I know we’re in Advent, (my latest Advent reflection is here) and -for me, anyway- nothing captures the sense of longing and urgent anticipation of this season than O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. I also like O Come, Divine Messiah very much. Some of you may remember I vocally murdered it on one of my Advent Podcasts from last year.
But I think my three favorite Christmas Songs are Angels We Have Heard on High, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence (I am partial to the French Carols) and, finally, We Three Kings.
The first makes me giddy; the rolling descent of the “Gloria” taken up by the breathy “in excelsis Deo” has seemed since my childhood to be the nearest thing to real angel song -to the real heavenly herald of that night- that my imagination can grasp.
Angels, we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o’er the plane
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strain:
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
It captures the psalms, where mountains clap, and cedars shout and dolphins and all water creatures praise the Lord!
The second is the solemn hush; we are so buried in sentiment in this season -both religious and secular- that we can easily forget how much peril accompanied the Nativity of the Lord. Mary and Joseph were away from home, traveling hard roads. A king went slaughtering after them, and the men from the East found another route home. And there has been, ever since, hard roads and peril. It is no light thing to deliver humanity from itself. Let All Mortal Flesh is a song suitable for any time -at least I sing it anytime- but we need to really hear it at this time of year, and to understand that it is a song of deliverance, and of exorcism:
Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way
As the Light of Light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away
And the third, well, I really fell in love with We Three Kings when I heard
The Roches* haunting recording of it (Track 13), but even before then, I always appreciated the lore of it; the short verse-by-verse bios exploring the meaning of each of the gifts presented to the Newborn King, and the wonderful refrain which moves forward in a manner that almost replicates the herky-jerky movement of the camels, “westward leading, still proceeding…”
Myrrh is mine, it’s bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb
O Star of Wonder, Star of Night,
Star with Royal Beauty Bright,
Westward Leading, Still Proceeding
Guide us to the Perfect Light.
Sigh. Wonderful!
Speaking of Christmas Music, a few weeks ago I mentioned that the Benedictines of Mary, who are growing very quickly into a sizable monastic community without a monastery, had released a new CD of Christmas music** as a fund-raiser. Today I got my copy and I must say, this is some very lovely stuff. It begins with Angels We Have Heard… but then mixes well-known hymns with lesser-known classics, a bit of Gregorian Chant and several wholly new songs written by the nuns, one of whom is an accomplished musician and composer. Their recording of The First Nowell is gorgeous, but I also loved Of the Father’s Love Beginning, Dies Est Laetitiae and their hushed, reverent Silent Night gave me goosebumps; it sounds the least “polished” and the most personal.
Actually, I loved the whole album of 23 songs, and you might, too.
Related: What is your favorite psalm?
FTC Disclosure: *Your Amazon purchase generates a very small kickback to support the site. **No kickback to site.
My favorite carol is Emmanuel. It will fit on the highland bagpipe too.
Our chorus director insists that she is allergic to Silent Night and that’s why she cries when we sing it — anyday now some pharma company will come out with a cure! We always sing it last… (We had her crying last night when we sang it at the dress rehearsal. Of course that might have been because of the rather rough nature of a few pieces and the concert is this weekend — that whole panic thingy…)
Ps 51. I cry every time I read it. Just re-read it and cried again.
I’m a sucker for Silent Night. Its the mysterious hushed quality of it. Its so intimate, so reverent, so simple. Its simplicity makes us think we can grasp the mystery of that night, but in truth, it escapes our limited understanding. Silent Night makes me cry. Any time of year it can transport me from whatever I am doing to a hope-filled, star engulfed world with a stable, some steam puffing animals and a tender mom and foster dad. There’s just so much glory, hope and light in that. That is what makes the St. Andrew/Christmas novena to appealing to me. “Hail and Blessed be the hour and moment in which the son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. ….” It started yesterday. Not too late for folks to join in. It really quiets one down and focuses one on the moment when history turned for the better.
Advent Carol? People Look East. Don’t know why, but, it fills my heart with hopeful expectation.
Peace, Anchoress.
-admin]
xo
[The St. Andrew "Novena" is here. You know me...I can think about the whole mystery of the Incarnation every day. It's a Catholic thing!
One of my favorites is “Personet Hodie”, but not the girls’ chorus version most people have heard. The version I fell in love with was one I first heard at the Christmas Candlelight Concert at Gonzaga University my freshman year, a fully orchestrated version with an eight-part mixed chorus and church organ. I walked out of that concert determined to buy the CD and had to put it on order. Luckily, it came just before the term break.
It makes me tear up just thinking about it.
I don’t know if the CD is available anywhere; it came out in 1995 (sheesh.) It’s the Encore CD, not the Christmas at Gonzaga CD.
My favorite carols: “The Holly and the Ivy” and “Once in Royal David’s City”.
O! Holy Night, most definitely! Gorgeous and powerful.
The King’s College choir singing “Once in Royal David’s City”.
Otherwise: Adeste Fideles.
Amen, sister. I try to do the Angelus at least 2x a day (not being an early bird and all).
I always get choked up by “Do You Hear What I Hear.”
The child, the child,
sleeping in the night,
He will bring us goodness and light.
Silent Night is my favorite Christmas song.
And of course, the 23rd Psalm is my favorite psalm. I always think of my grandmother when I hear it. She wanted it read at her funeral.
Silent Night (as grade schooler used to look at the babies in the pews and think how He came as one of them)
Hark the Herald Angels Sing (used to cry when sung on Charlie Brown at the thought it may be touching someone unexpected)
O Holy Night (remember being in 6th grade choir at Midnight Mass and being amazed at an 8th grade girl who sang this song with such power and feeling)
Joy To The World (our choir Sister ended this with the Hallelujah chorus and the combo was so emotional and awe-inspiring to leave Midnight Mass on this note)
(Modern songs I’ve loved are Mary Did You Know and Amy Grant’s Breath of Heaven (Mary’s Song)-I really love, love that last one.)
‘Oh Holy Night’ is amazing, particularly when a really powerful singer belts out ‘fall on your knees’. It takes my breath away. I’ve adored ‘What Child is This’ since my gradeschool days. A more modern carol, ‘Mary Did You Know’, is really lovely, although the concept is a tad ludicrous. Of course Mary knew about the divine nature of her child!
For classic carols, “O Holy Night” is the big winner for me. When it’s properly performed, I can often start to get misty right about when it gets to “Fall on your knees….”
For modern songs, Heaven Came to Earth by 2nd Chapter of Acts is absolutely delightful. A very lovely song.
“Lo, How a rose ere Blooming” is my favorite Christmas carol. There is something deeply contemplative in the cadences of this simple, joyful carol that I find congenial to my spirit during the deep long nights of our Christmas season. But if I lived in the southern hemisphere I might prefer instead one of those excellent carols above that others have named as their own very favorite.
My favorite is “What Child is This”. In terms of pure music, I adore “Carol of the Bells”.
“Hark the Herald” is my parents’ favorite, and therefore mine, too. Dad loves most hymns by “Jack and Chuck” (John and Charles Wesley), though he’s a Calvinist. “Hark the Herald” is perfect for him, therefore, as the version everyone knows today was reworked by their Calvinist friend, George Whitefield.
I also like “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.”
For Advent distinguished from Christmas, I think my favorite is “Lo! He Comes With Clouds Descending.” (I haven’t entirely shook my Calvinist upbringing.) I also especially enjoy during Advent listening to Tallis’s, Byrd’s, and Gibbons’s English settings of the Benedictus and Magnificat.
I agree with two of yours, Anchoress, and add one of my own that I’m surprised no one has mentioned yet:
1. Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence – I would be hard pressed to find a more dignified melody in the world of metrical hymnody. The imagery of the angels (rank on rank the host of heaven spreads its vanguard on the way) is powerful, especially if this is sung a cappella on Christmas Eve, as I have had my choir sing it.
2. We Three Kings – Boy, have I come around on this one. For years, I hated it. I thought it was a sappy sentimental tune (the byproduct of one too many “OOOOOOOO…Star of Wonder” scoop moments). Over the years, I’ve paid attention to the text. What a great summation of the aspects of the incarnation that is presented in the fifth verse: King, and God and Sacrifice.
3. Of the Father’s Love Begotten: Perfect Christmas Day hymn. In English, there are very few songs that can capture the Word Made Flesh idea presented in John’s Gospel on Christmas Day. Another dignified melody.
Maria Walks Amid the Thorn:
MIDI Sequenced by Bill Egan
1. Maria walks amid the thorn,
Kyrie eleison.
Maria walks amid the thorn,
Which seven years no leaf has born.
Jesus and Maria.
2. What ‘neath her heart doth Mary bear?
Kyrie eleison.
A little child doth Mary bear,
Beneath her heart He nestles there.
Jesus and Maria.
3. And as the two are passing near,
Kyrie eleison,
Lo! roses on the thorns appear,
Lo! roses on the thorns appear.
Jesus and Maria.
I’ve always loved “Joy to the World” – it expresses my utter amazement that the Lord would have been born to die for the likes of me.
I get overwhelmed, too, by “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent”. Sadly, our very ‘hip’ choir director can’t be bothered picking lovely old hymns like this, or Come O Come Emmanuel. We get modern remakes that can’t reach the first rung of the ladder on which the older hymns stand. It is so pathetic what passes for music for Mass at our parish.
Adeste Fidelis. In Latin. By Crosby, aka Father Chuck.
Adeste fideles,
laeti triumphantes;
venite, venite in Bethlehem;
natum videte regem angelorum.
venite, adoremus!
venite, adoremus!
venite, adoremus Dominum!
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, without doubt. Second place goes to Oh Holy Night, which brings me to tears when well done.
Tie – “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “Joy To The World”
When I was little, it was “Away in a Manger” but now I cry every time I try to sing that one. I guess my favorites now are “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “Go Tell It On The Mountain” but not Mahalia Jackson’s lugubrious telling of it – it should be more joyful shout.
When I was a child, we had a album of Mario Lanza singing Christmas carols (best word for songs, of course) and he did a great “We Three Kings”, especially the way he milked the verse about myrrh.
As to Psalms, I don’t know that many, but I would pick 100, just for the first line: Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye Lands.
For Advent, my favorite is “Hark! A Thrilling Voice is Sounding!”
For Christmas, “Adeste Fideles,” “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” and “While Shepherd’s Watched.”
One thing I always thought the Anglicans did right was their Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, which culminates with the Incarnation Reading From the Gospel of John. Beautiful, beautiful Choral Music.
O Holy Night for me.
Thanks for the kudos to “O Come O Come, Emmanuel.” I’m a protestant, but I’ve always looked forward to this time of year because we got to sing that hymn. Irrespective of this beloved hymn, I’ve always had a particular affection for Advent. Purely a visceral reaction–I can’t explain why.
Christmas-wise, my favorites are for some reason hymns that I originally learned in English but later learned in French for my French class. Perhaps they are more meaningful because I learned them when I was older. Perhaps they are more meaningful because I learned them devoid of my native language. For whatever reason, they always seem purer to me: (1) Minuit Chretien (O, Holy Night) and (2) Un Flambeau, Jeanette Isabella (Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella).
As a “joyful noise”–I can’t sing worth anything–my absolute favorite is Adeste fideles. I can without shame jump into that one.
“Lo, How a rose ere Blooming” and “Away in a Manger”.
I love the subtle syncopation of the rhythm of Lo how a rose, and the simple beauty of Away in a Manger always makes me cry.
My favorite Psalm is the 23rd.
I love “We Three Kings” too! Also, “Good Christian Men Rejoice!” and “Good King Wenceslaus.” I have lots of favorite carols, though I don’t really like a lot of the modern ones, like “Silver Bells” or “Home for Christmas.”
My favorite A Christmas Carol is the one with Patrick Stewart — the others are much too cartoonish, I think, and this one captures a greater realism.
As for songs/hymns, I’ll get back to you.
OK-I’m a Christmas music geek I admit it. Did you ever see the old movie with Haily (sp?) Mills, ‘Whistle Down the Wind”, where three children find an injured escaped convict with long hair and a beard injured in a barn and think he’s Jesus? It has variations on “We Three Kings” as the soundtrack-really haunting. Ever since since I saw that as a kid I’ve loved that carol. For a spirit soaring modern carol I love Ralph Vaughn Williams’ “What Sweeter Music” sung by the Kings College Cambridge Choir. The words of that song are a deep meditation. If you’ve never heard it you’re in for a real treat! Enya has a wonderful version of Veni Emmanuel on her latest CD. Silent Night by Mannheim Steamroller is just right. Purity and simplicity.
That’s an impossible question for me to answer! I can pick out “favorite CD’s”, but those are usually the ones I’m listening to at the moment. Last year I heard a Christmas concert by the Lyric Brass Quintet and bought one of their Christmas CD”s (I know a member of the group) and listened to it for almost a solid month. I like almost anything that Mannheim Steamroller does in the Christmas genre. Most carols make me cry ~ my dad was a church organist and after celebrating my mother’s Christmas Eve birthday, we’d always go to his church to hear the midnight service, so everything I hear at this time of the year reminds me of my parents.
I love some of the Gloria’s ~ John Rutter, Vivaldi. And I have a real love and appreciation for Handel’s Messiah. Despite having been in rehearsals at the college for the past two months (with more to come), I still thoroughly enjoyed the performance I did this past Sunday…every note is so beautifully crafted to go with the powerful words from the Bible telling the story of the Advent, the birth, death and resurrection of our Christ.
Once in Royal David’s City, Angels From the Realms of Glory, and especially Of the Father’s Love Begotten. It’s absolutely gorgeous, so quiet, and yet so…big. Love it.
Um, also, I can’t get enough of Elton John’s Step into Christmas. It’s not really a Christmas carol per se, or, um, at all, really, but it’s great.
And what is Christmas without the Boston Pops rendition of Sleigh Ride?
“Far, Far Away on Judea’s Plain” — done by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Lovely. Evocative of the season.
As for my favorite Carol, it’s a toss up between “O Holy Night” and “Do You Hear What I Hear.” Psalm 24 is at the top of my list of favorites. I also love “Mary Did You Know” and “Breath of Heaven.” The 8th Graders in our Parish School do these 2 songs as part of their Christmas Pageant every year and they are very moving.
O holy night,
the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world
in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!
And Angels We Have Heard On High – I too, adore the Gloria!
O Holy Night – it always gives me chills. Same thing happens with Ave Maria.
Oh, goody! I get to add one not mentioned yet, I think. For the traditional, my favorites are Emmanuel and We Three Kings. But, for “modern,” I love I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day – words by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, music by John Marks.
Second verse:
And in despair I bowed my head, “There is no peace on earth,” I said, “For hate is strong and mocks the song Of Peace On Earth, Good Will To Men.”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with Peace On Earth, Good Will To Men.”
I also love the Menotti operetta “Amahl and the Night Visitors” because my kids sing in it every year. I don’t even tire of it after many rehearsals and four performances! It’s free, so ya’ll come!
I don’t know that I can pick a number one favorite –
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Cantique de Noel
Carol of the Bells
He is Born (Il est ne)
Coventry Carol
– all good
My favorite Christmas album is probably Joan Baez’s Noel.
O Come All Ye Faithful? Not before Midnight Mass.
Scrooge with Alistair Sim is our family favorite.
Carols – Emmanuel, In the Bleak Midwinter, Good King Wenceslas. I love to listen to Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols at this time of year, too.
Wow, my all time favorite throughout the year is “let all mortal flesh…” – I never really thought of it as a Advent hymn but you are right (again). Thinking of this is a lot better than listening to a speech to a captive crowd.
Great, great choices by all above. One I’d add to the list is “Gesu Bambino” – I love Pavarotti’s recording from the “O Holy Night” LP/CD.
Anchoress, I hope you will you continue to favor us with some embedded YouTube’s of the favorites mentioned.
[For some reason my household cannot currently access youtube. Apparently an ISP problem -admin]
This is much worse than eating just one potato chip. Choosing just one Christmas carol? Of the standards, Adeste Fideles and Joy to the World. Of the less often sung, In the Bleak Midwinter and Early Christmas Morning. I cry every time I try to sing either of the later two.
But then, there is Rutter’s Candlelight Carol and I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day–And if Silent Night and Hark the Herald Angels aren’t sung, it isn’t Christmas.
I think I like Adeste Fideles the best, but the English-language version of that carol is significant too.
Why?
Because it proves that not only was the Infant Jesus in the manger worshiped by shepherds and Magi, and oxen and donkeys, but the plant kingdom as well.
The root vegetables and the fruits joyfully worshiped the Savior, but the green leafy vegetables were reluctant and had to be persuaded. So they sang to them:
“Oh come, lettuce, adore Him!
Oh come, lettuce, adore Him!
Oh come, lettuce, adore Him!
Christ the Lord!”
I am so delighted that you know of The Roches and their Christmas album. They are long-time favorites of mine, and I love the fact that their Christmas disc is utterly un-ironic — which is a pose that a trio of Greenwich Village gals like them could easily have adopted!
About “Let All Mortal Flesh…” It works great at Christmas, but the text is actually from the weekly Byzantine liturgy, where it accompanies their equivalent of an offertory procession. I’ve used it in the Corpus Christi liturgy. But of course the Incarnation and the Blessed Sacrament are intimately related.
Which reminds me of the inscription in the Blessed Sacrament chapel of the [Anglican] Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, in England: “Ecce Ancilla Domini + Ecce Agnus Dei + Ecce Panis Angelorum”. (Behold the Handmaid of the Lord + Behold the Lamb of God + Behold the Bread of Angels) Perfect!
“Oh Holy Night” is my favorite Christmas carol especially when Michael Crawford sings it. It takes your breath away.
AndyMo said my favorite, though my favorite rendition of it is in the New English Hymnal: Of the Father’s Heart Begotten.
I’m a sucker for Venantius Fortunatus, tr. J.M. Neale.
I’m also a great sucker for medieval English: Coventry Carol, Hertfordshire Carol, Sussex Carol, etc.
Also Angelus ad Virginem and In Dulci Jubilo . . . I have kind of a weird stable of favorites, and they don’t get trotted out every year, but I love them nonetheless.
There are so many, but “Who is He in Yonder Stall” hasn’t been mentioned yet and I love that one. The questions in each verse are answered resoundingly in each chorus, “‘Tis the Lord! oh wondrous story! ‘Tis the Lord! the King of glory! At His feet we humbly fall, Crown Him! crown Him, Lord of all!”
A more modern one is “Ten Thousand Joys”. It’s sung as a duet between Mary and Joseph.
Slightly off-topic, but each December I MUST read “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” and “The Modern Magi”, with a box of tissues nearby for each one.
I’m with Willikers: Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming. Far and away.
I have a new “favorite” Christmas carol, discovered this year when the family made a switch to a Methodist church from a lifelong association with the Baptists. The carol is in the Methodist hymnal and is called “People, Look East”. I love it!!
My absolute favorite is “O Holy Night.” Then all the traditional Christmas Carols.
I also fell in love last year with Casting Crowns “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day.” I never knew the background of the lyrics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7670CXvPX0 It brings tears to my eyes especially with our soldiers away from home fighting war.