El gran Monarca

Mike Nesmith, singer-songwriter and one of The Monkees died yesterday. He was 78. In his honor, today’s Advent piece is the quartet singing “Ríu Ríu Chíu” a Capella. I’ve heard other versions, but I still keep coming back to theirs.

“Ríu Ríu Chíu” is a villancico, a Spanish poetic/musical form; it dates from the 16^th Century. “Ríu” means river in Catalan; the refrain could also refer to the sound of the kingfisher bird. The song speaks of Mary and the Christ child being protected from the wolf.

Here they come.

Laudamus te

We might be getting a little ahead of ourselves in the Advent cycle—the Glorias and Hosannas should rightly be closer to Christmas itself, but I came across this video, "Gloria", from a performance by choirs of Luther College, and it spoke to me.

I know nothing about Luther College, except that it’s in Iowa and Lutheran. (I appear to have been hitting the Lutherans rather hard this year, but—dagnabit, they own a good part of the Christmas music market share.) I also do not know who this Randol Bass is, but he writes a good Gloria.

Crank up the volume.

 

Glad tidings of great joy I bring

Today’s Advent offering was written by Martin Luther as “Vom Himmel hoch”, “From Heaven on High”. Ordinarily I’d give you the original German, but I have to get in something by Catherine Winkworth, the Victorian bluestocking who translated so many German hymns, capturing the force and poetry of the originals.

I suppose my all-time favorite is another Luther effort, “Comfort, Comfort Ye, My People”. The lyrics to "From Heav'n Above to Earth I Come" are kinda German-y. By which I mean the verb is at the end of the line, not immediately following the subject. To be honest, I can't help but think of the letter to Sherlock Holmes (in "A Scandal in Bohemia") that contains this sentence: "This account of you we have from all quarters received."

Have a listen to the Lutheran a Capella Choir of Milwaukee giving us “From Heav’n Above”.