Month: December 2008

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In the Bleak Midwinter/The First Noel

I’ve long been ambivalent about the Gustav Holst tune with Rosetti’s “In the Bleak Midwinter,” but only because it seemed jarring with the last verse (more on that another time), but as a piece of music–and for all but the last verse of the poem–I appreciate it greatly. Here’s “Celtic Woman” in an absolutely beautiful instrumental rendition of the Holst tune followed by a solo/choral performance of “The First Noel”. The lyrics are followed by the performance, as usual.

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

The First Noel

The First Noel, the Angels did say
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay
In fields where they lay keeping their sheep
On a cold winter’s night that was so deep.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the King of Israel!

They looked up and saw a star
Shining in the East beyond them far
And to the earth it gave great light
And so it continued both day and night.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the King of Israel!

And by the light of that same star
Three Wise men came from country far
To seek for a King was their intent
And to follow the star wherever it went.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the King of Israel!

This star drew nigh to the northwest
O’er Bethlehem it took its rest
And there it did both Pause and stay
Right o’er the place where Jesus lay.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the King of Israel!

Then entered in those Wise men three
Full reverently upon their knee
And offered there in His presence
Their gold and myrrh and frankincense.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the King of Israel!

Then let us all with one accord
Sing praises to our heavenly Lord
That hath made Heaven and earth of nought
And with his blood mankind has bought.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the King of Israel!

And… This version by Dan Fogelberg

In the Bleak Midwinter* – Dan Fogelberg

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Ding Dong Merrily on High

As part of The Christmas Alliance, today’s offering is “Ding Dong Merrily on High”. This Christmas carol has been one of my favs since I first heard it played by The Canadian Brass. Before, I had always heard it sung way, way too slowly and its joyous nature had been buried in the inappropriate tempos. Do note that the Jon Schmidt (yes, him again :-)) rendition streamed below is NOT suitable as accompaniment for singing. For one thing, quite apart from changes in rhythms that would make singing along impractical, the actual tempo of the melody is still too slow, but the pulsing rhythms Schmidt has added move the piece as a whole ahead at a joyous pace. His treatment is similar in that regard to the John Darnell treatment of “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” I cited earlier this Advent season.

Ding dong merrily on high,
In heav’n the bells are ringing:
Ding dong! verily the sky
Is riv’n with angel singing.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!

E’en so here below, below,
Let steeple bells be swungen,
And “Io, io, io!”
By priest and people sungen.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!

Pray you, dutifully prime
Your matin chime, ye ringers;
May you beautifully rime
Your evetime song, ye singers.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!

North Pole Express (Ding Dong Merrily on High) – Jon Schmidt / French Carol

Again, if you liked the performance, please visit Jon Schmidt’s site and purchase a copy to take along with you “Over the river and through the woods… ”

And be sure to check the special lil present beyond the jump…

Continue reading “Ding Dong Merrily on High”

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Still, Still, Still

I’m not quite sure why, but many of the Christmas songs, carols, “anthems” even, that I enjoy a great deal are lullabys. The first Christmas song I wrote–back in the day when I wrote at least one a year for my annual “Christmas cards”–was a lullaby, and most of the Christmas songs I wrote up until I stopped doing so were lullabys. I suppose the fact that I wrote my first Christmas song after I’d experienced the miracle of holding my own children, sometimes singing them to sleep–sometimes–may have something to do with it. And I suppose the paradox of the incarnation made so glaringly obvious in Philippians 2:5-11 has something to do with it as well.

Still, Still, Still
Still, still, still,
One can hear the falling snow.
For all is hushed,
The world is sleeping,
Holy Star its vigil keeping.
Still, still, still,
One can hear the falling snow.

Sleep, sleep, sleep,
‘Tis the eve of our Saviour’s birth.
The night is peaceful all around you,
Close your eyes,
Let sleep surround you.
Sleep, sleep, sleep,
‘Tis the eve of our Saviour’s birth.

Dream, dream, dream,
Of the joyous day to come.
While guardian angels without number,
Watch you as you sweetly slumber.
Dream, dream, dream,
Of the joyous day to come.

Still, Still, Still – Jon Schmidt / German Carol

Another Jon Schmidt rendition, this time a full ersion. If you like it, take time to CLICK on through to his site and purchase some mp3s. Mash up your own CD or purchase one of his to download.

Continue reading “Still, Still, Still”

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The Star Carol

The Alfred Burt Carols have rightly earned a place in the Christmas repertoire of choirs around the world. Words by Wihla Hutson and music by Alfred S. Burt wedded beautifully have been a part of twc central’s Christmases long, long before there was a “twc central.” In another Christmas Alliance post, here’s the first verse of The Star Carol, with the rest of the words at the link and a snippet of another beautiful performance by Jon Schmidt in place of voices for the music. (Note: the musical snippet starts about the last couple of musical phrases, continues with the first two. You’ll probably be able to figure it out. :-))

Long years ago on a deep winter night,
High in the heav’ns a star shone bright,
While in a manger a wee baby lay,
Sweetly asleep on a bed of hay.


The Star Carol

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The Wexford Carol

As part of The Christmas Alliance, today’s offering is The Wexford Carol, piano performance by Jon Schmidt.

Good people all, this Christmas time,
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done,
In sending His belovèd Son.
With Mary holy we should pray
To God with love this Christmas Day;
In Bethlehem upon the morn
There was a blest Messiah born.

The night before that happy tide
The noble virgin and her guide
Were long time seeking up and down
To find a lodging in the town.
But mark how all things came to pass:
From every door repelled, alas!
As long foretold, their refuge all
Was but a humble oxen stall.

Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep
Their flocks of lambs and feeding sheep;
To whom God’s angels did appear
Which put the shepherds in great fear.
“Prepare and go”, the angels said,
“To Bethlehem, be not afraid;
For there you’ll find, this happy morn,
A princely Babe, sweet Jesus born.”

With thankful heart and joyful mind,
The shepherds went the babe to find,
And as God’s angel has foretold,
They did our Savior Christ behold.
Within a manger He was laid,
And by His side the virgin maid
Attending to the Lord of Life,
Who came on earth to end all strife.

Wexford Carol – Jon Schmidt / Irish Carol

(And do see below the fold)

Trackposted to The Pink Flamingo, Leaning Straight Up, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Allie is Wired, Democrat=Socialist, Woman Honor Thyself, and The World According to Carl, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Continue reading “The Wexford Carol”

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Christmas Alliance 2008

ANNOUNCEMENT! The Carnival of Christmas is up. Kat has done a beautiful job of rounbding up and presenting a wonderful collection of Christmas posts. Merry Christmas!

NOTE: This is a “sticky post”; for newer posts, see directly below. From now until Christmas, it’ll be all Christmas music, all the time, here at third world county. No longer “sticky” as of 12-26-08.

carnivalofchristmas2008-lrg

To participate in this year’s Christmas Alliance, see Kat’s post.

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WordPress 2.7

So, I Upgraded to 2.7 in just a few clicks. Why? Mostly, I guess to get rid of the nag notice. *sigh* I’m sure I’ll get used to the new admin interface eventually, but right now, all it really seems to do is make it difficult to navigate to different admin tasks. Easy to write posts, but manage other aspects of the blog? Notso.

Ahh, found the issue. Was using Ozh’s Admin Drop-Down Menu plugin. Great plugin… for 2.6. Wiped out the left sidebar that is new in 2.7 (replacing the top nav bar). Still going to take some retraining, but now don’t have to type management pages into my browser’s addressbar by memory. *heh* With my memory, you might imagine some of the pages I tried to access…

Update: A new Ozh’s Admin Drop-Down Menu plugin was just made available, obviously to fix compatibility issues with WP2.7. “Obviously” because the upgraded version works fine, replaces the left sidebar in WP Admin with drop-downs–making this edit screen easier to work with, for one thing. When I buy the lil 22″ LCD screen I have my eye on, I may go back to using the sidebar, but on this lil ole 19″-er, I can use the screen real estate and pump my browser up to 150% enlargement for my tired old eyes.

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Variety, Not Just for the Sake of…

My Inbox tells me some folks think I’m a music snob.

Well, I am. I prefer vocalists who can actually find and reproduce pitches accurately, as a bare starting point. (Most people can’t tell how very bad the vocals they listen to day in and day out are on just this very basic criterion.) After pitch production, still epaking of just vocalists here, tone, vowels, clarity and the degree to which a vocalist uses their instrument effectively all add up… or subtract from my consideration of their artistry.

And all this is quite apart from the artistry–or more usually lack of artistry–of the lyrics, the tune, the harmonies and rhythms of a simple vocal number, which is the most complex music most folks (don’t really) listen to.

And then, at some level, I’m always listening as well for ways I’d score the piece differently, ways I’d prefer the vocalist(s) and instrumentalists use their instruments differently, etc. Always rearranging and rescoring and re-performing pieces in my head. It’s a blessing and a curse.

Now, I’ve not been able to “correct” *heh* most orchestral works by really good composers in quite that way (although I usually have some small–or large–argument with a conductor on how he chooses o present a piece), largely because good composers and truly good instrumentalists (who have usually worked far longer and more diligently to create real chops than most pop “artists”) remove a grat deal of citical perdormance issues before the performance.

But still there is a lot of talent out there in the popular arena, and some of it has been burnished with enough hard work to be worth listening to. For example, despite the fact that I absolutely abhor the way Emi Fujita treats vowels (and the ocassional consonant) in her English performances, I have to give her a bit of a bye in that area simply because she is attempting English from her background as a native Japanese speaker, and I’d hate for, say, a native Russian speaker critique my Russian when singing a Mussorgsky piece! *heh* But I’d also have to cut her some slack because her performances are so very musical. Yes, I’d like to erradicate a couple of vocal idiosyncracies she exhibits, but surprisingly–to me–even otherwse annoying vocal habits are overcome by her simple artistry, where in lesser talents the same flaws stand out as glaring annoyances.

And her accompanying instrumentals are also always worth listening to–good arranging choices, more often than not.

Here’s an example–just a typical example, nothing special or out of the ordinary–of an average Emi Fujita performance:

08.Tir n`a Noir – Emi Fujita

Now, here’s the rub: I love her performances on many levels, but. *sigh* She seems to sometimes suffer from the same sort of problem many young students who are beginning to sing art songs in Italian, French, German or whatever suffer from: no real connections to the underlying meanings of the piece, just singing the notes and phonetically reproducing the sounds. I don’t get this feeling all that often from her, but it’s enough that it’s a small detraction. Small.

But even there, she’s so very, very much better than most American native English speaking popular vocalists that I almost despair for vocal music recording in these (dis)United States. *sigh* Almost. There are enough examples of good musical and lyrical artistry (Janis Ian comes readily to mind, for example) that I know musicality isn’t dead, but it’s discouraging to turn on the radio and be forced to turn it off, because there’s no music worth listening to.

So, yes, I am a music snob in that I much prefer actual music to regurgitated feces.

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The Joys of eBooks

I could list a tons of benefits eBooks offer, from cost (zero for Gutenberg.org and other PD sites’ eBooks to very modest for a book still under copyright) to readability (yes, readability: I read almost all the eBooks I download in my web browser, often at 200%-300% magnification, nice for older eyes), but one benefit stands out: Googling (or other search engine use).

Example:

Actually, it was a spread spectrum signal that worked a lot like 802.11b wireless data transmission protocol, only it was centered somewhere around 1.42 gigahertz. Roger could not place it but that particular radio frequency meant something to him.

[Edit] OK, what happened to the whole paragraphs following the blockquote? I dunno… Should have said something like,

1.42 gigahertz? Sounded familiar to me, too, so… highlight, right-click, choose my search engine and… SETI. Of course.

Now, how easy would that have been were I reading a dead tree book? Not very.

Fun stuff.

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