"Good King Wenceslas" is a song that I never heard until I was an adult. It was on a cassette tape of Christmas songs that I bought in England in 1985. That particular version is very similar to the one that I have here for you, with the one male voice very deep and strong and the other male voice, in a high child's voice. Listen to it and see if you think as I do, that it is most effective that way.
It is appropriate that I share this with you today as it is St. Stephen's Day! (Saint Stephen is the first martyr of Christianity.) In my generation, many of the guys had the name of Stephen, shortened to "Steve". Thinking back on my childhood, I am remembering that in one of my classes, we had four boys named "Steve"! (Also, in that very same class, we had four Michaels, all called Mike too!) I think those eight guys all liked it as the teacher tended to ask questions of the few boys who were not "Steve" or "Mike"!
Now, where was I before I got to thinking about all those STEVES and MIKES? Oh yes, music, of course!
I hope you all know that I love so much of the Christmas music! I love all the hymns and all the popular songs, and I love even the obscure strange ones that no one else knows!
Sometimes you might enjoy a song in a most unexpected place! We were watching an episode of "Eastenders" on TV. (It is a long running series on TV, and I remember seeing it when the very first one aired! Richard watches it with me, bless him, even though I think it is a struggle sometimes!) Anyway, I hope you can picture it, we are watching it, and Richard is trying his best to stay awake and appear interested when we hear a choir that began to sing "See, Amid the Winter's Snow". It was beautiful! It was a choir called "Somewhere 2 Sing" and it is an amateur choir! We both enjoyed the singing and thought they were very good. I don't have a video of this choir but I found a video of the song that I like very much. (It was also on that same cassette tape from 1985!)
THIS video is from the Cambridge Choir of King's College. Here are the lyrics:
Born for us on earth below
See the tender lamb appears
Promised from eternal years
Hail, redemption's happy dawn
Sing through all Jerusalem
Christ is born in Bethlehem
He who built the starry skies
He who throned in height sublime
Sits amid the cherubim
Hail, redemption's happy dawn
Sing through all Jerusalem
Christ is born in Bethlehem
What your joyful news today
Wherefore have ye left your sheep
On the lonely mountain steep?
Hail, redemption's happy dawn
Sing through all Jerusalem
Christ is born in Bethlehem
Lo, we saw a wondrous light
Angels singing "Peace on earth"
Told us of the Saviour's birth
Hail, redemption's happy dawn
Sing through all Jerusalem
Christ is born in Bethlehem
By thy face so meek and mild
Teach us to resemble thee
In thy sweet humility
Hail, redemption's happy dawn
Sing through all Jerusalem
Christ is born in Bethlehem
Both of these hymns seem very English to me. Therefore, I wanted to share them with you here since I am Georgia Girl with An English Heart!
And since I am from Georgia, did you know that the man who wrote "Jingle Bells" married a woman from Savannah, Georgia? Yes, indeed James Lord Pierpont was from Massachusetts but after he relocated to Savannah to be the organist and music director of the Unitarian Church of Savannah, he never returned North again! It is believed to have been written in 1857 so it is a very old Christmas tune for us Americans! (Although "Jingle Bells" is known all over the world.)
I really must visit Savannah again sometime; it is an interesting place to see!
No snowy photos for you but we have had some foggy days! All photos from the Monastery here in Rockdale County, Georgia.
Oh, and remember I told you I love touches of red! The amaryllis bloomed! Hope you all had a joyful Christmas and are looking forward to the new year.
I'm familiar with both Christmas songs, probably because Canadian popular culture borrows a lot from Britain (at least decades ago when I was a kid, less so these days as we have become much more multicultural). I remember having to learn how to say "Wenceslas" in school so we could sing that line of the carol properly!
ReplyDeleteI love red at Christmas, and how brilliant the amaryllis bloomed, just for you. Love the spooky, foggy pictures, very evocative. Both carols are familiar to me. In fact I learnt Good King Wenceslas very early, when I was about six it was a tune in my very first piano book! Yes, the English culture was alive and well in Australia in those days :) Merry Christmas to you and your family.
ReplyDeleteI remember "Good King Wenceslas" from elementary school. It's one of my favorites. Thanks for letting me enjoy it again.
ReplyDeleteHave a great new year!
I like the mysterius atmosphere of a foggy day!
ReplyDeleteMy late husband was also a Stephen, but he called himself always Steve.
At school, we had many kids with same names. Usually, there were at least two Claudias, Monikas or Sabines in each class, as well as Andreas, Thomas, Michael or Frank. At our entire school, there was only one Meike (me) and my sister‘s name was equally unique.
It's funny you are watching Eastenders, a TV prog here I rarely look at ( which started with a murder and they are still bickering away in every episode almost 40 years later whenever I've been switching channels) while I've been watching Dakota Fanning over Christmas in The Alienist ( a Victorian crime drama) and listening/ watching blues rock group Larkin Poe. All three, as you know, from Georgia. By the way just watched 'Wallace and Gromit. Vengeance most Fowl' an animated cartoon series which you would really love, all about Yorkshire. Best thing on UK TV over Christmas by a mile.
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