The Carols We Love: Away in a Manger

The Carols We Love by Daniel Partner, Barbour, Uhrichsville, OH, 2002.
This is one of my favorite carols.  There are so many versions.  Here I sing combining several different versions.  This carol is credited to Martin Luther, but this book explains more likely written by J.R. Murray as was published in his Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses in 1887.  He entitled it Luther's Cradle Hymn. 
This song simply tells the Christmas story, but then adds a prayer at the end.  It is beautifully done.  

Christmas Carol: the First Noel Josh Groban feat. Faith Hill

Please see The Carols We Love: The "Story Behind the Story of Twenty-two Classic Christmas Carols, Daniel Partner, Barbour Publishing, Uhrichsville, OH, 2002.
This is a traditional English carol from the early renaissance period.  In this case Noel refers to the birth of Christ.  It is a word which means birth from Latin.  It is capitalized because it only refers to the birth of Jesus Christ.

Christmas Carols: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Please see The Carols We Love: The "Story Behind the Story of Twenty-two Classic Christmas Carols, Daniel Partner, Barbour Publishing, Uhrichsville, OH, 2002.
The Piano Guys have a very nice version of this song.  This song was first written in Latin in about 1200.  It was sung in monasteries for vespers as part of advent.  It has five verses, but each verse calling the Lord by a different name, imploring him to come.  The names are: Emmanuel (God with us), our Wisdom from on high, Our Lord of might, Rod of Jesse's stem, Key of David, Dayspring from on high and Desire of nations.  In using these different names, it points to different aspects of the Savior, who is God, who gives wisdom and shows the way, who is the descendent of Jesse and David, and holds the key to the kingdom of God, he chases the darkness away, and we yearn to come onto Him.
  

Christmas Carol: O Little Town of Bethlehem

Please see The Carols We Love: The "Story Behind the Story of Twenty-two Classic Christmas Carols, Daniel Partner, Barbour Publishing, Uhrichsville, OH, 2002.
David McCullough tells the story of this carol, "Phillips Brooks wrote "O Little town of Bethlehem" in 1865 after he visited the Holy Land and Bethlehem.  He wrote it as a way to remind himself of his trip.  A few years later he asked Lewis Redner to put the poem to music.  Redner felt like a failure, until Christmas Eve, and the melody came to his mind like a revelation, waking him from his sleep." 
This is a nostalgic view of the first Christmas, and then of subsequent Christmases.  It concludes with a personal prayer, telling us how to find Christ today. Come to us!  Abide with us!
4. O holy Child of Bethlehem, 
Descend to us, we pray; 
Cast out our sin and enter in, 
Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell:
Oh, come to us, abide with us, 
Our Lord Emmanuel! 

Christmas Carols: It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

Please see The Carols We Love: The "Story Behind the Story of Twenty-two Classic Christmas Carols, Daniel Partner, Barbour Publishing, Uhrichsville, OH, 2002.
"It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" was published in 1849 in the Christian register.  It had been written by Edmund Hamilton Sears, a minister in Massachusetts.  It was written in the middle of the American Industrial revolution.  The lyrics to the song reflect those times.  He refers to the world as "weary" and then full of sins and strife.  He then talks of two thousand years of wrong.  However the most damning part is when he seems to refer to the laborer.  "And ye, beneath life's crushing load, Whose forms are bending low, Who toil along the climbing way With painful steps and slow.  I can see this man coming out of a mine with a load of ore, or working in a mill all day, or as a weaver in a hot room.

However the carol concludes with Hope, looking for the Savior to return.

It came upon a midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold:
“Peace on the earth, goodwill to men,
From heaven’s all-gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay,
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats
O’er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains,
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o’er its Babel sounds
The blessèd angels sing.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing.

And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!

For lo!, the days are hastening on,
By prophet bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing.

Christmas Carols: Go Tell It On The Mountain (Dolly Parton Christmas Special)

This song comes out of a Black University, Fisk University, which was founded shortly after the Civil War.  They sponsored a professional and amateur choir, Jubilee Singers, which sang often to help fund the University.  They sang through America and Europe.  This choir introduced the world to spiritual music.  John Wesley's Work of Fisk University was the  preservation of Negro spirituals.  He wrote the lyrics to "Go Tell it on the Mountain" and set it to the tune "When I was a seeker."  This song comes from the history of Black music.  This song starts with the chorus, but reminds us that salvation was born that night.

[Chorus]
Hallelujah!
Go tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go tell it on the mountain
Jesus Christ is born

Down the lonely manger
The humble Christ was born
And God sent salvation
That blessed Christmas morn

[Chorus]

While shepherds kept their watch
O'er silent flocks by night
Behold throughout the heavens
There shown a holy light

[Chorus]

Please see The Carols We Love by Daniel Partner, Barbour, Uhrichsville, Oh, 2002.

Christmas Carols: Angels We have Heard On High

Please see, The Carols We Love by Daniel Partner, Barbour Publishing, Uhrichsville, Oh, 2002.  This in an 18th century French carol.  It first appeared in a book of songs in 1855.  In 1862 it was translated and published in English by James Chadwick.  This song tells the story of Jesus from the perspective of the shepherds, to whom the angels sang.  The English version has the nicest Gloria chorus.  How significant is it that the birth of Christ was proclaimed to shepherds, who quickly came and worshipped him, while the religious leaders of the day were oblivious to the arrival of the Savior who would redeem the world just thirty-three years after his birth.  Here is a version by Lindsey Stirling applying it to hurricane relief efforts.

Christmas Carol: Hark the Herald Angels SIng

Please see the Carols We Love by Daniel Partner, Barbour Publisher, Ulrichsville, OH 2002.
"Hark the Herald Angels Sing" was written by Charles Wesley, brother of John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement.  Charles Wesley wrote over 6000 hymns, which he used to teach gospel messages.  Hark the Herald Angels Sing is no exception.  This song teaches of man's relationship to Christ as Jesus reconciles sinners with God.  The song also gives three reasons for Christ's birth:
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth

My favorite version of this song is that sung at the end of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Christmas Music Review: In the Dark Streets Shineth

With the book, "In the Dark Street Shineth" there is a C.D. which presents the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with the narrator David McCullough as they present the stories of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas."  The music is arranged and conducted by Mack Wilberg.  I thoroughly enjoyed this, and will return to it many times.  Nothing is greater than the choir singing Christmas songs.

Christmas Carols: We Three Kings

Please see The Carols We Love: The "Story Behind the Story of Twenty-two Classic Christmas Carols, Daniel Partner, Barbour Publishing, Uhrichsville, OH, 2002.
"We Three Kings" is the most memorable work of John Henry Hopkins Jr. who was was a church man and music teacher for the most part.  He did publish a book of carols, another book of poems, and the biography of his father, a prominent Episcopalian priest.  "We Three Kings" is prominent for its message.  The story of the Three Kings is found in Matthew chapter 2.  The number of kings is not given, but they brought gold frankincense and myrrh.  There is a verse describing each of the gifts, and then a conclusionary statement: "King and God and sacrifice.  The gold represented Jesus as king, the frankincense as God (it was used in the temple) and the myrrh told of his final sacrifice.  Myrrh was used in embalming.