Category: Music

Sing Along on the Second Day of Christmas

For St. Stephen’s Day, sing along with “Good King Wenceslas”! This song is worth a look in Wikipedia. “King” Wenceslas was actually a Bohemian duke who was declared a saint by the Catholic Church. You’ll see why in this song, where even his footprints in the snow are warm. The lyrics:

Good king Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay 'round about, Deep, and crisp, and even.
Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, gath'ring winter fuel.

"Hither, page, and stand by me, if thou know'st it, telling:
Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain,
Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes' fountain."

"Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, bring me pine-logs hither;
Thou and I will see him dine, when we bear them thither."
Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together;
Through the rude wind's wild lament and the bitter weather.

"Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, good my page; tread thou in them boldly;
Thou shalt find the winter's rage freeze thy blood less coldly."

In his master's steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing.

Click here for the recording.

Not sure what this is about? Click here!

Join us at https://lavezzi.us/ on each of the Twelve Days of Christmas to join in this virtual sing-along. Care to be a serial singer? Here is the song from the First Day of Christmas.

Sing Along on the First Day of Christmas

For Christmas Day, sing along on “Joy to the World”! Like a lot of Christmas songs, this one started its existence as a poem. Here’s how it looked when first published.

It was written as Isaac Watt’s take on the second part of Psalm 98. Here’s how it looked in 1719, when published in his “Psalms of David: Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, and Apply’d to the Christian State and Worship.” So it’s now over 400 years old!

Here are those lyrics as they work in the hymn:

Joy to the world! The Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King.
Let ev'ry heart prepare Him room,
And heav'n and nature sing, 
And heav'n and nature sing,
And heav'n, and heav'n, and nature sing!

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns;
Let us our songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders of His love.

Click here for the recording.

Join us at https://lavezzi.us/ on each of the Twelve Days of Christmas to join in this virtual sing-along.

Not sure what this is about? Click here!

A Christmas Sing-Along

Join Us!

My memory of family car trips from my childhood is that the main entertainment was singing.1 It never took much to get us all to try harmonizing! And years later, at Christmas gatherings of Lynn’s family, we’ve sometimes joined in some sing-alongs.

So in this unusual year, I had the idea of a socially distanced Christmas sing-along across the miles and the time zones. We won’t be singing the “Twelve Days of Christmas” song, but our sing-along will occupy the traditional Twelve Days of Christmas that starts on Christmas Day and ends on Epiphany Eve.

Each day I’ll post a recording of different song, along with its lyrics. I make no claim that these are great performances, but they are an opportunity for all of us to have some fun singing along. By Twelfth Night, you’ll have access to a little library of twelve songs.

Obviously, I’ve had to make some decisions. I’ve included both religious and secular songs. Some holiday songs that try to tell stories are frequently shortened; I’ve opted for longer versions, including some verses you may never have heard. I tried to go with songs that I thought people could sing and would enjoy singing. (Some lovely Christmas songs are just too challenging, too archaic, or too dark.) And as I’ve worked on this project, I was surprised to learn how many Christmas songs are anticipatory and don’t make as much sense once Christmas Day has come and gone.2

As we go through the Twelve Days, I’ll continue to add songs and links to this page. You can bookmark this page and use the links that will appear here;3 don’t or just go to my website to get the latest post.

And, oh yes: Merry Christmas!

Notes:

  1. Car radios were pretty basic then, and on the road the signals weren’t particularly reliable. ↩
  2. I had to eliminate a ridiculous number of great secular Christmas songs because they are specifically set for Christmas Eve. ↩
  3. The first song is “Joy to the World,” but you won’t find the link until Christmas day. ↩