Christmas Message

Happy Holidays to all my reader!
George Carlin once said something to the effect that the best thing about religion is the music, and that is certainly true of Christmas. I am a complete sucker for Christmas Carols, from Renaissance tributes in latin, to modern works with olde Englishe texts. I buy Christmas CDs every year, this year I splurged and bought 3 (my wife, I should add, keeps pace with party Holiday CDs, as if a balance were required to be kept between the serenity of In Dulci Jubilo and the nausea of All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth). Easily the best is Marian Christmas II by local a capella group St Martin's Chamber Choir, whose collection of female singers make a noise that is pure heaven. They span the aforementioned spectrum from the awe-inspiring Angelus ad pastores ait of one Samuel Scheidt to the simple but poignant The Fader of Heven by Maxwell Davies. But the centerpiece of the album is clearly Maria Laudate by local composer John White - exquisite!

However wonderful these works, they are unlikely to get into the popular repertoire of carols, particularly as that repertoire is so strong - O Come Emmanuel, Ding Dong Merrily, Hark the Herald, etc. are masterpieces. Which bids the question, which is your favorite carol? Glad you asked - about 10 years ago I bought a 5 dollar Christmas CD at Target which was a complete bargain - carols sung by Kings and Clare colleges under Willcocks and Rutter. Carol 12 was one I hadn't heard before, but it knocked my socks off, and still does every time I play it - the Willcocks arrangement of the Basque carol Gabriel's Message ("The angel Gabriel from heaven came..."). I do hope when Dawkins succeeds in stamping out religion, he keeps this music - it is rather heavenly after all!