This year’s service was unlike the others year -1. Use of the Message translation for the readings 2. Variety of music forms – not only organ/piano but acoustic guitar in particular. 3. Use of videos exploring black spirituals, a carol that goes back to the Huron Indians as well as traditional English hymns from cathedrals
1. Brad’s piano piece -“Back to Bethlehem”. A Christmas medley.
2. “Once in Royal David’s City” – Traditional English cathedral version with the Queen introducing it
3. Karen’s Guitar Meditation on “It came upon the midnight clear”
4. “O Come All Ye Faithful” – A unique version with young musicians and singers on a 19th century train going through a winter wonderland. The musicianship and joy on the faces of the young people can’t be beat. Everyone seemed to join in . Credits -“Filmed at the Kettle Valley Railway in Summerland British Columbia for O Come All Ye Faithful DVD project by Fountainview Academy.”
4. “Creator of the Stars and Night” – One of the oldest carols, 7th century. An English translation by J.M. Neale is the well-known Advent hymn Creator of the Stars of Night. Duet Helmut and Nancy
5. “Angel Gabriel” – solo Nancy unaccompanied
6. “Lo, how a rose e’er blooming” . Piano and Cello duet. Alan Harrell, Cello
and Fernando Ortega, piano
7. “Love Came Down at Christmas”. This was a Christmas poem by Christina Rossetti. It was first published without a title in Time Flies: A Reading Diary in 1885. Vocals: Hannah Evans of Rise Up Children’s Choir & Dallas Whitman of One Voice Children’s Choir.
8. “O Holy Night” – Performed by Karen
9. “Angels we have heard on high” – Duet Nancy and Helmut
10. “Silent Night” – performed by Karen, playing as was done in 1818.
11 “Angels from the Realms of Glory” – Trio Catherine, Nancy, Helmut
12. “The Little Drummer Boy” – Performed by Karen. Note the sun shining on her guitar.
It was written American by composer and teacher Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941.[First recorded in 1951 by the Trapp Family Singers, the song was further popularized by a 1958 recording by the Harry Simeone.
13. “Huron Carol”
This is the oldest carol written in North America, 1642 by Jean de Brebeduf. The nature scenes are amazing in this video. Tom Jackson is an Indian singer.
14. “Go Tell It On the Mountain”
This song is unique for several reasons. First, it was associated with three generations of the Work family who were African-American teachers, musicians, and who motivated the Fisk Jubilee Singers from Fisk University to perform the songs. The singers helped to save the school from financial ruin The Work family collected spirituals to save them from oblivion, a difficult task since many of the spirituals were never written down. Th
15. The last reading was from the poem in memory of Tennyson’s friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, who died in September 1833
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
It was followed by “Good Christian Friends, Rejoice”.