Our choir songs are overwhelmingly Christian carols/hymns or mid-twentieth century songs. And then there's the Solstice Song - Carol of the Bells.
There are 10,000 songs on the subject of Christmas. And seasonal songs like Jingle Bells aren't considered Christmas songs. When it comes to religious songs, it seems to me that the Manger is the focal point.
Christian Christmas songs are known as hymns - "song of praise". The "Hymnal" is organized by season. One has to look through an index at the back to find out which page a song is on. Lyrics are formal and paraphrase Scripture or quote the Bible.
In the wider context, Christmas songs have more diverse themes. Here's someone who did some analysis of Christmas songs:
"After examining the top 78 holiday songs on Spotify, Bennett found the most common themes included: Home (family, gifts under the tree), Love (finding that special someone at Christmas), Lost love (feeling lonely at Christmas), Parties (dancing, mistletoe), Santa (and his reindeer), Snow (snowmen, sleighs, cold winters), Religion (Nativity story), and Peace on Earth."
Quite the array for Christmas. I guess that in part accounts for why there are so many concerts at this time of year. Lots to choose from.
A person can stay at home: turn on the perpetual fire burning in the fireplace television station/youtube video and the perpetual Christmas music radio station.
This display of wreaths and urns at the Watering Can is from a few years ago. This year, the volume is astonishing.
No comments:
Post a Comment