Two favorite songs

If you asked me, "What's your favorite Christmas song," it would be easy for me to pick the not-specifically-a-hymn one.

It would be "The Christmas Song," and the Nat King Cole rendition of it:



As for religious songs? There are many I like, I suspect in large part because they are NOT the ones you hear at the Wal-mart or the mall this time of year. And some of them are a bit wilder and from a time when most of us lived a lot closer to "the edge" than most of us do now.

Someone I read - someone I would not expect to care much for Christmas, let alone Christmas music - commented "If all Christmas music was like "Gaudete," I would like Christmas music:"



Yes, quite a bit of spectacle in that one. But isn't that how it should be? And of course, in medieval times, this might have been one of the few real merry-making times of the year.

I've also been a fan for a while of the "Cathedral" carols, especially the Sussex Carol:



Again, the joyfulness.

(I do not....care quite so much for the Coventry carol as I once did, now that I know it is referencing the "Slaughter of the Innocents")

Though perhaps for my money, I prefer Silent Night - simple, can be played on guitar alone (legend has it that it originally was, the bellows of the church organ being damaged the night it was to have been presented). But like a lot of very well-known songs, there are good and bad versions of it. I tent to prefer the church-choir versions:



Of course, it was originally in German, a language I know (at least partially) understand:



There have, however, been some decent arrangements of it down through the years. As I said, I'm not so much a fan of the "vocal blandishment" versions that many female singers do (as a way of showing off their range or the brilliance of their voices); I feel like the song should be more about the words, here, seeing that it is fundamentally a retelling of a gospel story.

But this is a version I like, because it is simple:



Slightly later than Silent Night (1818) is another one, this time from the US, that I like a great deal: "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," which  is based on a poem by Longfellow. .

Again, it acknowledges that life isn't 100% rosy: the narrator expresses despair (the Civil War was going on when he wrote it) and while he doesn't say the modern words I would say - that the world is in a mess and humans are bad - it's implied. And Longfellow had his own share of personal tragedy around the time he wrote the poem. And yet, there's hope. The stanzas are slightly altered and rearranged in the song, but it still works.

(Like a lot of carols, this one goes by different tunes. This is my preferred tune, though I'm not in love with the musical "sweetening," but I can't quickly find an acapella version that uses my preferred tune):