Getting Into The Mood

[poliphilo]

My Christmas preparations this year largely consist in getting the house looking halfway decent. We had plans to go to my mother's- which would have been jolly- but I think the weather will stop us. Her part of the country is threatened with snow, snow and more snow- starting tomorrow evening. Last time there was heavy snow her house, which sits at the end of a long drive, was completely cut off. Not even the newspapers got through. 

Here we have snow and ice and temperatures below freezing. Ailz has a cold. Only it may not be a cold as much as an allergic reaction to all the dust.

Howard Goodall delivered a short history of the Christmas carol on TV last night. I already knew most of what he told us. One thing I didn't know was that in the early 19th century carols were seen as a bit too jolly for use in worship and the only one that was permitted to be sung in Anglican churches was "While Shepherds Watched"- which the higher powers let  through on account of it sticking so close to scripture. Of course a lot of parish churches simply thumbed their noses at the ruling. "While Shepherds Watched" is one of my least favourite carols- especially when it's sung to the tune of "Ilkla Moor Baht  'At",  because then it goes on forever. I like my carols pre-modern. The programme contains a complete and charming version of The Coventry Carol, sung by Bella Hardy.

Talking about Christmas carols, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has a good article this morning in which she wishes our "big" writers would skewer our heartless millionaire rulers the way Dickens skewered their equivalents a century and a half ago. 

I've decided, in the course of writing this post, that I need to put the Christmas tree up. I wasn't going to bother because of the state of the house, but thinking about carols and Dickens has shamed me.  I don't want to spend the season being glum. 

Comments

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

Dickens is brilliant. Great Expectations is one of my all time favourite books, but I also really enjoyed Barnaby Rudge, which is apparently a bit more obscure. Really good descriptive writing in Dickens, and I love his satire.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Dickens is one of the few writers I regularly re-read. My favourite is Little Dorrit.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you will have a tree after all.

Kate is coughing and coughing with a cold. I hope Ailz gets over hers soon.

We keep seeing pictures of the UK on the news--all the snow in London, for example.

(Did you see my post about my ex mother-in-law, who ventured outside during last week's ice storm in our town and died after hitting her head?)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I did, that's sad. But who can say whether a quick death like that is worse than a slow decline into decrepitude?

Britain is almost at a standstill- airports, railways, major roads; they're all affected by this weather. The latest news is that our region will be
having below zero temperatures tonight and tomorrow.

I hope Kate gets better for Christmas.

[humphreycobbler.livejournal.com]

I have an interesting CD of west gallery Christmas music from the early 19th century. About half of it is taken up with an astonishing number and variety of settings of "While Shepherds Watched." Now I know why! There's also an early setting of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" which uses the tune known as "Easter Hymn" or "Worgan" ("Jesus Christ is ris'n today.")

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That sounds like an intersting collection- though probably not for me on account of all those versions of WSWTFBN.

Does that version of HTHAS have an "alleluia" at every line ending?

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed that programme, although Bella Hardy might like to learn to sing with her eyes open sometimes. I'm inspired to pop into I-player to see if that folk programme is there with Bellowhead etc

I think that is a good call, not to go all the way to Kent, however picturesque it may look down there. I am sure a local shop will sell you a turkey and you can put your new kitchen to good use.

I'm pondering whether to try to get to rural Hampshire tomorrow to pick up the turkey and drop presents to Lovely Auntie. At the moment it doesn't seen too awful in that direction but I am a nervous driver in the snow.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The roads may look all right, but I'm hearing stories of motorways and major roads being blocked by jack-knifed lorries and the like. You really don't know what's out there.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I couldn't do without my Christmas tree.
:)
It's up and laden with 37 years worth of ornaments I've collected.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

One gets attached to ornaments....

My tree is up, but it doesn't have lights because they're broken.

[sovay]

One thing I didn't know was that in the early 19th century carols were seen as a bit too jolly for use in worship and the only one that was permitted to be sung in Anglican churches was "While Shepherds Watched"- which the higher powers let through on account of it sticking so close to scripture.

You know, I don't even think I can sing that one without hearing a few bars first.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of different tunes to choose from.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I like the pre-modern carols, too. My personal favourite is Gaudete...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's a belter.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Coventry is probably my favorite of all the Christmas carols. From the jolly end of the maudlin scale, I am rather fond of The Boar's Head Carol, too. It's such a fun sing-along.

My wife just finished reading Dickens's, "A Christmas Carol", yet again. I found her sitting in bed, bawling her eyes out a couple of days ago, with the Dover edition in her lap. Forgot to ask what had triggered the water works. I assumed that it was the scene in which Scrooge's fiancee breaks off their engagement and he just stands there, like an idiot, and lets her go. But it could have been any number of passages. It is one of those stories that reaches deep inside of the reader, plumbing the depths of whatever pain of alienation or loss one happens to have.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I haven't re-read it in ages. I should. I watched the 1951 movie with Alastair Sim last year and was surprised at how political it is.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Really?

I think I have seen but two cinematic Scrooge's: George C Scott's and Patrick Stewart's. The former production took more liberties with the text, but it was Scott, damn it, with David Warner as Cratchit and Frank Finlay as Marley's ghost.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

I always re-read the Dickens, and I've always had a tree, even when I lived in tiny rooms (I had a tiny tree then). I need those colored lights at this darkest season of the year -- imitative magic to encourage the sun to expand the light. Gifts, cards from friends from afar, special foods, special music sung ONLY at this time of year, everything helps us to turn the corner of Midwinter.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My attitude to Christmas veers about wildly. There have been years when I've done the Scrooge thing and tried to ignore it.
This year I'm going to do my best to have fun.