This was written for the December 2002 Christmas newsletter…

      Just before starting at SIUE the fall after I graduated from high school, one of my best friends told me about being accepted into the elite choir there and asked if I would be interested in trying out as well. (He was the one who always knew the right people and had the ‘contacts’ to find out about such things.) I said ‘sure’ and even though the auditions had already been closed officially, Dr. kkkk (the names are camouflaged to protect the innocent!) agreed to meet me at his home and run me through the rigors of his tests.

      Since I had studied music theory in high school and had been actively singing in choirs and choruses for many years, most of what he ‘dished out’ I was able to handle with equanimity. However, the kicker was when he had me sight read the bass line from one of the hymnals sitting on his piano. Little did he know that I had been doing that at my church since I was old enough to read! He would ask if I knew the song that we were doing (I didn’t), and would then try another. Finally, with no further ado, I was asked to join the SIUE ‘Concert Chorale’ on the spot!

      I don’t believe I have ever been a part of any choir whose members were more experienced or professional than those in this group. After all, most were music majors, while the rest were at least getting a minor degree in it! I recall one warm autumn afternoon when we decided to rehearse outside. We learned a new song, and rehearsed some others, all without the aid of any instrument (Though it did help to have one person with perfect pitch to give us our starting notes!) Then, for whatever reason, someone broke into singing the Hallelujah Chorus and we all joined in. No music…no instrument…we all sang our parts from memory! It was just expected that people of that caliber knew it!

      An awful lot of the music that we did back then was religious in nature. For the dedication ceremonies of the (then) new Religious Center we performed the entire Missa Secunda (Second Mass) by Haussler. One song that we learned that fall had been written for a European church that had a seven-second echo. As beautiful as it was in our rehearsal hall, when we performed it on tour at a cathedral in Belleville that had a five-second echo, the effect was just astounding!

      Dr. kkkk was always coming up with exciting things for us to do. Shortly before Christmas that year he had all of us meet for rehearsal in the open pit area of the Student Union building. There, as other students sat and watched, or stared as they passed by, we learned and rehearsed a very difficult version of The Little Drummer Boy that none of us had ever seen before. At the end of that hour’s session we ‘performed’ it for everyone who had gathered to watch. That is still the version that I remember in my head whenever I hear that particular song.

      Music has always been a very important part of my life, but never more so than at this time of year. The ‘sounds of the season’ begin to be heard around Thanksgiving and grow in usage until reaching a continuous climax on Christmas Day, only to be silenced altogether the day after (except in those churches that don’t allow them until after Christmas!) And that truly is a shame, because many of them are very beautiful songs.

      Again, I recall when a very special friend of mine (at least I always wanted to think of her as special) was to perform O’ Holy Night as a solo during one of our high school Christmas concerts. The sound systems back then were very primitive compared to today’s solid-state automated. For normal speaking you could just set your volume and watch to make sure nothing untoward happened. But someone using the microphone to sing required a person to sit with his fingers on the knob and his eyes on the decibel meter. The trick was to continuously control the volume so as to get the most sound at all times without getting so loud as to cause distortion or feed back. Needless to say, this was a very delicate operation and not everyone could do it well. As an officer of the Technicians Club I had appointed myself as the only one qualified to ‘control’ her solo that night. As she left her place in the choir to head for the microphone, I also left my seat with the basses and took my position in front of the amplifier. I remember the tenseness as my fingers touched the controls, but I can only say that her performance was flawless. And as preoccupied as I was, I still remember her voice singing the most beautiful rendition of that song that I have ever heard, even to this day!

      Many ‘Christmas’ songs deal more with the season itself…White Christmas, Jingle Bells, and Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer are three that come to mind. But for every Frosty and Rudolph, there are hundreds of Silent Night’s and Joy to the World’s. It goes without saying that most Christmas songs are, indeed, about the birth of Christ. And whether performed by traditional artists, pop stars, or ‘New Age’ enthusiasts, the messages in them have never changed.

      This season, take a few minutes to really listen, again, to the words of some of these. It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, O Come All Ye Faithful, What Child Is This, We Three Kings…and countless others all tell the story and the Glory of that night two-thousand some years ago when our Lord came into this world in a lowly stable as one of us and was laid in a manger. They tell of angels singing and rejoicing…of kings and shepherds…and of the promise of peace on earth and goodwill towards men.

Listen to the music! Listen to the words! Open up your heart and your head, once again, to what the season is really about…the birth of Jesus!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!