Christmas, the old way
Dec. 8th, 2006 04:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilSo I was digging through my piles of music and found the music I acquired during my time in the Musician's Guild of the medieval club at my college. Shawms, recorders, krumhorns, good times. Anyway, I found a good bunch of old time Christmas songs - not all of them dating as far back as the Middle Ages; we were a bit more lenient about being period when it came to Christmas - but in any case, a good deal older than Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Oh, how refreshing to see unrelentingly religious Christmas music! No blathering on about snow and Santa and vapid generic feel-good stuff. This is heavy-duty, Our Savior is Born sort of music. Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate a fun rendition of Jingle Bells (which is entirely about winter and makes absolutely no reference to Christmas whatsoever, yet is sung only during December. Weird. And 'Let it Snow' is a freaking love song, entirely unrelated to anything even remotely connected to the holiday. Blah.) Okay. Stop rant. White-washed Christmas songs are fun. However, taken with all the rest of let's-get-that-messy-religion-business-out-of-Christmas-stuff, it makes me fume. Noticed how it's called Christmas??
Back to the good stuff. Whence Comes this Rush of Wings, Coventry Carol, God Rest You Merry Gentleman, Ding Ding Merrily on High. And Oh Come, Oh, Come Emmanuel. That has some of the most gorgeous, poetic references to the Old Testament I've ever seen in a Christian context. Unabashed praises to God. That's what Christmas is for. And thankfully, these songs are obscure enough that I don't expect to hear some pop star massacre it on the radio. Or, worse yet, have the words cut out and replaced with a painful jingle for a commercial. "Joy to the World, come buy our stuff." :P Hideous. Christmas music should not be cause for tearing out of hair and gnashing of teeth. Thank you.
Back to the good stuff. Whence Comes this Rush of Wings, Coventry Carol, God Rest You Merry Gentleman, Ding Ding Merrily on High. And Oh Come, Oh, Come Emmanuel. That has some of the most gorgeous, poetic references to the Old Testament I've ever seen in a Christian context. Unabashed praises to God. That's what Christmas is for. And thankfully, these songs are obscure enough that I don't expect to hear some pop star massacre it on the radio. Or, worse yet, have the words cut out and replaced with a painful jingle for a commercial. "Joy to the World, come buy our stuff." :P Hideous. Christmas music should not be cause for tearing out of hair and gnashing of teeth. Thank you.
