Here’s another Sissel song for your Christmas delectation. It’s an old German hymn, but I’m not sure she’s singing it in German here. I’m not sure what language she’s singing. I don’t think it’s Norwegian. Pay no attention to the closed captioning, which is in Spanish and no help at all.
But it’s nice.
Tonight, because I care (and because I don’t have any thoughts) I offer another Christmas song sung by the incandescent Sissel Kyrkjebø. On top of it being one of my favorite Christmas songs (“What Child Is This?”) this clip also shows the singer at her loveliest.
Sissel has a blog of her own, over here (discovered by Phil, to my eternal shame). But it’s pretty dull. Just irregular posts about where she’s done concerts and how nice everybody is, and pictures of her and her friends. Where, I ask you, are The Things the Public Craves? The interesting and instructive anecdotes of childhood abuse? Long disquisitions on Viking history and Norwegian folklore? The film clips of sword fights? Panegyrics on Andrew Klavan?
No, I have to do all that stuff myself. Because I care. Because I’m determined to make Sissel a star.
No need to thank me, Sissel. The work is its own reward.
But if you insist, I have a few suggestions.
My church’s choir is singing “Jesus Christ, The Apple Tree” this year. It’s a beautiful, traditional song. I can’t remember where I’ve heard it before, perhaps the same place you’ve heard but can’t remember too.
The apple has been used in many works of art as a symbol for sin or evil. I’m told the reason we think of the forbidden fruit, that unnamed fruit of The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as an apple is the fact apple and evil are spelled the same in Latin, malum. So Adam is shown with the apple of sin in his hand or at his feet as he is driven from the Garden of Eden. But in this song, Jesus Christ is called an apple tree (cf. Song of Solomon 2) in part because he is the second Adam, the one who is taking sin away from us, the one who is bearing the burden of our curse in order to save us from ourselves. That’s why we can sing:
The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree. Continue reading The Apple Tree
A Christmas hymn from Sissel on top of the story! And that’s just what Santa’s got in his bag, because you’ve been good little boys and girls!
It seems somehow appropriate to the day, in some obscure way I can’t quite put my finger on. Mainly because my finger’s lost all feeling.
The winter shoe has now officially dropped. Or has been flung, rather, like an Iraqi journalist’s.
Terry Teachout talks about what appears to be the good, though difficult, operas of John Adams:
His operas are intended to function not as conventional stage dramas but as mytho-poetical statements that are illustrative of larger ideas about the condition of man. Doctor Atomic, for instance, attempts to retell the Faust myth in specifically American terms, with J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientist who directed the research-and-development program that led to the building of the first atomic bomb, cast in the role of the all-too-human genius who sells his soul and lives to regret it.
“When I can read my title clear to mansions in the skies,
I bid farewell to every fear, and wipe my weeping eyes.
“Should earth against my soul engage, and hellish darts be hurled,
Then I can smile at Satan’s rage, and face a frowning world.
“Let cares, like a wild deluge come, and storms of sorrow fall!
May I but safely reach my home, my God, my heav’n, my All.” (Issac Watts)
“On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye
To Canaan’s fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.
“O’er all those wide extended plains
Shines one eternal day;
There God the Son forever reigns,
And scatters night away.
“No chilling winds or poisonous breath
Can reach that healthful shore;
Sickness and sorrow, pain and death,
Are felt and feared no more.” (Samuel Stennett)
Translation: Continue reading Pie Jesu
Phil asked me what my favorite Lutheran hymn is. That’s a no-brainer. “A Mighty Fortress” all the way. Oddly enough, I prefer it in a praise team arrangement, and I don’t think I can say that about any other hymn. This is a hymn you need to stand up and wail on.
My other Lutheran favorites—it will not surprise you to know—are Scandinavian hymns. Below is one I always think of as Norwegian, but in fact it’s Danish, the work of Bishop Hans Adolph Brorson. Its original title is Den Store Hvide Flok, which means “The Great White Host.” I think it’s particularly appropriate for All Saints’ Eve. Exactly the kind of hymn that wouldn’t go over in our day, as it takes it for granted that suffering is a necessary part of life.
The melody is a Norwegian folk tune arranged by THE MAN, Edvard Grieg. YouTube performance here.
BEHOLD THE HOST ARRAYED IN WHITE
Behold the host arrayed in white, Like thousand snow-clad mountains bright,
With palms they stand—Who are this band
Before the throne of light?
These are the ransomed throng, the same That from the tribulation came
And in the flood Of Jesus’ blood
Are cleansed from guilt and shame,
And now arrayed in robes made white They God are serving day and night,
And anthems swell Where God doth dwell
‘Mid angels in the height. Continue reading Behold the host
Watch this group a sharp looking kids in Atlanta sing: “Obama’s on the left. McCain’s on the right. We can talk politics all night, and you can vote however you like.” I should look up the lyrics; I can’t understand most of them.
I cast around for a Lutheran hymn for tonight, a good hymn in the Lutheran tradition not written by Martin Luther, and I came back around to one of his again. Maybe it’s predestination. Happy Reformation Day and Happy Halloween.
Lord, keep us steadfast in your word;
curb those who by deceit or sword
would wrest the kingdom from your Son
and bring to naught all he has done.
Lord Jesus Christ, your power make known,
for you are Lord of lords alone;
defend your holy church, that we
may sing your praise triumphantly.
O Comforter of priceless worth,
send peace and unity on earth;
support us in our final strife
and lead us out of death to life.