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Did you get any fun musical Christmas gifts?  My sister in law sent me some vintage sheet music to my favorite hymn, “Abide With Me.”  It’s copyrighted eighteen ninety something and looks really old.  I love it and plan on having it framed.  I’ll post pictures when I do!  (That may be a long time…it takes me a while to do anything!)

My husband and I used to both work for a company that gave incredible Christmas bonuses. Neither of us work there anymore. Consequently, this year, I’m really missing that bonus! But I can’t be too mad because we were able to combine our bonuses and purchase my piano one year. Now I get to enjoy those bonuses whenever I play the piano! Plus, every time I look at my piano, I’m reminded of how selfless my husband is. He didn’t get anything for himself with his bonus that year. He just gave it all up so I could have a piano. What a great guy!

Did you have to sacrifice to purchase your piano? Was your piano a gift? An inheritance? How did you get your piano?

I’m emerging for a moment from my stuffy, congested daze to report that our Christmas recital was a success! Everyone did wonderfully, and nobody got confused with our unique order.

How have your Christmas recitals gone?

I was planning on making sugar cookies shaped like Treble Clefs (I know, so silly) to give to my students this week for Christmas.  But I’m so sick, it’s just not going to happen.  Do you give your students treats or gifts for Christmas?

I’ve been doing a teensy bit more research on Christmas carols-  One fascinating fact I learned about Silent Night is that the words were writeen, set to music, and first performed all in one day! 

Apparently, on the morning of Christmas Eve 1818, the organ of a small Austran church broke.  The assistant parish priest, Father Joseph Mohr, wrote a new hymn for the evening service and took the words to Franz Gruber to write accompanying music for the guitar!  (who knew?)  The two of them sang the new hymn, Silent Night, that night with the choir joining in on the last two lines.

Here’s a little bit of “MyTown Pride” with a recording of David Archuleta performing Silent Night a capella. I’ve never met the boy, but some of my students used to go to school wth him. That makes me almost famous, right? The beginning of this recording is incredibly ridiculous with crazed fans shouting all around, but for some reason, that just comes with the territory of David Archuleta. At any rate, he has a beautiful voice, and this is a fun short video of “Silent Night.”

I’ve been doing a tiny bit of research on the background of famous Christmas carols, and I thought I would share some of what I find here.

The melody to Joy to the World can be attributed to both George F. Handel and Lowell Mason. Lowell Mason published “Joy to the World” in Occasional Psalms in 1836. In that publication, he marked it “Arr. from Handel.” It is suggested that Lowell Mason brought together two melodic phrases from Handel’s Messiah.

1. The opening of “Lift up your heads” is a descending scale with a similar rhythym as the opening of “Joy to the World.”
2. The line “And Heaven and Nature Sing” shares the same melody as the first measures of the accompaniment to the tenor aria “Comfort Ye My People.”

I tried to find a picture of the actual phrases to show you what I’m talking about, but couldn’t. You’ll just have to take my word for it!

Instead, here is a youtube video of Mannheim Steamroller performing “Joy to the World” Because…who doesn’t like Mannheim Steamroller?