Christmas Eve!

[nineveh_uk]

Here I am in the bosom of my family (TM), which is very enjoyable and not really giving me any time for writing or relaxing with a book. My plans for a couple of Yuletide treats remain unfulfilled. But it is fun even though the weather isn't. Today involves the preparation of vegetables plus the Boxing Day ham, a walk during the dry bit in order to get outside, last bits and pieces, and early dinner at an Italian restaurant in order to give my young nephews something else to be hyper about. I am giving them foam swords; in my defence, their parents asked for them. Kids' fake swords these days are amazing, I have been going around the place striking ninja poses.

Anyway, it's Christmas Eve so time for some carols, which I've been listening to while wrapping presents. O Holy Night is a classic example of something that is good in the original (have Roberto Alagna) and got translated into Victorian twee English that carefully erases any political statement, but even in English it has an excellent tune. Oh yes, and it also needs singing by someone competent.

Enter, obviously, Jussi Björling. Really, no-one does it better:

Watch on YouTube

Not quite as stupendously sung, but a lot of fun, is the HP Lovecraft filk version, Unholy Night:

Watch on YouTube

Best of all, the scene from Frasier, in which Martin Crane attempts to sing it:

Watch on YouTube

I am summoned to the parsnips and it has started to rain again. At some point I must dash to Morrison's, but clearly not yet.

Comments

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes the note sees the attack coming and retreats".

Oh that made me laugh out loud :)

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Also I would have thought that the verse beginning "Truly he taught us to love one another" was quite political :)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I it would have been when written, and the existence of a version that leaves out the slave completely is interesting! But now it is liable to fade into generic Victorian goodness, since embracing the slave isn't hard if it isn't a personal social issue you've got, whereas "God was talking to you, the powerful, get on your knees" is less spectacular but nonetheless pertinent and the sort of thing that Anglophone translations have form on dropping (see also Les Mis).

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

That line is a favourite of mine.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

Merry Christmas to you. :)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

And to you!