Merry Christmas from our house to yours.
May you enjoy feasting and music, great gifts and good company.
Christmas Eve is our Christmas, so Ava, Robbie, and I are signing off until the weekend. Have the greatest holiday and thank you for helping to make ours happy.
Merry Christmas Claire, Robbie and Ava! Hope it’s a great one!
And to all you commentariat too.
A very Merry Christmas, and a happy and prosperous New Year to you, Claire!
Bob
III
Merry Christmas, Claire, and everyone else too!
And don’t miss Dave Barry’s 2015 “Year in Review”.
To my favorite internet family:
May your holiday bring you peace, love and joy.
Here’s my non-traditional Christmas tree. http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/?p=8310 You can’t see them, but most of the “decorations” are .22 rounds tied with a ribbon. 🙂
Merry Christmas and Liberty to all
My wish is for Liberty to prevail on the entire planet.
Stay Safe,
capn
Christmas Light Display, set to music. Yeah, lots of these around. Borepatch embedded this one, so I had it handy.
I hope you & your pooches have a great Christmas, Claire! Thanks for all that you have done this past year (again!) to sound alarms, flail bad guys, and to throw in some comic relief.
I remain confident that next year, we’ll finally get the rascals on the run. More or less.
Thanks, Claire. And a wonderful Silent Night to everyone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S036PCddza4
Carol of the Bells for cello.
The Holly and the Ivy; Robert Shaw Chorale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zh-yR0pbmU
Chanticlear: Noel Nouvelet
el Nacimiento, performed by the great Jose Carreras.
Mamaliberty, I once saw one round of ammo tied on a branch. It was called a cartridge in a bare tree. Merry Christmas, all. May the peace that this season calls for be felt through everyone’s heart and mind. And may the fire that this country calls for also be felt the same way.
One of my favorite carols:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2QEYNMIem4
“Il est né le Divin Enfant”
And this one has stuck in my mind since I learned it in high school German class. These boys and men sing it better than we did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GV-V_kXLjo
“Oh du fröhliche”
For the gunfolk:
http://www.squeakywheelseeksgrease.com/blog/?p=9102
“The Fun Show Song” lyrics by Tam, sung by Squeaky, video by Ambulance Driver
And various, as sung by gunblogger Jennifer:
http://injennifershead.com/?p=6514
Merry Christmas to all.
I just got back from my choir singing two Christmas Eve services, the old fashioned way. (Lots of traditional carols.) During the time between services I got three requests for shooting classes.
Happy New Year.
Oh dear, Claire. You also learned Christmas Carols in HS German class? I still remember some of those lyrics.
Most of the Christmas music in my head is by either the Vienna Boy’s Choir, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, because my sister played those collections a lot, and this was repeated year after year.
Es ist ein Ros Entsprungen
Stunning! What Child is This?
“Oh dear, Claire. You also learned Christmas Carols in HS German class? I still remember some of those lyrics.”
Oh yes, and if you’re anything like me the songs are about all you do remember, right? (I think, after two years of not-very-intense study, I could eventually ask “Where is the train station?” Hated the teacher. Was more interested in the boy across the aisle than the language. But the songs, especially “Oh du Froeliche” stuck.)
Wow on that latest, jed. I’m not a very musical person and had never heard of Sissel. But what. A. Voice. And what range: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sissel_Kyrkjeb%C3%B8
I do remember some German. The 2 years of that, in HS, was primarily for the purpose of reading Reformation authors, especially Luther, in the native language. For those who went on to the WELS pastor college, there were 2 more years of German. We learned songs other than Christmas hymns. Das Heidenroslein, Die Loreliefelsen, und Du Du Liegst Mir im Herzen come to mind, and I can still get throught those, with a bit of mental hunting. Gah! Mine Hut, er Hat, Drei Ecken just sprang to the forefront!
Fahren fahren fahren auf der Zahnradbahn?
I am not, by any means, conversational in it. I can eke out a few things, but to listen to spoken German and understand more than a few words, nope. I can still recite The Lord’s Prayer auf Deutsch.
I too, had not heard of Sissel. I think I will have to seek out more by her.
Another favorite soprano, Annie Haslam, lead vocals for the group Renaissance, who struck out on a solo career. I’m linking into the playlist, in case anyone wants to hear more. From Peanuts:
Christmas Time is Here.
One of the few “rock star” Christmas songs I like, especially with the Prokofiev thrown in. From Greg Lake: I Believe in Father Christmas.
Funny the things we remember from high school. In French class we learned the one Claire mentioned above, Il est ne le Divine Enfant and Minuit Chretiene(Oh Holy Night)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM5IDFRRfaY
I had almost forgotten about this one. A portion of the melody pops into my head now and again, disconnected from the complete piece.
The Boar’s Head Carol
Happily found while searching for something else.
A very Merry Christmas to you!
Found items, while looking for something else:
Gaudete
Masters in this Hall
I think I’ll have to give up. Maybe I’ll call my mother, and whistle the tune for her.
And “Masters in this Hall” led me to another old beauty, “Personent Hodie”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejJjPE_DPYA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personent_hodie
“I do remember some German. The 2 years of that, in HS, was primarily for the purpose of reading Reformation authors,”
Holy sh*t, jed. You were SERIOUS. And considering becoming a pastor, too?
I can’t remember why I took German. We had to take two years of a language in HS and the choices were German, French, Spanish, and Latin. I wish to god I’d taken Latin. Not only would I have learned valuable history and gotten fascinating depth about the English language, but everybody adored the Latin teacher.
I thought Latin was for the brainy kids, though (who I now know were mostly no brainier than me; just better adjusted to both life and schooling and willing to work harder; I shared advanced English classes with the same kids so I should have known better even then). Besides, it was a dead language. Who needed a dead language? (Ohhhh, dumb HS freshman!)
Well, in retrospect, no, I really wasn’t serious. Well, that’s air through the engine. But, I got 4 years of Latin as well. I learned more about English from Latin class than I ever learned in English class. Also translated Caesar, Virgil, and a smattering of other stuff – Cicero, Ovid, uh … I really forget a lot of that. Latin is very structured, compared to English. Spelling and pronunciation are easy, though I wonder how anyone knows how they really talked back then. As a dead language, learning it involves a lot of rote memorization. I suppose one could attempt conversational Latin.
Personent Hodie is very nice. I have a fondness for old music: Hildegard of Bingen, for example. Gregorian chant too.
Too bad Borepatch hasn’t stopped by. He’d throw us out some real gems, I suspect. But, he just got married, so I assume he’s otherwise occupied.
Gasp. How have we gotten this far, without the Coventry Carol?
Welll, though I agree it belongs amid links of traditional carols, I can do without that one. Mothers singing lullabies to their doomed tots that Herod is going to kill? Um … not so merry a Christmas. The Coventry Carol is so pretty, but OMG depressing.
Other than that, it’s great to see and explore so many of the most beautiful carols that never make their way onto department store music loops. Thanks to you, jed, and all the carol hunters and finders of the Living Freedom Commentariat.
Byzantine Hymn of the Nativity
Claire, I am so, so, sorry to admit that at one time I too, had thoughts of becoming a pastor. To the point of spending a year or so in Bible college. I did learn a lot, mostly that I was not going to be a pastor.
In high school, the only foreign language I learned was Morse code. Yep, I am a full fledged ham radio operator from way back.
I am so glad I checked in here tonight, though, as I found all of these beautiful singers. I am so jealous. I can play many instruments, but when it comes to singing, I usually get many requests, such as, can you sing long ago and far away? Or solo. As in, so low no one can hear you.
Seriously though, some of the most beautiful music is carols, and hymns. Even though I speak not a word of German, there is still a beauty of the carols that lifts my heart. Thank you, everyone from me also, as a music lover. And Merry Christmas Evening.
“I usually get many requests, such as, can you sing long ago and far away? Or solo. As in, so low no one can hear you.”
🙂 I hear ya, pigpen51. At least you “got rhythm” enough for Morse code and musical instruments. Better than me.
Thank you and Merry Christmas Evening to you, too. Yes, so much beautiful music here. Thanks jed, Karen, Shel, Peter Conner, and anybody I might be forgetting.
Okay, jed. With “Byzantine Hymn of the Nativity” you’ve finally gone way too exotic for me. I’ll stick with German, French, and Latin carols. Shutting down for the evening now …
@pigpen51: 73
Okay, Claire, I agree that was out there, from the Western point of view. I found it beautiful. Well, different strokes, eh?
It had never ocurred to me that there would be Christmas songs in Arabic. But then, why not?
And I never paid much attention to the words.
jed, 73 to you as well, i went to you tube last night looking for some of my mp3 favorites. found a great one. Marianna, by Bia Krieger. Just beautiful, I wonder what the words mean.
Tsk, tsk, jed and pigpen51. Exchanging secret, coded messages right here in public. How very subversive of you both.
http://www.signalharbor.com/73.html
> Just beautiful, I wonder what the words mean.
I tried Google Translate, but I guess they broke it, for my purposes.
And Claire, it gets worse. We also use Q codes. (And that’s not even the full list.)
I can’t, however, reveal the secret handshake.