Hosanna in Excelsis

 Hosanna in Excelsis by David and Barbara Leeman is a nicely bound book of Christmas carols with individual short histories of their composition and  contemplations of the message of the carols themselves. 

There are many familiar carols, O Holy Night, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Away In A Manger…etc.  And some new ones.  The summarized biographies of the authors and composers were quite interesting too.  Sometimes the information was quite tantalizing, leaving you wanting to know more about the author, and for others it was more disappointing to hear the background, though in some cases discouraging.  "O Holy Night" has been a favorite carol of my family, but the background behind it was anything but inspiring ,"Written by a man with little belief in the Christmas story, put to music by a nonbelieving Jewish musician, and translated by a liberal theologian….".  We of course, still really like the song, I suppose it just goes to show that you can have head knowledge of Christianity without being a Christian, without being a "new Creation".

 There were also a few songs that were new to me that I found quite inspiring, like "The Hands that First Held Mary's Child",  I found this part of the third stanza of that song was quite stirring:   "This child shall be Emmanuel, not God upon the throne, but God with us, Emmanuel, as close as blood and bone…". Interesting way to describe God's unique choice of how He would demonstrate that He is 'with us'.   And then in "Joy Has Dawned Upon the World", Son of Adam, Son of heav'n, given as a ransom; reconciling God and man, Christ our mighty Champion! What a Savior! What a Friend! What a glorious myst'ry."  

I really appreciated the concern with the biblical accuracy of songs. For instance, They make sure to point out that the author of The First Noel probably wasn't very well instructed in the Bible, as they had the Shepherds see the star, which the Bible does not indicate.  

Most of all, I really liked how they really wanted you to contemplate what you are singing, that you are not just singing for nostalgia but proclaiming profound truths/concepts. In the contemplation of one of Charles Wesley's carols they comment, "As is characteristic of the hymns of Charles Wesley, every phrase is packed with Theology and allusions to or quotations of scripture…(list of vs.)…Reading each one before you sing will give you a deeper appreciation of songs written from Scripture rather than simply from personal experience or emotions." 

I really like this book, this is not merely a sentimentally pleasing look at Christmas Carols, it directs ones thought truly to the implications of what these songs are addressing, which brings more than sentimentality, it brings awe and chills to think of God's amazing work of salvation.

I'll end with an excerpt from the book's contemplation of "What Child is This?": "Notice that the first two stanzas ask two profound questions, 'Who?' and 'Why?' The first, 'What child is this?' is rhetorical, a way of asking 'who is this one?' Although you know the answer, you sing as an expression of wonder and awe, a way of saying, 'this appears to good to be true!' Is this baby on Mary's lap really Christ the King? The 'why?' follows: Why would God in Jesus come to earth 'in such mean estate' (a lowly place)? And why would 'nails, spear…pierce him through'? A false view of Christmas expects Christmas songs to be only lullabies of happy thoughts.  Think of secular Christmas songs.  While a few are melancholy, can you think of any that speak of death or tragedies.  We understand the nativity is only the beginning of the story.  We cannot stop at the stable.  David Mathis writes: 'The light and joy of Christmas are hollow at best, and even horrifying if we sever the link between Bethlehem and Golgotha…'Nails, spear shall pierce him through' doesn't ruin Christmas. It gives the season its power."

Many Thanks to the folks at MP Newsroom for sending me a free review copy of this book! My review did not have to be favorable.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

This book may be purchased at Christianbook.com

And at Amazon.com

The Carols of Christmas - Andrew Gant

The Carols of Christmas by Andrew Gant goes through various popular carols of Christmas and tells some of their intricate, and often confusing, history.  You may not come out of the book wiser than when you started it about who wrote such and such a carol but Gant himself warns of this in the intro:  "…if you occasionally get to the end of a chapter in this book slightly unsure about who wrote words or tunes or bits of either, me too…." Apparently we don't know exactly who wrote some of the songs, and many of them were revised from their original written form. 

One of the histories I found particularly interesting was that of Hark the Herald Angels Sing, originally Hark How all the Welkin Rings' by Charles Wesley.  Apparently George Whitefield was one of the people who revised the song, one of the verses he changed was "universal nature say 'Christ the Lord is born today!'" to "With th'Angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem!'"  I found it interesting that Mendelssohn, the man who composed the music that was eventually used for the words, didn't think that the tune was fit for religious songs and that it would "never do for sacred words.  There must be a national and merry subject found out…" Nowadays it would be hard for me to picture it put to secular words!

Gant's style of writing is a bit confusing at times, he strikes me as trying too hard to be casual, which doesn't always flow very well in my opinion. Also some of his statements were a bit weird, for instance, his comment, "the most potent force in the shaping of human destinies: luck", and then again, when speaking of the original lines of Wesley's hymn, cited above, "universal nature say…" he declares that , "…there is something gloriously inclusive, almost pantheistic…in Wesley's lines…much better than Whitefield's replacement." Statements like that seem a bit odd for a Christian to say.  There were several songs where I had wished that he would have dealt more with the history of the wording and meaning of the words  but he focused on the development/ evolution of the commonly used tune (or tunes) for the carol instead.

All in all it was a bit confusing, and I think it could have been written a lot better than it is, but it did have interesting tidbits of carol history in it, and the cover is pretty and feels neat!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the BookLook blogging program in exchange for my review, which did not have to be favorable.

I rate this book at 3 out of 5 stars.