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Advent Calendar Day 5: The Cherry Tree Carol

One of the more fun things about Advent Carols are the ones you get that were written by the people, for the people.  And the people sometimes had some pretty unorthodox ideas, largely, one suspects, because services were in Latin, Bibles were for the clergy, and singing was not permitted in church.  This left quite a lot of room for people to make things up with the best of intentions.  And people were pretty interested in St Joseph, because in some ways, he’s the most relatable character in the Christmas story.  I mean, Jesus is divine, Mary is a walking miracle, and then you have Joseph, just an ordinary bloke (indeed, a regular Joe), whose betrothed has just turned up pregnant and is claiming that the baby is the son of God.

You can see why he wouldn’t be too thrilled about this.  The people writing carols could see it too, and there are a whole swathe of carols about Joseph being quite grumpy about the whole business.  (Incidentally, I’m told that Joseph didn’t get many churches in his honour, especially in Italy, largely because of a feeling that he was a cuckold.  Apparently, being cuckolded by God isn’t much better than the regular kind of cuckoldry, at least if you are Italian.)  Here’s one of them.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oscp04gjgIY&w=560&h=315] Continue reading →

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Advent Calendar Day 4: Quia Ergo Femina (Hildegard von Bingen)

After all that Baroque and Renaissance music, it’s surely time for something a bit older – and it’s definitely time for some good, old-fashioned, medieval theology, and a glimpse of Mary.  (You’ll be seeing a lot of her this month.  I tend to think that Advent is all about Mary, and nobody has managed to convince me otherwise so far).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRfwaf8ZlKk&w=560&h=315]

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Advent Calender Day 1: Matin Responsory (Palestrina)

It’s December, which means it’s time for an Advent Calendar!  Since I’m still a church music girl at heart, and since all the very best carols are more about Advent than Christmas itself, we’re going to have an Advent Carol – or something like one – every day from now to Christmas.  Strictly no Rudolph allowed.  I hope you enjoy!

Some Palestrina to start the season.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ofXER9YIJo&w=420&h=315]

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Friday Fun: Les oiseaux dans la charmille (The Doll Aria) – Offenbach

Time for a final fling with opera before we plunge into Advent and my annual Advent Calendar for the next few weeks!  Today’s aria is a favourite of mine, because you can do so much with it, and because it contains so much potential for humour, pathos, and creepiness.  This version contains all three of those aspects…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InAxtPyZVKI&w=420&h=315]

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Low humour in high style: Once, Twice, Thrice I Julia Try’d (Purcell)

I have spent quite a lot of this weekend with a lurgy, and have thus been mooching around the internet looking for suitable fodder for the musical Advent Calendar that I plan to run during December.  Alas, this evening’s explorations led me quite by chance into the world of smutty and scatalogical Elizabethan catches or rounds.  It’s amazing how much is out there… and none of it is remotely suitable for Advent, strange to say!

I’m not even sure the following is suitable for this blog, which has until now stayed pretty clean.  And I have to say, the lyrics do make me raise my eyebrows a bit.  But in the end, there is just something irresistible about beautiful voices singing ‘so kiss my arse’ with perfect diction and tuning, with great emphasis and in the highest of style.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvmX12dRP7E&w=420&h=315]

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Friday Fun: The Girl in 14G (performed by Kristin Chenoweth)

I first encountered Kristin Chenoweth as the idealistic, Gilbert-and-Sullivan-loving, Republican lawyer on The West Wing.  Edited to add: Oops, no I didn’t.  She was on the West Wing, but she was actually Leo McGarry’s assistant.  I had no idea she could sing…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBJn4BHtqqY&w=420&h=315]

… and particularly not in so many different styles and with such an impressive range.  The song is composed by Jeanine Tesori (lyrics by Dick Scanlan), a composer I had never previously heard of, probably because she mostly composes for Broadway musicals and I don’t get out much (particularly to New York, of course…).  I’ll have to keep an eye out for anything of hers that turns up in Melbourne, however, as she is clearly a clever, clever composer.

As for Kristin Chenoweth, what is there to say but wow.  (Admittedly, part of my lack of commentary is because I’m really, really tired right now, but still…) She really is an amazingly talented woman.

And here, as a little bonus, is Ms Chenoweth having a bit of fun with Mozart’s Queen of the Night aria.  Because you know you needed a bit more Queen of the Night in your life…