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| Christmas Vespers |
As the last months of the year approach and pass, I look
forward to and enjoy listening to Christmas music. I have my favorite contemporary vocal artists,
and listen to the satellite and Pandora internet radio stations, but have found
a fondness for the beautiful choirs from around the world that perform classic
vocal and instrumental renditions of the carols. It’s the Vespers, Masses of Christmas, Handel’s
Messiah, Medieval Carols and the very old and ancient songs that have been sung
for hundreds of years that I am referring to.
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| Olde World Carols |
Many of the Christmas songs I am very familiar with, but
most of the very old songs I am not; meaning the songs from the middle to late Middle
Ages that would have poured out of castles and cathedrals, and hummed in the
lowly homes of the common people. Mixing
in music from the 18th and 19th centuries too, the carols
of old sound to me of a celebration of not only Christmas, but the winter
season. Made for a time when Christmas lasted longer than an evening and a day,
and the season was focused more on who you were with than what you received.
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Like every year, I’ll listen to the carols long after
Christmas. Letting the sounds resonate
thru the winter and thru the snow. It’s
amazing to think that notes composed so long ago can be enjoyed over centuries
of time, some becoming more familiar to me, while others already well-known and
welcome, each helping me to express my beliefs, sentiments, and reactions to
this season of the year.
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