music School Chorus performed Daniel Pinkham’s Christmas Cantata. I still get chills when I hear it.
Benjamin Britten wrote this lovely Ceremony of Carols:
J.S. Bach Christmas Oratorio:
Here is just one small portion of Hector Berlioz’ L’Enfance du Christ:
British composer John Rutter has written many carols. You may want to visit this playlist from his Christmas Album.
Edward Elgar, best known for “Pomp and Circumstance,”played at graduations, also wrote this beautiful “A Christmas Greeting”:
Camille Saint-Saëns wrote this Oratorio de Noël:
Interesting ideas.
I never heard this lovely carol to the tune of “Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella” before last year.
You know those $5 bins of CDs they have at Walmart? I always take a peek in the Christmas bin in case there’s a gem in there I don’t have yet.
This year I treated myself to Sarah McLachlin’s The Classic Christmas Album, and I am obsessed with it. I’ve listened to it every day since mid-November. It is so good, and it is not your typical Christmas album, though there are many classics on it. It’s her more unusual choices that blow me away. Her version of Prayer of St. Francis moves me to tears, as does her rendition of River, Joni Mitchell’s haunting and depressing winter song (can’t really call it a Christmas song).
I’ve written about my favorite Christmas CDs before, and I don’t want to repeat, but there are a couple I could add to the list, as well as the Sarah McLachlan one.
About 20 years ago I was wandering around the mall at Christmas time (Remember malls? That same mall is dead now. Sigh.) and a gift store was beautifully decorated for the holidays, and the most beautiful music was playing—hammered dulcimer, mandolin, fiddle, recorder, harp. I commented on it, and the salesperson showed me the CD they were playing, which I promptly bought: Colonial Holiday. My husband spins wool into yarn on a spinning wheel, and he likes to spin with this CD playing.
Speaking of instruments you don’t hear every day, how about handbells? The Magic of the Bells was recorded in 1996 by the French ringers known as Les Sonneurs. It contains some carols and other stuff, like a couple of Lennon/McCartney songs.
And, yes, this is repeating, but I absolutely love Mary, Did You Know from Pentatonix’s That’s Christmas to Me:
I used to be an elementary general music teacher, and every year we would have a winter concert, and I would cram in as many Kwanzaa, Channukah, winter and generic holiday songs, and Christmas carols as I could. My ten most favorite carols (most going back to my own childhood) are:
What about you? Is there special music you like to listen to (or sing) during the holidays? What are your favorite carols? Share in the comments below.
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