Trouble with the Messiah's Handle
On the 10th of December, I declared Christmas Music! I yanked the general music mix thumbdrive from my car's USB port (a car with a USB port...there's something I didn't predict back in high school!) and replaced it with the Christmas Mix thumbdrive. I know some of the stores have been playing Christmas music since Labor Day, but I don't do that. 30 days and that's it. Two weeks before Christmas is plenty soon enough, and we don't end Christmas celebration on December 26th. Why constrain Christmas music time? Easy. I don't want to get tired of it. I've talked about this before: Do Christmas too much or too long, and it ceases to be special.
And there's that wonderful first few days when you hear songs you haven't heard for almost a year (at least if you stay out of Target and Wal-Mart) that have in some wonderful fashion become new again. Loreena McKennitt's "The Seven Rejoices of Mary" brought tears to my eyes, which can be an issue when you're trying to merge onto the 101 beltway. And that wonderful cover of "I Heard the Bells" by Ed Ames, especially the kicker line, which in Ames' bottomless canyon of a voice gives me chills and then makes me want to cheer: "God Is Not Dead Nor Does He Sleep."
I added one this year, as I do most years. John Rutter's "Angel's Carol" came on our classical station, and I instantly liked it. Zoomed over to Amazon, paid 99c, and it was mine. That's how music is supposed to work. Shame it took us so long to get there.
Not all Christmas music appeals to me. Jazzy stuff, well, no. Santa Claus stuff, yuck. Frank Sinatra, don't get me started. "I Wonder As I Wander" has always troubled me. Not sure why. There seems to be a back-current of despair in it, and I absolutely cannot abide despair. Ditto "The Coventry Carol," with a melody like something you'd sing at a bad funeral.
And so to my big sort-of-a-complaint for today. KBAQ plays classical Christmas music and does a good job of it. They're particularly fond of "For Unto Us a Child Is Born" from Handel's Messiah, and I like it too, especially the cover by Glad. When it comes up on my Christmas mix thumb drive I sing along. Good, high-spirited, affirming, all the stuff I really really like. Until we get to this part:
...and his name shall be Wonderful;
His name shall be Counselor;
His name shall be Mighty God;
The Everlasting Father...
BZZZZT! Hold on there. We're talking about Jesus here, and I'm a Trinitarian. Jesus is not "the Everlasting Father." Yes, I know, the verse is taken from Isaiah, written long before we had a clear handle on the Trinity. It still sticks a little, especially in a Christmas context. Ahh, well. Prophecy is hard. Isaiah was doing the best he could, and nailed all the rest of it. I'll give him that bit, and assume God the Everlasting Father won't be annoyed if Handel's Messiah gets the Messiah's handle a little mixed up.
Nor will I. I save my annoyance for those insufficiently infrequent moments when I'm in a store somewhere and they start to play "Santa Baby." Please take that song and stuff it up the chimney tonight. Then light a nice fire, the hotter the better.
It's turning out to be a marvelous Christmas. Don't forget the Geminids tonight. And sing along with those Christmas songs. That's what they're there for.