This year the first intentionally heard Christmas carols were at a Christmas Vigil Mass. I actually managed to play Advent hymns up to that. Still it is hard to avoid “second hand carols” via other sources. But usually they were of the Christmassy, not the traditional carols anyway.
This was pretty hard for me to do as I so love Christmas carols, but now my joy is complete as I will be listening to them throughout Christmastide. Great thing about being Catholic is that listening to these carols dos not end of Christmas.
Now over the last decade and a half I have been building up my collection of Christmas hymns and carols. Radio playing of “Christmas Music” was too scattershot and more and more about secular Christmas and its trappings. So having access to the hymns I love every where I go is a decided bonus.
Still the quality of the recordings I own are all over the place. I like the selection on the John Rutter produced albums, but the production quality is crappy especially the clarity and volume. Paid for streaming music services are especially awesome when it comes to creating the “perfect” Christmas playlist.
I have gone from one music service to another and thus have to keep creating these playlists. This is both good and bad. Good in that I can find new gems I might not have otherwise searched for. Apple Music, like only Google Play Music which I last used, lets me combine songs I own with songs available via streaming.
Ideally I wish I could create a weighted playlist that derives sources from specified playlists. For example the majority of the time I want to hear Christmas carols both the classics and the lesser known. Every once in a while it would be okay to inject one song from another playlist containing Christmassy standards all about the trappings of Christmas and good feelings. Maybe once in 200 plays a Santa related song – possibly the Latin version of Rudolf – Rudolph rubrinasus as performed by the choir at St. Bartholomew’s in New York City.
Another weight would be for favorites that are older hymns, that are still mostly about trappings of Christmas than Christ himself. Although really that specific exemption is for the “Boar’s Head Carol” which I have so loved since as a kid I found it on one of my Mother’s Christmas albums. It stirs me every time even though it is about eating a boar’s head. Just love the melody and since it has a Latin chorus that makes it better.
Caput apri defero (Translation: The boar’s head I offer)
Reddens laudes Domino (Translation: Giving praises to the Lord)
Still not being able to randomize my playlist in an ideal fashion is certainly a #FirstWorld Problem. Mostly I am greatly pleased to create a large playlist containing all songs I like and that are also of good audio production. A nice mix of full choirs, ensembles, and individual singers. I’ve certainly grown an appreciation of crooners of the past like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra when they used their voices to the classic carols and more modern standards. White Christmas is certainly not my favorite of the modern standards, but when sung by Bing Crosby – that’s another thing.
What amazes me most is that each year I find a new favorite hymn. One that totally delights and inspires me. Last year that hymn was “Fum, Fum, Fum”. Still I need to do less writing and more searching for my next favorite hymn or selection of favorites sung by an artist not yet on my playlist.
