Weird music at Christmas?
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Weird things happen at Christmas, I suppose. Here is one such. Any others?

    I learned (from a post at CPDL) that 'Pie Jesu' sung by Lucy Kay on Christmas Carols on itv(24-Dec-2014). The presenter said this is one of her favorite Christmas time songs.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Apparently, Christmas Carols are composed of any music sung at Christmas time, widely described as beginning just before Thanksgiving and ending on December 26th.

    Thanked by 2Liam francis
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    This was on Christmas Eve, and it was the 'Pie Jesu' from the Andrew Lloyd Webber Requiem. How utterly inappropriate, and for someone to consider it her favorite Christmas song displays a woeful lack of understanding Christmas.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Yes...and this happens because people think singing what they like to sing is more important than anything else. Since it is in a foreign language...Bob's my uncle.

    Have no idea what "bob's my uncle" might mean...but just like the sound of it. I suppose I'm doing the same thing they are!
  • Andrew_Malton
    Posts: 1,187
    A choir I am in often sings Pie Jesu on Good Friday, if anything even weirder. The Fauré, not that I makes any difference.

    We had "Someday at Christmas" sung by a boy soloist. During the "carols" prelude, admittedly, but still.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    I always liked, "Why don't we get drunk and s...." Jimmy Buffett. Works as well as the Lloyd Webber.
    Thanked by 3ryand Adam Wood CHGiffen
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,311
    CHGiffen, at least if one has ITV, one can definitely tune into Lessons and Carols from King’s, and turn off the other nonsense.

    I know of someone who sang “Little Drummer Boy” before Mass (not by choice… this friend was not very pleased). It is not appropriate in a church, I think, but at least it is thematically correct…

    Wow. This one makes my head spin. Which one is more inappropriate, Christmas or Good Friday? Yikes.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    Does anyone have that YouTube video where the bride is telling the organist that the groom wants Silent Night sung at their July wedding because "it is his favorite song." ?
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    I'm no Pluth, but here's a shot at some alternate lyrics

    O-oh July, Swee-eet July
    Summer warmth, clear blue sky

    Swarms of mosquitoes, they buzz 'round your face
    Turning your mood toward seething rage

    Don't forGEEETTT to wear sunnnn screeeen.
    Don't forget yourrr sunscreen.
    Thanked by 1Kathy
  • vansensei
    Posts: 219
    Silent Night in July? I mean...if the groom was Australian or Kiwi or some other locale where December and Christmas are in summer, I could sort of get it.

    I hope the organist refused. It's still kind of absurd.
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    Emmm, why is pie jesu so bad?
    Is not the infant in the manger the same one who takes away our sins? Doesn't the very quote in the gospel 'behold the lamb of god etc come up as a gospel reading within Christmas tide?
    I will certainly grant on musical grounds that ALw's pie jesu is a bit diva -ish, but not sure why you are unhappy with it lyrically.

    on the infant jesus

    the logic of the iturgy
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    Essentially, it's a fragment of the funeral Mass. "Pie Jesu" is an excerpt from the "Dies irae", the sequence sung in (EF) Masses for the dead. After the drama of the Dies irae (accursed souls consigned to flames, etc.) it's an appeal in the last words of the sequence for Christ to be a merciful judge at the last judgment. So liturgically it's not associated with the nativity. In terms of the vast narrative of salvation, the Last Judgment is practically the 'other end of the story'.


    Thanked by 2bonniebede CHGiffen
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    you are so right. Somehow I had forgotten the ending. [:-)
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Having just been through the television Christmas season, which lasted from before Thanksgiving, through Advent, Christmas, and into the New Year, are you getting prepared for that annual event known in TV land as "Christmas in July"?
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Had a funeral on Dec. 22. Family requested "Silent Night" along with a bunch of standards (OEW/HGTA etc.) and any country-sounding hymn. I got creative and found a literal translation of the German "Stille nacht," and that text sat well with a sort of "Come to the Water" (SLJ) loping triple meter. Sang that at the end after "In paradisum," problem solved.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    "Silent Night" could have new meaning in the context of the Order of Christian Funerals....
    Thanked by 4Spriggo canadash Dave musiclover88
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    I will never forget the time I was commanded to use 'Mary, Did You Know'. It is a piece of ****. And, Mary knew exactly what she was doing, who her Son was and the whole shabang. It is an insult to her to even suggest she didn't know. Protestant theology to the core.
  • vansensei
    Posts: 219
    Bugger. They wanted you to use that when there are hundreds of non-heretical, liturgically appropriate songs out there? Was it sung during Mass?
  • ClemensRomanusClemensRomanus
    Posts: 1,023
    I had to sing that once and I just changed the words to "Mary, you did know," lol.
    Thanked by 6canadash chonak Ben francis Liam vansensei
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    Yes. Christmas Midnight. That parish was also known for it's liturgical dance ministry and was a wealthy parish in the north suburbs of Bmore. Didn't stay there very long.
  • vansensei
    Posts: 219
    I began to internally cringe, but then I saw "liturgical dance" and I was no longer surprised. Once a parish has liturgical dance, any sort of orthodoxy seems to go out the window and die in traffic.
    Thanked by 1ryand
  • mahrt
    Posts: 517
    Pie Jesu in the Fauré Requiem is an elevation, not part of the Dies Irae; the Fauré does not set the sequence.
    Thanked by 3MarkThompson CHGiffen bonniebede
  • vansensei
    Posts: 219
    And the way Fauré's Requiem is set in such a different, unique way, (the Sanctus has one of the most beautiful chord progressions I've ever heard) A Dies Irae setting wouldn't really fit.
    Thanked by 1melofluent
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