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Sunday, December 9, 2018

Advent 2018

(For politics, please scroll down)

For this second Sunday in Advent 2018, enjoy this unique arrangement of "The Little Drummer Boy" (shamelessly lifted from Bunkerville):


[about "The Little Drummer Boy"]

5 comments:

  1. Thank you AOW and glad you enjoy it as much as I do. I will add it looks great in full screen, and better yet shoot it over to the "smart" T.V.
    Wishes for a wonderful day,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bunkerville,
      I almost always enjoy your respite pieces -- even if I don't comment thereto.

      Delete
    2. I am getting to the point that the Respites are about all I enjoy or wish to do anymore. Mustang has helped out, other than that, I am about done with it.

      Delete
  2. Our high school chir was one of the very first in the country–– f not THE first –– to perform the Carol of the Drum, albeit in a much simpler form a cappella.at Christmas in 1958 just when the piece first came out, and before i became popular. We loved it, and so did everyone else

    This is a beautifully performed, but much more elaborate version than the one we sang sixty years ago. It's wonderful. but I prefer the simpler, more folk-like version that apeared initially.

    I just read that the Trappe Family singers introduced it in 1951 –– probably on a radio broadcast.

    I've always believed it was inspirired by the old story called Why the Chimes rang, which explores a simiar theme of a poor little crippled boy who made a pilgrimage on foot to a great cathedral to lay his wooden crutch on the altar to give to the Christ Child, because it was all he had.

    But maybe not. An earlier choral piece written in France c. 1720 also featured a boy and his drum. It was called Pat-a-Pan. I've alwasy bieved it must have been a direct inspiration for The Carol of the Drum.

    Whocould know how many versiins of this Christmas theme have appeared over the centuries snce Christianity took hold in Europe?

    And then too we must not forget Gian Carlo Mennotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, whch again features poor little crippled boy who ends up going to Bethlehem with the Three Kings to worship the newbornkig in hopes of being healed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Franco,
      An earlier choral piece written in France c. 1720 also featured a boy and his drum. It was called Pat-a-Pan. I've alwasy bieved it must have been a direct inspiration for The Carol of the Drum.

      I agree.

      BTW, "Pat-a-Pan" is one of my personal favorites. The version by the Choral Arts Society of Washington is exquisite.

      Delete

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