Christmas music time

Every year, my piano teacher has her students (Well, at least the ones who celebrate Christmas - and we're a small group, so I think all or most of us do) pick out Christmas music to learn. She has a small party where we eat food, play our pieces, and do a sing-along. I'll miss it this year because I'll be traveling already, but she still had me pick some stuff out to learn anyway.

I have a simpler piece and a more complex piece. The more complex piece is a very nice Martha Meier arrangement of "Angels we have heard on high" - I think it's an attempt to make it sound as if it were played on a pipe organ, there are lots of places where you're doing blocked chords with lots of major thirds and perfect fifths (and ha! it makes me happy that I know that). At one point it sounds almost like a music box, the way the melody is written. It's more difficult and will take more work to perfect. (Every Martha Meier arrangement I've seen has been interesting to play and sounds very good)

The second piece is a pop-Christmas song. It's a simple arrangement of The Christmas Waltz (which I know best from the Sinatra version). It's fun to play. I haven't QUITE mastered it yet, but I can play it well enough to please myself with the progress I'm making. And while the words might not win any prizes for depth (especially as compared to some of the REAL Christmas hymns, which are what for me, tell me why I am celebrating), still, there's a nice little line in it:

"It's that time of year, when the world falls in love, every song you hear, seems to say - Merry Christmas, may your New Year's dreams come true."

And while I've railed here in the past over what I see as perhaps an over-emphasizing of the importance of romantic love in our culture (to the point that those who are not in a relationship are made to wonder what's wrong with them, and to the point where people will marry/get involved with each other without really thinking through what they're doing/without being capable of putting in the work that's required), I don't think the song is talking about that.

I think it's talking more about what I might call "agape" love, the kind where you love in general, where you feel love for those around you, and it includes the love for your family or your friends or your neighbors. Because I DO think on some levels, at least most of us do become kinder at this time of year. And while there may be some ugly moments of people forgetting that (it seems mostly in the commercial arena - I will never, ever go shopping on "Black Friday" again), still, I think by and large, when you get people away from the "gimmes" and the materialism, there is a greater sense of kindness and openness there. Perhaps it's more of a softening-of-the-attitudes - I know I am more willing to cut people slack who would normally annoy me, I'm more likely to chuckle over stuff I might otherwise ignore.

I know, it's kind of sad that it's only that way part of the year and not all of it. But at least it's that way for part of the year.