When I think of the songs of Christmas, it's not just one particular song that stands out. My mind and heart go to one particular song at one particular place at one particular time. In years past, our Cantata service has begun on several occasions with Angels We Have Heard On High. When that happens, I always try to get up to the balcony. From there, the confluence of choir and orchestra and organ and 600 voices make for a "joyful noise" that is simply overwhelming to me. In those instances, I can't even sing along; all I can do is stand and listen as "the mountains in reply, echo their joyous strains". If the angels sounded anything like this, it's no wonder that the shepherds ran to Bethlehem to see this thing that had come to pass.
While I love the lullabies of Christmas like Away in a Manger and Silent Night, it's the celebration songs that touch me the most and this one in particular. While we don't want to wake the baby, we can always go to the hills and sing with the angels.
So, if the perfect storm of song and place and time happens again and the balcony dwellers see me slip in, just go on singing. I'm just there to here angels rejoice.
Charlie Barton
Click here for a look at Angels We Have Heard on High from this year's Chancel Choir Cantata
Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o'er the plains,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains.
Refrain:
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why your joyous strains prolong?
What the gladsome tidings be
Which inspire your heav'nly song?
Come to Bethlehem and see
Him Whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord, the newborn King.
See Him in a manger laid,
Whom the choirs of angels praise;
Mary, Joseph, lend your aid,
While our hearts in love we raise.
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