My favorite Christmas Carol has to be Silent Night.

I really love that song.

What is your favorite carol?

:)

But I like it to play more. It is an awesome song to play on the French Horn.

I had a sorority sister in college who sang in the Seattle Opera chorus. She had the proverbial "voice of an angel." She would sing that every year at our house holiday party. It still gives me chills to think of it. :)

I heard her version played on the sadly defunct WCAL here in the twin cities and the beauty of it almost reduced this agnostic to tears.

That and Carol of the Bells are my favorites from a musical standpoint.

on edit - add Steeleye Span's "Gaudete," sung in latin. Way cool.

from South Park is the best I've ever heard. If you're going for a funny version I should say. I love John Berry's version also.

I have a very cool version done by a Celtic band with a female singer. She sings it very simply in a beautiful Irish accent, accompanied by simple guitar and tin whistle. It puts the professional versions to shame (you know, the ones that are all carefully orchestrated and backed by 100 professional classical musicians and sung by a opera star?), and it makes me cry everytime I hear it.

Just a beautiful song.

The Transsiberian Orchestra with Metallica is my favorite version of Carol of the Bells.

You hear the music version (piano, bells, synth) all over the place, but many people don't realize that there are actually words that go to it, and that it was written to be sung. It's a difficult song to sing and doesn't get performed much as a result. Still, when done by a choir that gets the tempo right, it's an amazing song to listen to.

But TSO Did an awesome version, and also MSR also did a great version of it.

and her holiday choir does it every year (just to show off I'm sure cause it is REALLY hard)

because it's done badly too often. When I have a very advanced group of singers I feel can handle it, then I'll pull it out.

done right will bring tears to my eyes, without failure. :bounce:LOVE that song!:bounce: :bounce:

It's definitely my all time favorite Christmas song EVER--but I like the instrumental, too. Just not as much as the vocal performance.

I have a version by the Guelph Chamber Choir that is simply outstanding.


My other holiday favorites:
"Jeff's nuts roasting on an Open Fire"
"Fleas Got My Dog"

I love lullabies.

:hi:

Charles Wesley's greatest hymn. It's Christology is concise, and neatly wrapped in 3 short verses. It gives me chills every time hear it.
O8)

and the organ is playing it. I like that.

I especially like the Bare Naked Ladies / Sarah Mclaughlin version.

I got burned out on that song.

Down in yon forest be a hall,
Sing May, Queen May, sing Mary!
'Tis coverlided over with purple and pall.
Sing all good men for the new-born Baby!

Oh in that hall is a pallet bed:
Sing May, Queen May, sing Mary!
'Tis stained with blood like cardinal red.
Sing all good men for the new-born Baby!

And at that pallet is a stone
Sing May, Queen May, sing Mary!
On which the Virgin did atone
Sing all good men for the new-born Baby!

Under that Hall is a gushing flood:
Sing May, Queen May, sing Mary!
From Christ's own side 'tis water and blood.
Sing all good men for the new-born Baby!

Beside that bed a shrub tree grows,
Sing May, Queen May, sing Mary!
Since He was born hit blooms and blows.
Sing all good men for the new-born Baby!

Oh, on that bed a young Squire sleeps,
Sing May, Queen May, sing Mary!
His wounds are sick, and see, he weeps.
Sing all good men for the new-born Baby!

Oh hail yon Hall were none can sin,
Sing May, Queen May, sing Mary!
Cause hit's gold outside and silver within,
Sing all good men for the new-born Baby!

And I thought I had heard them all.

He sings it beautifully.

Gives me shivers.

wrong spot!

:thumbsup:

:)

:shrug:

:)

It takes me back to when I was a kid and seeing the Christmas lights and stoplights reflected in the wet pavement. It is so pretty.

Emmanuel is probably the oldest carol, supposed to date back to the 12th century, though modern music notation only dates back to the 15th.

Utterly beautiful.

So is the German carol "Lo, How a Rose Ere Blooming".

I like the older ones the best. Most modern Christmas music is really bad.

Carol of the Bells

sung in Huron. The harmonies are like silver bells dancing along your skin.

man I miss so much it seems.

My favorite secular one is "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)".

Curiously, they both have subtitles.

but I like Silver Bells best.

http://www.hamienet.com/midi643.html

Mods: the song is not copyrighted as it is from the nineteenth century.

"I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

:hi:

I love singing the alto part. :hi:

I would clear the church, or where ever.

just because I love singing the Glo-oo-ooo-o-oo-ria! part. I'm not a religious person, but I do love the traditional carols. I HATE jokey pop Xmas songs. Well, except for the MacKenzie Brothers' Twelve Days of Xmas.

Crap. I just realized it's a THREE way tie. What Child is This is also a favorite of mine.

HMMMMM

"Midnight" appears over the end credits of the war movie "A Midnight Clear," sung with infinite weariness by Sam Phillips in her whisky-soaked voice. The alternate version, on "Christmas With Julie Andrews," sounds exactly like crisp, clean, new-fallen snow on Christmas Eve.

There is a version by Kate Bush (I think or was it the lead singer of Yaz?) on one of the Very Special Christmas CDs that I like a lot.

Being an atheist, I've never thought much of the song until I heard that. That version is my favorite Christmas carol now. We play it each year when we put up the tree.

:-)

from a non-believer.

:D

I like Ave Maria too