The Beauty of Christmas Music

Over on the Sharper Iron blog, they are running a thread on the "Worst Secular Christmas Songs." I would agree that folks in the secular music industry do miss the true message of Christmas. I suppose that when you don't have much insight into the spiritual side of why Jesus Christ was born 2000 years ago, you are probably going to focus on Santa, snow, and commercialism.

I am reminded of a discussion that I had with my good friend and mentor, Dr. Dwight Gustafson, during my freshman year at Bob Jones University. It was during the fall of 1967 that we were rehearsing Bach's Christmas Oratorio to be performed during Thanksgiving Week at BJU. I casually mentioned to Dr. Gus that I just had no idea that there was such beautiful music written for the Christmas Season. I was of course familiar with Handel's Messiah, and I had even played some Christmas music composed by Vivaldi during my high school years in Plymouth, Michigan. Dr. Gus wisely replied, "There's a lot more that you haven't even heard yet!" I think about that discussion every Christmas, particularly as I have had numerous opportunities to perform some incredibly beautiful Christmas music. Some of it is classical, as in Bach, Handel, Corelli, and Vivaldi, but some of it has been written and/or arranged by contemporary composers such as Rutter, Purifoy, and Lloyd Larson.

On December 4 and 5, Pillsbury Baptist Bible College presented A Candlelight Christmas, a Christmas cantata written by Benjamin Harlan and orchestrated by John Purifoy. We had performed this at Pillsbury about ten years ago, so it was nice to end our "Christmas at Pillsbury" concert cycle with this familiar and beautifully written cantata. It was also an emotional and fond farewell for our longtime choral director, Darrell Bevis. I have known Darrell for about thirty years, and he is one class act when it comes to selecting and performing appropriate Christian music. I am going to really miss performing with Darrell and my other Pillsbury musical colleagues.

Last Sunday evening (December 14), the choir and orchestra at Grace Baptist Church here in Owatonna performed Lloyd Larson's recent Christmas cantata, Holy Night of Miracles. Tom Lawson did a wonderful job of combining the forces of the choir and orchestra to communicate the true message of Christmas. As was true of Pillsbury's rendition of A Candlelight Christmas, Larson's text and music was a powerful example of what beautiful Christmas music is all about.

Which brings me back to Dr. Gus' wise observation: "There's a lot more that you haven't even heard yet!" I sincerely hope that you enjoy this Christmas Season, and I especially pray that you will indulge yourself in the beautiful music of Christmas.