Maria Durch ein Dornwald Ging (Maria Through the Thornwood Goes):

Nun kommt der Heiden Heiland, for lute and gamba:

The Largo from Arcangelo Corelli's Christmas Concerto:

Balulalow, from Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols:

"I Saw a Swete Semly Syght", performed by Anonymous 4:

I've been musing on why I've been feeling low lately. It's nothing to do with writing (just to be clear), but rather, the fact that I've been dealing with yet another health issue (minor, yet irritating nonetheless). But, the thing I think is really bothering me is this is the first Christmas that I haven't had anything musical to do. Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year for a musician, and while we have to deal with nine million requests to sing O Holy Night (my personal unfavoritest Christmas song), we also get to sing a lot of fabulous music (Advent carol services are my favorite, even though I'm a non-churchy person) that mainstream audiences aren't always familiar with. I thought I'd share some of my favorites, things that aren't mainstream, but should be (in my humble opinion).

Finding my favorites has been a challenge, and a lot of them (Like "Maria through the Thornwood Goes" and the Lute Carol) aren't available on Youtube. An equal challenge is finding clips that don't drive me to distraction - wow, there's a lot of bad music on Youtube. Sheesh!

However, I have found a few things that I think are fantastic, and as a result, I even spent a little time singing myself last night.

For the first offering: What Sweeter Music, by John Rutter



(And, the video even has the music, so you can sing along too!)