Posted on 12/18/2009 6:01:05 PM PST by AZamericonnie
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Our Flag Flying Proudly One Nation Under God
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Lord, Please Bless Our Troops, They're fighting for our Freedom.
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God Bless Our Republic
I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic, for which it stands;
one nation UNDER GOD,
indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
Prayers going up
IN
For the most part, the successful writers of Christmas carols were men with the common touch, such as John Wade, Franz Gruber and that wonderful old pro Anonymous, who wrote so many carols. But the great classical composers sometimes got their names on Christmas carols, but not in any way they would have recognized.
There is an old saying in the classical music game, “Good composers borrow, but great composers steal.” George Frederick Handel stole from himself constantly, but he also freely stole from others, once saying of another composer, “That melody was too good for him.” The composer gets credit for “Joy to the World”, but only because someone stole part of a Handel chorus for a carol of his own. It was a case of karmic payback years after the composer was dead and wasn’t in a position to complain.
Felix Mendelssohn gets credit for “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” because a tune from one of his cantatas was stolen as a replacement melody for Charles Wesley’s original solemn tune. Those early Methodists were definitely solemn! Temperance will do that to you, especially around Christmas.
In his day, Franz Schubert was as prolific a songwriter as Paul McCartney or George Gershwin, penning more than 600 tunes written to German poetry. At the Vienna Choir Boys School, Antonio Salieri ran a musical gym for Schubert, and the young composer tried his hand at everything from poems to old Italian opera libretti. In this period Schubert even tried writing a Christmas carol, but the song remains forgettable and unknown.
Johannes Brahms set a poem by Emmanuel Geibel, “Lullaby of the Spirit”, for contralto with piano and viola accompaniment as his Christmas contribution. (Please don’t confuse this song with the famous “Brahms Lullaby”.) The text of the poem is Mary’s plea, asking the treetops to be still lest they wake the baby Jesus. While the contralto sings Brahms’ musical line of Geibel’s poem, the viola sings a completely different German Christmas carol under her as a counter-melody. It’s a brilliant achievement, but not something that can be sung by anyone with a voice of less than operatic quality.
The classical winner has to be Adolphe Adam (accent on the second syllable of both names), the French composer of the rather insipid ballet “Giselle”. On one of his better days, he composed “Cantique de Noel”, known in English as “O Holy Night”. That alone qualifies him for a spot in the Composer’s Hall of Fame – despite “Giselle”.
“Cantique” is written in D-flat Major (5 flats) which can be a bit of a problem for inexperienced organists; occasionally there is transcription to the less difficult keys of C or D Major. But the real challenge is for the vocalist. At the end, Adam expects his tenor or soprano to hit a high A-flat and come down to D-flat, carefully sounding each note separately, not using portamento to slur the notes together. Good singers can handle this, and some church choir soloists are quite up to the job, even if transposition to a different key is necessary.
But the fun really starts when a well meaning choir director decides to have the congregation sing along. I recall all too well listening to my fellow congregants fall flat on their – ahem! – faces at the those eighth notes at the end.
You’re not supposed to giggle in church!
In.
in
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Drat you got me by 1 second. Bully for you H&G!
Thank you for the new thread Miss Connie . . . you’re a real trooper and very much appreciated.
Thank you for our pledge....hand over heart & prayers up! *hugs*
I have been able to round up some new Santa pics to go weith the ones from previous years so lets get on with the pictures, eh!!!
I am not sure what to think about this picture, maybe the sleigh was down for the 1,000,000 hour inspection.
It's bad enough that Santa had to borrow a Hog from the USAF but you would have thought they could have rounded up a Hummer or even an old time jeep for the elf, but he doesn't look upset, I guess it beats beats walking.
Even the US Navy gets into the act, here is Santa before the next picture was taken.
Here is one example of Santa and Hi Performance Jets, hmmmmm...
Santa even made the rounds back in Vietnam, here is the caption for the next picture.
"Nhon Cho, South Vietnam, December 21, 1968: Dispensing with the normal sleigh, Santa Claus taxis along the airstrip in an artistically-modified C7 Caribou cargo plane as he arrives to bring gifts to Detachment 35, B Company, 5th Special Forces Group. The Air Force's 483rd Tactical Aircraft Wing at Cam Ranh Bay decorated seven of the planes for use in Christmas visits to the troops in the field. James Linn ©Stars and Stripes
A little reindeer humor,very little humor, in the next pic :-)
And we close out tonights flyby with this bit of whimsy...
Y'all take care out there, stay safe and we will be back tomorrow with more Santa pics for the Saturday Sortie
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Yay!
Now, to think of a song...
1 second . . . WOW!!! . . . Merry Christmas smooches to you and yours.
Merry Christmas to you and yours! Thanks.
JJ
Family is ok for now. We are expecting white cr@p at 2200 hrs[local] or so. We are expecting about 1 inch or so.
Ev news: There is light at the end of the tunnel. He should be home in less than a month!! Not for Christmas though, so we are leaving up the tree etc. until he is home.:)
LOL!
Very interesting stuff here Publius....surely SOME giggling might be appropriate in church?:) *hugs*
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