Thursday, December 30, 2010

Reflection and Changes

It's that time of year--when we spend moments in reflection of the past year in order to create our goals and plan the changes we wish to make in the following months.

In honor of change... a little music.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Hark the Herald Gutenberg

Hark! the Herald Angels Sing. The words to this traditional Christmas hymn were written by Charles Wesley and first appeared in 1739 in Hymns and Sacred Poems.

In 1840 Felix Mendelssohn was commissioned to create a cantata to celebrate the quarter centenary of the invitation of movable type printing, by Johanes Gutenburg. An excellent moment in time to celebrate to my reader/author mind. It's quite a stirring piece, I guess. :)

Finally English musician William H. Cummings adapted the music to fit the lyrics we know so well.

Here's part of the original cantata