Selasa, 25 Desember 2012

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The Music of Christmas — The Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s “Worthy is the Lamb / Amen”

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 06:52 PM PST

One of my Christmas traditions is to listen to my favorite parts of George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah” as close to Christmas Eve night as possible. I have a terrific rendition, by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Davis, that brings majesty and reverence to the piece in ways the traditional chamber orchestra recordings do not (though if you want the best traditional recording of the piece, go with Sir Neville Mariner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields).

My favorite part of “Messiah” is the very end: “Worthy is the Lamb” and “Amen”. I honestly don’t have enough room in a blog post to share with you all the best musical bits, nor can I share with you just how impressive Handel’s work really is (though hit the link at the top of the post for a very interesting read). I’ll just leave you with this video done by Mack Wilberg, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the Orchestra at Temple Square.

Their performance is a taste of what John the Revelator heard when he wrote this:

And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;

Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.

How would a man live his life after he’s heard the entirety of the Heavenly Host sing praise to Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Most High God? How could his mind contain the sheer power of the song? I can not imagine it, though I think Handel got awfully close when he wrote the finale to his masterpiece.

Merry Christmas. Amen.

The Music of Christmas — Celtic Woman’s “Ding Dong Merrily on High”

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 03:29 PM PST

Ever hear a song on the radio and say to yourself, “Oh, hey! I haven’t heard that song in ages. I really liked it!”. Well, “Ding Dong Merrily on High” is that Christmas song for me. The tune is delightful (but a bear to sing well because the chorus is two long phrases and you need great breath control to do it right) and rarely performed at the sprightly pace it deserves.

It could be the difficult of the chorus is the reason it’s not sung very often, or it could be the lyrics (penned in the mid 1920s) aren’t all that easy to understand. Here, for example, is the second verse.

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

Right. Swungen and sungen aren’t words you see every day, though you used to, and we replaced “io, io, io” with “huzzah!” and “Hip, hip, hooray” a long time ago. Maybe “Ding Dong Merrily on High” is a tough song, unwelcome on radio stations that put John Lennon’s execrable Xmas whinge in heavy rotation. I don’t know. I think it’s worth bringing back because when it’s done right — at the right tempo with a huge dollop of exuberance — it’s magical.

Even better when it’s done right by a quintet of beautiful and extremely talented Irish women. Enjoy.

 
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