Monday Music: Of the Father's Love Begotten

One of my favorite Christmas hymns, Of the Father's Love Begotten, sung by the St Martin's Chamber Choir. The hymn is by the fourth century Roman Christian poet, Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius.

From Hymnary.org:

Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, "The Christian Pindar" was born in northern Spain, a magistrate whose religious convictions came late in life. His subsequent sacred poems were literary and personal, not, like those of St. Ambrose, designed for singing. Selections from them soon entered the Mozarabic rite, however, and have since remained exquisite treasures of the Western churches.



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Monday Music: In the Bleak Midwinter (Gustav Holst)

 In the Bleak Midwinter, by Gustav Holst, sung by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge

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The Wexford Carol

St. Andrew's Church in Winter
photo by Parrish Nored

I have posted this rendition of The Wexford Carol before. It is one of my all-time favorite Christmas carols. I am presenting it again here because I heard it performed by the Birmingham-Southern Choir at Canterbury United Methodist Church in Mountain Brook last Friday under the direction of Dr. Lester Seigel. It was one of several superb arrangements in their Festival of Lessons and Carols. 

My first encounter with the carol was in the mid 1980s when I was singing in the choir at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Birmingham. We were then under the direction of a young Lester Seigel, a most superb organist and choirmaster who was also choir director at Temple Emanu-El at the time (his weekends must have been quite busy!). These days, Dr. Seigel is an internationally known conductor and is Department Chair for the Music Department at Birmingham-Southern College. I am proud to have known him back in the day.

While I do not have a recording of the Birmingham-Southern Choir to present here, I have John Rutter’s arrangement and recording of the carol. 

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Monday Music: O Thou that Tellest Good Tidings to Zion

By the liturgical calendar, Christmastide began with the Vigil Mass on Christmas Eve and will continue until Epiphany (January 6). In other words, although Christmas Day was yesterday, it is still Christmas, which means we have a little more time for Christmas music.

My friend, Mark Biddle, has been sharing "12 Days of Christmas" musical selections from his talented family on his blog, Mostly on the Bible (he's a seminary prof). I wanted to share this lovely performance by his daughter, Ellen Broen, singing "O Thou that Tellest Good Tidings to Zion" (from Handel's Messiah). Check out his blog site, though, not only for the Twelve Days of Christmas music, but also for the theological commentary he shares on living our faith values.

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