Advent has always been my favorite time of year. Not only does it lead up to the festival of Christmas, but my birthday falls right around half way through. What’s more, I grew up in snowy Central New York—that’s the barren hinterlands of Upstate, for those in the city so nice they named it twice—and if I didn’t get a White Christmas, the Great Lakes were good for a storm around my birthday so there’d at least be a good beginning to the winter.
Advent is far from an untouched subject around these parts, so I’m clearly not alone.
Your OT Advent Calendar this year will be musical. We’ll talk about diamond-in-the-rough traditional tunes just waiting for renewed popularity, crimes against Christmas, the silly songs and the songs that have become modern traditions. We’ll also talk about the notion of true Christmas Carols, those which address the twelve days festival beginning on Christmas itself, including not just the one day-counting song but another.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
Today’s tune is “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
This hymn is a lifelong favorite of mine and the rare example of a true carol of Advent. The tune is from 15th century France and the Latin text first in evidence in early 18th century Germany.
I won’t go into the text or its origins—why reinvent the wheel when someone else already makes great wheels?—but I will say, for those who don’t feel like following the previous links, that the O Antiphons, which are at least twelve and a half centuries old, appear to be the original source of the hymn’s motif.
In English, by Linda Ronstadt:
Just the tune:
And, lastly, this that I just discovered:
Some bonus tunage for you all: Tonight is St. Lucy’s Night, which commemorates St. Lucia of Syracuse who was martyred in 304 A.D. in the Diocletian Persecution. She is said to have brought food to Christians hiding in the catacombs wearing on her head with a wreath which bore candles so she could have both hands free and thus carry more food. Prior to the introduction and eventual acceptance of the Gregorian Calendar in the West, her feast day fell on the Winter Solstice. Here is an excellent album which pulls together various traditions from the dark latitudes around this day by the fantastic Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments.
