Mr. George Frederic Handel and the choir of Kings Collge, Cambridge led by Stephen Cleobury...

...wish you a very Merry Christmas!

"For Unto Us A Child Is Born" from Messiah (written in 1741) (4:02)

and so do I.

In the bleak midwinter

...miracles can happen (4:18).

It's going to be 70 degrees Fahrenheit around here tomorrow (Christmas Day). That in itself is a sort of miracle.

Happy Christmas (or whatever you celebrate around this time of year, or don't) from our house to your house, regardless of the temperature.

Let’s have a Ding! Dong!

Today is St. Nicholas’s Day and tomorrow is Pearl Harbor Day and the day after that is probably something else. It never ends. There is always something to commemorate.

To tell the truth, though, I’m beginning to grow weary of posting.

This li’l ol’ blog of mine is nearing 1,300 posts and I can feel myself slowing down.

I can feel myself beginning not to care any more.

I can feel myself getting ready to toss in the towel.

Maybe I am just coming down with a case of the mid-December blahs.

Fortunately, I know the cure.

As Eric Idle once said to John Cleese, “Let’s have a Ding! Dong!”

Here’s “"Ding! Dong! Merrily on High!” by the choristers of Kings College, Cambridge (2:39).

Listen to it as many times as it takes to brighten your mood and put a smile on your face.

One year I had to listen to it 142 times.

As Eric Idle once said to John Cleese...

“Let’s have a Ding! Dong!”

Here’s “"Ding! Dong! Merrily on High!” by the choristers of Kings College, Cambridge (2:39) from 2010.

Tomorrow (Sunday, December 2nd) is the first Sunday of Advent, so before you can say “Jack Robinson” (my father used to say that) Christmas will be upon us again. Actually, Christmas has been upon us since well before Halloween, as the store displays hereabouts began going up in September. I think it has something to do with the waning of the Harvest Moon.

What can I say? It’s that time of year again...

A couple of posts back you heard Christina Rossetti’s poem “In the Bleak Midwinter” sung by the Gloucester Cathedral choir. The tune, known as CRANHAM, was written by Gustav Holst in 1906.

A different musical setting of the same text was written more recently by Harold Darke, and in 2008 it was voted the greatest Christmas carol of all time in a poll of choral experts and choirmasters. Here it is:

“In the Bleak Midwinter” (musical setting by Harold Darke), sung by Kings College Choir, Cambridge (4:18)

I think both versions are absolutely beautiful.

Here are some more numbers by the Kings College Choir from their 2008 Christmas concert. If you don’t have 24 minutes, 59 seconds right now to listen to all of them at one sitting, choose a favorite or two and come back later for the rest:

“Once In Royal David’s City” (4:29)

“Sussex Carol” arr. by Philip Ledger (1:55)

“The Holly and the Ivy” arr. H. Walford Davies (2:45)

“Angels From the Realms of Glory” arr. Philip Ledger (2:50)

“What Sweeter Music” John Rutter (4:06)

“The First Nowell” arr. David Willcocks (4:31)

“O Come, All Ye Faithful” arr. by Stephen Cleobury (4:23)

I hope you enjoy the Kings College Choir as much as I always do. But even if nobody listens to them but me, I will still be happy.