In other news, I've pretty much decided to can posting these entries on Myspace. I've set Facebook Notes to import directly from this site, and its no secret that I've preferred Facebook to Myspace. The inital import sparked some light conversation based on my previous songbook entry and I was intrigued enough to reread some of my past entries. Truth be told, I've grown tired of the theme, and I imagine this will be the last of these entries...Also Oscar season is very much upon us, and I intend to at least dedicate one serious blog entry into discussing the movie awards season.
And it just so happens that the song I've chosen provides a nice bookend based upon my first songbook subject so here we go.
This year I've been wearing out the Christmas music ever since the first of the month. I've got a solid list of about 150 songs pumping on random. The list is dominated by holiday favorites and classics, with an occasional new Christmas song or creative re-imagining of a classic. So I thought it would nice to talk about what I consider to be my favorite Christmas song.
So without further ado:
"Hallelujah, (Chorus) from Handel's Messiah" performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir"
I was mildly tempted to focus on one of the non-traditional songs that is slowly gaining ground on my Christmas song ranking list (like Rilo Kiley's Xmas Cake or Sufjan Stevens' "That Was the Worst Christmas"), but Christmas is all about tradition, and this ripping choral number has it in spades.
And being that the first song I wrote about was Hallelujah, this makes sense too.
The Hallelujah chorus concludes the second of three acts in George Frideric Handel's Messiah oratorio composed in 1741(thank you Wikipedia). I can't remember a time in my life when I recalled ever hearing any other part of Handels masterpiece, and I can say with some confidence that I don't care to, as the chorus stands well alone.
So you may wonder why I didn't chose a more popular carol-friendly tune like Jingle Bells? Well the Hallelujah resonates with me on a couple of different levels.
First, this song is best heard sung by a choir, with proper direction/orchestration. The different vocal sections of the choir are called upon throughout the song. Its simply a very best "showing-off" of what a well-directed choir is capable of. Another great holiday staple that accomplishes this (and also one of my faves) is Carol of the Bells. Its almost like a structured and and refined version of singing in "rounds" like you would do at summer camp, with different groups of campers staggering their belting of "Row Row Row Your Boat" so that as you sing it sounds like their is an echo.
I specifically remember attempting to sing along to the Hallelujah chorus at the tail end of the service of Lessons of Carols run by one Marc F. Cheban at St. Andrews. I hung in the back with the regular choir, and attempted to chime in with the bass singers intoning "And he shall reign for ever and ever." So I suppose this song will always remind me of that.
The words are nothing particularly earth-shattering. Much of the lyrics are extrapolated from the bible (Revelations actually), but I easily get lost in this song. Yeah maybe they're a bit repetitive, but hey the delivery is spirited.
So no your average caroler will not be attempting this ditty on your front door, but there is no shortage of recordings of the this masterpiece to sate yourself with during the holidays. For my money Christmas music doesn't get much better.
I would love to hear what some other peoples favorite holiday songs are so comment away (I love when I assume people actually read these).
