Your Favorite Christmas Carol? "Sacred Miscellany" wants to know
  • Matilda
    Posts: 76
    Once He Came in Blessing
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,076
    bumping this thread, to get back to the original post :-)

    for our little choir -
    It Came Upon the Midnight Clear (yes! for the meaning of the text)
    Saint-Saens Tollite Hostias (not a carol, but a parishioner's young son told us that when he hears that, he knows it's Christmas - and we agree)
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Anna_BendiksenAnna_Bendiksen
    Posts: 228
    Hark, the Herald Angels Sing has done it for me ever since I was a preschooler.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Bombarde16
    Posts: 115
    Unto Us is Born a Son has always been a favorite of mine.

    https://youtu.be/dGS7igsATgs?si=M2pSm7Vj009tZdNj

    This and Es Ist Ein Ros' Entsprungen!
  • Diapason84
    Posts: 76
    I have a soft spot for the tune “The Wise Men” by Berthold Tours in the Hymnal 1940, as an alternate for the text “Saw you never, in the twilight.” It’s syrupy but also strangely charming.
    Thanked by 1Paul F. Ford
  • sdtalley3sdtalley3
    Posts: 260
    I didn’t know about “O Little One Sweet” by JS Bach till a few years ago, but the more I look and listen to it, the more I need to try and convince my DM to fit it in this Christmas!

    https://youtu.be/bSI5ZyfuVOc?si=4afX2rFORei1xoBT

    Thanked by 2francis Paul F. Ford
  • trentonjconn
    Posts: 543
    Decidedly non-liturgical, but I quite like the Sans Day Carol. Quempas and Personent Hodie are up there too.
  • Felicia
    Posts: 111
    From a posting in 2018:
    @Maureen
    I recently spent an evening on YouTube, finding out that St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote a bunch of famous Christmas songs.

    @M. Jackson Osborn
    ...finding out...
    Such as?

    The most popular Christmas song in Italy, "Tu scendi dalle stelle" (literally, "You come down from the stars") is credited to St. Alphonsus de Liguori. He based it on a traditional carol in Neapolitan dialect, "Quanno nascette ninno." The New Saint Basil Hymnal of 1958 had an adaptation in English.

    Here is a recording of Andrea Bocelli singing two verses:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK932hwc8UA

    For a more rustic, folksy, outdoors sound, played on zampogna (bagpipe) and ciaramella or piva (shawm), which might be how it sounded in the 18th century:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2rg5Rytbww


    Thanked by 3CHGiffen Paul F. Ford M. Jackson Osborn
  • PhilipPowell
    Posts: 109
    Not my favorite but it’s a hidden gem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwICADplEgA
    Thanked by 3Anna_Bendiksen sdtalley3 CHGiffen
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,704
    The Sussex Carol

    Followed by,
    The Salutation Carol
    The Truth sent from above
    Praise of Christmas
    First Nowell
    The Wexford Carol
    Down in yon Forest
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen mmeladirectress
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Two by JSB

    A child is born in Bethlehem (chorale number 12)

    Break forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=D7E0jM0F3M8g
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen trentonjconn Brian Michael Page
  • Anna_BendiksenAnna_Bendiksen
    Posts: 228
    I also adore this arrangement of In dulce jubilo:

    https://youtu.be/MrweXsImVhg?si=21TLo7sy66O-4jmc
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,945
    When Daniel Hyde's first lessons & carols run with the King's College Choir was broadcast over the radio, one could immediately hear the difference in choral sound. (A family member who is a recording wiz was so captured by the change that he was able to rip an excellent capture from the feed so we were able to listen to it and compare to prior KCC recordings over the course of the holiday week....) A top musical group, be it choral or instrumental, can under the right direction pull off that kind of relatively speedy pivot in character.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Anna_Bendiksen
  • Brian Michael Page
    Posts: 152
    My top six:
    O come, all ye faithful (Arr. Willcocks)
    Hark! the herald angels sing (Arr. Willcocks)
    O little town of Bethlehem ("Forest Green")
    Bel Bambino (I have a rather light arr. by Alex Peloquin from early in his career that's quite nice)
    God rest ye merry, gentlemen (While I like the standard accompaniment in most hymnals, I find the accompaniment in the Hymnal 1940 quite interesting, and, while in my car, I like listening to the Arthur Harris arrangement as played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting - sounds like the soundtrack to a western B-film lol).
    Away in a manger (the Kirkpatrick tune)
    BMP
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • oldhymnsoldhymns
    Posts: 220
    My top three Christmas hymns are:
    With Glory Lit, the Midnight Air Revealed
    See Amid the Winter's Snow
    Sleep Holy Babe

    King's College has recordings of the latter two which are quite nice.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Don9of11
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    also

    In the Bleak Mid Winter

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE0aIQp9V4s
    Thanked by 3sdtalley3 CHGiffen Paul F. Ford
  • PhilipPowell
    Posts: 109
    also

    In the Bleak Mid Winter


    Harold Darke’s setting to the same words is always hit for congregations here.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 685
    These a some of the christmas songs/ carols that St. Mary's choir in Akron, Ohio would sing for our Christmas programs which we did Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, about 1/2 hour before Mass. Adeste Fideles was always a favorite at Offertory. Many of these are out of print and likely in the public domain. If any of these look interesting, I have copies that I can share. Our Christmas program consisted of some of these selections but not all.

    In Old Judea - Adam Geibel/ Bruce Carleton (1929 solo/ 1943 choral)
    O Babe Divine - Italian Carol/ Howard McKinney (1956 SA)
    O Night of Holy Memory - Ira Wilson (1917 choral)
    Sleeping the Christ Child Lay - James Hall (1926 choral with Alto Solo)
    Sleep Holy Babe (St. Basil's 1918 hymn)
    Christmas Bells - Lester Price (1906 - unison)
    Christmas Bells - Lee Rodgers (1938 choral)
    His Natal Day (Ring Bells of Christmas) - Edward Norman (1929 choral)
    The Christmas Song - Ira Wilson (1916 choral)
    To Hear the Angels Sing - E. Lorenz (1909 choral)
    The Prince of Peace - A.J. Weiss/ Wm. Ashmall (1923 choral)
    Birthday of a King - W. Neidlinger/ E.C.C. (1950s choral)
    Sleep My Jesus Sleep - Dutch Lullaby/ Clarence Dickinson (1927 choral with Alto or Bass Solo)
    Adeste Fideles/ O Come All Ye Faithfull - V. Novello (1950s choral)
    With Glory Lit The Midnight Air Revealed - Dielman (1906 choral)
    The New Born King - Charles L'espoir (1932 Solo)
    The Christ Child - Margaret Beaulieu (1937 Solo)
    The Song That Will Never Cease - Howard Smith (1904 unison)

    The Mass setting was always the Christmas Carol Mass (Latin/ English) - James Korman (1937 choral) Everyother year was Latin.
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen mmeladirectress kenstb
  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,076
    forgot one
    Of the Father's Heart Begotten (Corde Natus ex Parentis)
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • CGM
    Posts: 683
    Wynton Marsalis's live rendition of Winter Wonderland, because Stephen Scott's piano playing is so incredibly hip.

    New York Voices's I wonder as I wander. An amazing arrangement & performance, even though the keyboard sound is terrible.

    Betty Carter's Let it snow. I know, she's not everybody's cup of tea. But I love her phrasing.
  • bhcordovabhcordova
    Posts: 1,152
    O Holy Night
    Joy to the World
    The Huron Song
    O Come All Ye Faithful
    Silent Night
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    Anything Alfred Burt wrote.
  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,076
    Here's a carol from at least 18th cent. Quand Dieu naquit à Noël
    I have no boychoir, no dulcimer, no flute, but one day we WILL find an arrangement which we can sing!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXtdmrXZdTg
    Thanked by 1sdtalley3
  • achoyce91
    Posts: 167
    Veni, veni, Emmanuel.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X9GfuAAXcko
    Thanked by 1mmeladirectress
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    also

    https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=580956334&channel=ftrc&q=holst+christmas+carol&tbm=vid&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-sr7-5LeCAxXSkIkEHav_BQcQ0pQJegQICxAB&biw=955&bih=478&dpr=2.61#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:e86b0cb1,vid:SE0aIQp9V4s,st:0
    Thanked by 1mmeladirectress
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,046
    Flos de radice Jesse/Oh how a rose e'er blooming
    Thanked by 1mmeladirectress
  • kenstb
    Posts: 369
    I love "Nous voici dans la ville". It has made my Christmas season since I was a child. I also like "Lullay my Liking" by Gustav Holst.
    Thanked by 1m_r_taylor
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