Christmas Advent Playlist: Day 8
Today's Christmas song is a classic... and yet it isn't!
"And still through broken skies they come with peaceful wings unfurled.
Still their heavenly music floats o'er all our weary world.
Above the sad and lonely plains they bend on hov'ring wing,
And ever over Babel's sounds, the blessed angels sing."
Before I heard anything from Sara Groves' Christmas album 2 years ago, I heard an interview with her on the local Christian radio station. One of the questions they had for her was if she'd caught any flak for changing the melodies on a couple of timeless Christmas hymns. She just laughed and said, yes, some people were disappointed, but that the reason she did it was so that people might actually stop and listen to the words that they might have stopped "hearing" when wrapped up in the traditional melody.
In my case, the stanza I quoted above is my favorite example of what she's talking about. I never really thought about it before, but the message of this stanza is so profound and comforting to me. The world is by and large a hard and discouraging place. And everything nowadays in our country is so loud and busy, full of stress, worry, and (as Paul Simon once wrote) "People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening" But rise above that just a little bit, and the angels are still singing. Christ is still alive. There is an end game that brings us hope.
(The other songs for which she wrote her own melody are "Oh Holy Night" and the chorus -but not the verses- of "Angels we Have Heard on High")
Also, for the record, the traditional version of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" is one of my favorite Christmas carols too. It's also my very favorite Christmas song to play on the violin. *GGG*
Click to view"And still through broken skies they come with peaceful wings unfurled.
Still their heavenly music floats o'er all our weary world.
Above the sad and lonely plains they bend on hov'ring wing,
And ever over Babel's sounds, the blessed angels sing."
Before I heard anything from Sara Groves' Christmas album 2 years ago, I heard an interview with her on the local Christian radio station. One of the questions they had for her was if she'd caught any flak for changing the melodies on a couple of timeless Christmas hymns. She just laughed and said, yes, some people were disappointed, but that the reason she did it was so that people might actually stop and listen to the words that they might have stopped "hearing" when wrapped up in the traditional melody.
In my case, the stanza I quoted above is my favorite example of what she's talking about. I never really thought about it before, but the message of this stanza is so profound and comforting to me. The world is by and large a hard and discouraging place. And everything nowadays in our country is so loud and busy, full of stress, worry, and (as Paul Simon once wrote) "People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening" But rise above that just a little bit, and the angels are still singing. Christ is still alive. There is an end game that brings us hope.
(The other songs for which she wrote her own melody are "Oh Holy Night" and the chorus -but not the verses- of "Angels we Have Heard on High")
Also, for the record, the traditional version of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" is one of my favorite Christmas carols too. It's also my very favorite Christmas song to play on the violin. *GGG*