A blessed Christmas to all you Brandywinians out there. My own plans are to celebrate Christmas in my usual madcap way — a traditional Scrooge Christmas with a lowered thermostat, dim lights, a cup of gruel by the fire, and a chair set out for any wandering ghosts who might appear to accuse me.
Above, a clip I’ve probably posted before — Sissel with the Pelagian Tabernacle Choir, doing “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” my favorite Christmas hymn.
Meet Me in St. Louis is a hit musical that gave us the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” performed in the video above. The movie was initially released in St. Louis November 1944 and nationwide January 1945. Judy Garland plays Esther Smith, the eldest of four daughters, who falls for a new boy in town, played by Tom Drake.
The context of the Christmas scene is their father having accepted a job transfer to New York, which would uproot the family right after Christmas. Esther is comforting little Tootie about the move and sings the melancholy song. But the songwriters originally leaned into the sadness more than Garland and the movie executives wanted. Classicfm has the story.
Here are some of the original lyrics:
“Have yourself a merry little Christmas.
It may be your last.
Next year we may all be living in the past.
Have yourself a merry little Christmas.
Pop that champagne cork.
Next year we may all be living in New York.”
The second version, which Garland sang, were revised again for Frank Sanatra, so you may hear the song conclude with “Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow” or “So hang a shining star upon the highest bough.”
Either way, I hope you have yourself a, uh, you know.
This is the fourth week of Advent. Christmas Day is next Sunday. With many great Christmas carols, I had to choose a song that leans into Christmas today in order to have room for another one next week.
This traditional English carol was written by Luke Wadding (1628–87), bishop of Ferns, County Wexford, Ireland. The third verse appears to have been added to the original at some point, but songs and hymns aren’t particularly set in stone anyway. The tune is also traditional, arranged by the great Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).
1 On Christmas night all Christians sing,
to hear the news the angels bring;
on Christmas night all Christians sing,
to hear the news the angels bring:
news of great joy, news of great mirth,
news of our merciful King’s birth.
2 Then why should we on earth be sad,
since our Redeemer made us glad:
then why should we on earth be sad,
since our Redeemer made us glad:
when from our sin he set us free,
all for to gain our liberty.
3 When sin departs before Your grace,
then life and health come in its place;
when sin departs before Your grace,
then life and health come in its place;
angels and men with joy may sing,
all for to see the new-born King.
4 All out of darkness we have light
which made the angels sing this night;
all out of darkness we have light
which made the angels sing this night:
“Glory to God and peace to men,
now and forevermore. Amen.”
But peaceful was the night
Wherein the Prince of Light
His reign of peace upon the earth began:
The winds with wonder whist,
Smoothly the waters kist,
Whispering new joys to the mild Ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.
...
The Oracles are dumb;
No voice or hideous hum
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine,
With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving.
No nightly trance or breathed spell
Inspires the pale-ey'd priest from the prophetic cell.
Two stanzas from John Milton’s “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity“
Obituary: “And I feel so sorry for him, I feel so sorry for this tender man,” Nabokov writes, “that suddenly the line I am writing seems to slip into mist.”
Easy Photo Fakes: With advancing artificially intelligent image generators, creating convincing pics from a handful of social media posts is fairly easy. The better images AI can create, the more dangerous it is to everyone. Maybe we should take our photos offline.
Artificially Created Videos: In a few years, an Israeli company may be able to produce computer generated video avatars that look as real as actual video.
Why Journalists Fall for Hoaxes: “Every hoax in America the past 200 years originated in the news business, or passed through it. When the world moved much slower, hoaxes were publicity stunts carried out by newspapers.”
Not Allegory: “The Twelve Days of Christmas” celebrates the meaning of Christmas and Christianity
Beethoven and Christmas: “If beauty will save the world it must be qualified that love will save the world. Because in beauty we find love. In finding beauty and the love that governs it, we are always directed to the Christ who came into our lives and taught us how to love. St. Augustine said that we often first come to know God (who is Love) through the love of others and the love that others show us.”
And though this is not Beethoven, it’s a good Christmas share.
Photo by Angela Roma/Pexels
Today’s advent hymn was originally “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” written by German Lutheran Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608). He is noted in our source as having “fled from the Spanish army, sparred with Roman Catholic and Calvinist opponents, and ministered to plague-stricken congregations.” So a real salt of the earth kind of guy.
Catherine Winkworth translated the piece into English (as was with last week’s hymn).
1 “Wake, awake, for night is flying,”
the watchmen on the heights are crying,
“awake, Jerusalem, at last!”
Midnight hears the welcome voices,
and at the thrilling cry rejoices:
“Come forth, ye maidens, night is past!
The Bridegroom comes; awake,
your lamps with gladness take; alleluia!
And for his marriage feast prepare,
for you must go to meet him there.”
2 Zion hears the watchmen singing,
and all her heart with joy is springing;
she wakes, she rises from her gloom,
for her Lord comes down all-glorious,
the strong in grace, in truth victorious;
her Star is ris’n, her Light is come!
Ah, come, thou blessed Lord,
O Jesus, Son of God, alleluia!
We follow ’til the halls we see
where thou hast bid us sup with thee.
3 Now let all the heav’ns adore thee,
and men and angels sing before thee,
with harp and cymbal’s clearest tone;
of one pearl each shining portal,
where we are with the choir immortal
of angels round thy dazzling throne;
nor eye hath seen, nor ear
hath yet attained to hear what there is ours;
but we rejoice, and sing to thee
our hymn of joy eternally.
This marvelous advent hymn comes from the German Lutheran Johannes Olearius (1611-1684), originally as Tröstet, tröstet meine Lieben for St. John Baptist’s Day (June 24). John Julian notes, “He was also the compiler of one of the largest and most important German hymn-books of the 17th century.”
Our words come from Catherine Winkworth’s English translation in 1863. I’ve copied the Trinity Hymnal version here. The performance above skips verse two, but it captures the festival spirit of this song.
1 Comfort, comfort ye my people,
speak ye peace, thus saith our God;
comfort those who sit in darkness,
mourning ‘neath their sorrow’s load.
Speak ye to Jerusalem
of the peace that waits for them;
tell her that her sins I cover,
and her warfare now is over.
2 Yea, her sins our God will pardon,
blotting out each dark misdeed;
all that well deserved his anger
he no more will see or heed.
She hath suffered many a day,
now her griefs have passed away;
God will change her pining sadness
into ever-springing gladness.
3 For the herald’s voice is crying
in the desert far and near,
bidding all men to repentance,
since the kingdom now is here.
O that warning cry obey!
Now prepare for God a way;
let the valleys rise to meet him,
and the hills bow down to greet him.
4 Make ye straight what long was crooked,
make the rougher places plain;
let your hearts be true and humble,
as befits his holy reign.
For the glory of the Lord
now o’er earth is shed abroad;
and all flesh shall see the token
that his word is never broken.
Who wrote today’s Advent hymn, “Behold! The Mountain of the Lord,” appears to be a controversy. Scottish Minister John Logan (1748-1788) got it published in a collection of hymns in 1781, but the words may have come from his friend Michael Bruce (1746-1767). Given the family’s accusations and Logan’s track record with his definitely original material, it seems Logan passed some of Bruce’s hymns off as his own.
The tune called “Glascow” comes from Thos Moore’s Psalm Singer’s Pocket Companion (1756).
The performance above doesn’t include all of these verses and makes a good modification to the final verse.
1 Behold! the mountain of the Lord
in latter days shall rise
on mountain tops above the hills,
and draw the wondering eyes.
2 To this the joyful nations round,
all tribes and tongues, shall flow;
up to the hill of God, they’ll say,
and to his house we’ll go.
Happy Thanksgiving, Brandywinians. I wish there were more good hymns of thanks. Though there are probably ones that have slipped my mind.
In any case, this is the hymn of thanks they liked best at my church when I was a kid. “Thanks to God for My Redeemer,” by August Ludvig Storm (1862-1914), a Swedish Salvation Army officer.
I always found it a little disappointing, because the translation is weak. Still, my dad and my grandparents would have loved to hear it.
This Thanksgiving hymn was written by a rector of Aston Sandford, Buckinghamshire, England, named Henry Alford. He seems to have been one of those accomplished scholars who wrote many hymns, taught many students, and passed into history mostly unnoticed. The tune to this hymn was written by George Elvey for another piece, “Hark! The Song of Jubilee.”
2 All the world is God’s own field,
fruit unto his praise to yield;
wheat and tares together sown,
unto joy or sorrow grown:
first the blade, and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear:
Lord of harvest, grant that we
wholesome grain and pure may be.
3 For the Lord our God shall come,
and shall take his harvest home;
from his field shall in that day
all offenses purge away;
give his angels charge at last
in the fire the tares to cast,
but the fruitful ears to store
in his garner evermore.
4 Even so, Lord, quickly come
to thy final harvest home;
gather thou thy people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin;
there forever purified,
in thy presence to abide:
come, with all thine angels, come,
raise the glorious harvest home.
Here’s a relatively new hymn set to an older and familiar tune. It’s a song of trusting the Lord with all our cares, fears, and responsibilities. I think of it as a Thanksgiving-themed song, but giving thanks is only implied.
Lord, “be thou the center of our least endeavour.
Be thou our guest, our hearts and homes to share.”
Barbara B Hart wrote the words to “A Christian Home,” or “O Give Us Homes Built Firm Upon the Savior,” in 1965. I can find nothing biographical on Hart except her year of birth. Perhaps her publisher, Singpiration Music or The Benson Company, will tell us about her one day.
The tune is “Finlandia” by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), which is also the melody for the hymn “Be Still, My Soul.” Sibelius wrote his tone poem in 1899 for the Finnish Press Pension Celebration, “a thinly veiled rally in support of freedom of the Finnish press,” according to Britannica.
The words are under copyright, so I won’t reproduce them here, but they are reproduced in the video along with additional verse, the third one, that isn’t in the Trinity hymnal I use for reference.