Here's a thread for posting about music programs on radio and television as we approach Christmas.
I saw a reminder on the net a few minutes ago that the annual "Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols" from King's College, Cambridge will be aired live Friday (Christmas Eve) at 10 AM Eastern Time (3 PM British Time).
It's aired on some public-radio stations here in the US (for example in Cleveland and Boston), and on BBC Radio 4 (only the first 90 minutes), and there's streaming audio available from both sources.
I thought I was pretty dense not to have realized that the format of Nine Lessons came from the Catholic Divine Office for today. But boy, neither the website nor the program book comes right out and says it. It's all vague "ancient sources", even though Anglicans are perfectly well aware of the Divine Office in their own tradition. It's weird.
Oh, and I also heard the Pope's historic Thought for the Day this morning. You can hear it through the "Listen Again" feature right on this page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/thought
Watching Midnight Mass at the Vatican. I know not everybody likes the herald trumpets, but wow! Hearing them play the Alleluia before the choir sings it... it's like, "Where were you all my life, singing trumpets?"
Voiceover's getting annoying. Nothing like, "The choir is singing 'Alleluia'," over the sound of the choir obviously singing Alleluia!
And if the voiceover guy's going to speak in English in time with the guy chanting the Gospel in Latin, why doesn't voiceover guy just start chanting it in English? :)
Yes, despite differences in taste, the music in general is going well this year, in terms of the selections and the performance. (Well, maybe not that communion antiphon.)
As for the commentary: we probably don't really need "Dominus vobiscum" translated either, but at least most of the talk is edifying and not merely chatty, as in some years. As Fr. Z pointed out, the on-line stream from radiovaticana.org offers an option for "audio" with no vernacular commentary, so that is starting to sound like an appealing offering!
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