Well, my proposal for a new weekly feature here met with some measure of approval, so here we go with the First Entry. Before I do so, I wanna give some credit for the inspiration for this series to ZurichMike (the other ZM of the Treehouse)– on Thursday’s language post, he and I had a brief conversation around the pronunciation of the word “forte”, which had me quoting some lines from the aria “Nessun Dorma” (From Puccini’s Turandot). This made we want to post the aria for all to enjoy, but then the wheels started turning, and what would have been one post will be a recurring series.

But I’m going to hold off on the Puccini. If we’re to do this properly, and considering that we are the Conservative Treehouse. . . we must start much as we started the Advent Calendar, and kick it old school. Only today, we’re leaving Chant in the dust, going back another thousand years, for the oldest recorded complete song on the planet.

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This blog is not a Catholic blog. Nor even a “religion” blog of any sort, though it is generally welcomed in discussion. However, many of us here in this community are Christian, and of those, many are Catholic, and for that reason, I’d like to invite all members of this community to join in a New Year’s tradition I picked up a little while ago from The Anchoress— that of randomly drawing a patron saint for the coming year. An interesting point on the tradition is that it is not you who chooses a saint, but rather the saint that chooses you.

Thanks to Jennifer’s Random Saint Generator, this process can be done online!

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As we wrap this up over the next few days, I’ve a few themes with which to do so. Tonight, it’s parodies and other Christmas songs I find funny or silly or just so campy it goes through funny, right around tedious, and circles back to funny again. Please, add yours in the comments.

I came to this theme because this year, at long last, I’m finally getting to sing “that song.” Every singer has a “that song”– the one solo above all others that they want to sing in front of others, the one song they want to officially add to their repetoire, and check off their musical bucket list. Mine, since I first started singing, has been “O Holy Night”. But every year that solo went to someone else, while I got “In the Bleak Midwinter” or the boy in “Good King Wenceslaus”. Which are perfectly lovely. . . and not the one I’d been desiring for so long. But this year, finally, I’m getting to sing it, to officially add it to my roster of “Things Sung for Others.” Deo Gracias, I pray God use me to bless others with some small amount of beauty.

As it happens, however, my favorite version of this beautiful song is not a soaring, divine solo from Renee Fleming or Placido Domingo. It’s Cartman, getting zapped with a cattle prod.

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We got a request in last Saturday’s thread. So, Auntie, here ya go. From the Muppets Christmas Carol. Enjoy! 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnqYH7hn7po

The “straight” form of today’s song drives me a bit nutty. Musically, it’s weird and messed up. Totally un-symmetrical (brings out my inner Death the Kid, I swear . . .), lol. Seven verses. The fifth acts like a bridge, but isn’t. The melody us uniform verses 6-12, and all all different 1-5. Why is 5 different? The words don’t need such a change. Makes no sense!

The history of the song is unclear, as well. People have tried to put meanings to the verses, but there’s no evidence for these meanings being the “original” meanings. It is assumed that the Twelve Days are the days from Christmas to Epiphany. The fifth day in this set up would be December 29th. The only thing notable about the 29th is it is the Feast of St. Thomas a Becket.

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First of all, Happy (First Night of) Hanukkah to all Jewish Treepers and visitors! Get ready for Eight crazy Nights of lighting candles and spinning dreidels and cleaning out your kids’ stash of gelt.

Lest any of you wingnuts (I say that with greatest affection and respect) fear that I include Hannukah in this series of posts our of some PC fear that I would otherwise not be “inclusive,” fear not. If I weren’t posting this series, I’d have a separate post anyway, or at least a note in the OT– because in the area I grew up, and continue to live in, has a very high Jewish population, and I grew up with their kids. Not wishing every Jew I know “Happy Hanukkah” on the first day of Hanukkah would be weird for me. Just like winning all the gelt when we play dreidel. . . it’s tradition!

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You knew this song was coming. The way I shuffle over the lines that separate Christianity from the pagan religions, proclaiming Christ while making friends with Odin  . . . I am well aware of my . . . shortcomings, in that area, and it would be dishonest to pretend that I function in any other manner. I blame my time in New Orleans.

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Considering the Gospel reading for today (posted earlier Menagerie), there’s really only one song that I can post today. It really doesn’t need much commentary ^_^.

Oi, I gotta take a break from serious stuff. Just got back from the church choir Christmas Party. My contribution to the Yankee Gift Exchange was a flask of Jack Daniels Honey. My result from the Exchange was a CD of Andrea Bocelli. Nice trade.

So, time for something fun. We’ll get back to weighty thoughts tomorrow. Tonight, we’ll loosen the neckties and let the hair down, let our feet tap and our hips shimmy. I love this arrangement of this song because it hearkens back to what might be considered a golden age of American Popular music. Much as I love Rock ‘n’ Roll (and I do), there’s something special about jazz, and I love the popular styles of the Andrews Sisters, or Name-The-Torch-Singer. I dare you to listen to this song without dancing in your seat, or tapping your toes.

Oh, and check out that bass player–listen to him play! Go Bass!

After work today, I came over to the parent’s house to do my part of the interior decorating for Christmas. Since I did it as a surprise one weekend in high school, this has been me joyous job every season– to decorate the stair bannister and the mantle. The mantlepiece is a glorious old antique that I remember going out with my parent’s to hunt for when I was a wee one. It’s oak, with wonderfully clawed feet, a mirror and scroll work.

I generally deck the mantle in light-up garlands of evergreens, with holly intertwined. Upon the garlands goes the brass sleigh, pulled by the brass stag– in the sleigh, a doll of a red-haired maiden in a blue dress, her lap piled high with wrapped fits. the sleigh is being pulled toward the shell tree– a christmas-tree shaped form of seashells and lights. Suspended above, softly waxing and waning stars and globes intimate a night sky filled with stars and planets.

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