Jim and I are sitting in our respective cubes in our joint office listening to Christmas music. It's Christmas Eve Eve and tonight I had the privilege of singing with the worship band at church, and now my husband is treating me to the sounds of childhood.
Since a first-grader I have spent the bulk of the Yuletide season preparing for a performance of some kind or another. As a child it was the all-school Christmas Program, for which much preparation took place. It seemed that for weeks and WEEEKKKSS classes were suspended for the joy of sitting in church in intense boredom until it was time for whatever group I was in to do its thing and then back to boredom in the pews. But, I remember, even as a young kid, being rocked by the emotion of the performance: being in front of a packed church, spotlights on, and hoping/praying that I would/could remember all of the lines or lyrics of whatever we were doing at the time. And loving every minute of it.
Then, the high school years.
Unless weather intervenes, the second Tuesday of December sees the flocking of many local citizens to the rotunda of the state capitol building, literally camping out in order to get good seats, to listen to several hundred high school kids from our city's high school involved in choir and orchestra perform some of the world's most beautiful and treasured Christmas music. The event, Capitol Caroling, is many decades old and is a landmark event in our city's historical legend.
My freshman year in high school was Capitol Caroling's 38th year (I may be inaccurate on this). Our director, Carl E. Burkel, performed as a young boy in the very first performance and as of 1978, my freshman year, had been the director for many years, including when my parents were in high school. Everything I learned about vocal music performance I learned from Mr. Burkel. It is because of him that I can't hear "O, Silent Night" or "O, Holy Night" without breaking down.
Looking back, I am proud of those years, those performances. Learning how to make vowels match, how to drive a director nuts while tuning a choir body of more than 300 voices, how to run amok on a solemn, sedate building of government and make it ours for a night. I couldn't have said so then, but we really rocked that building from 1978 to 1981 with some excellent voices and musicians. To have been a part of that it something I treasure for the gift it was.
So I'm grown now and other experiences replace what was then, events that have their own unique richness and tradition, including playing Christmas songs on the keyboards for my children as they prepare for bed. Not a sellout performance for sure, but maybe one day my kids will remember them as the same cherished, running theme that has been present throughout my life.
Adeste fideles,
laeti triumphantes;
venite, venite in Bethlehem;
natum videte regem angelorum.
venite, adoremus Dominum.
Since a first-grader I have spent the bulk of the Yuletide season preparing for a performance of some kind or another. As a child it was the all-school Christmas Program, for which much preparation took place. It seemed that for weeks and WEEEKKKSS classes were suspended for the joy of sitting in church in intense boredom until it was time for whatever group I was in to do its thing and then back to boredom in the pews. But, I remember, even as a young kid, being rocked by the emotion of the performance: being in front of a packed church, spotlights on, and hoping/praying that I would/could remember all of the lines or lyrics of whatever we were doing at the time. And loving every minute of it.
Then, the high school years.
Unless weather intervenes, the second Tuesday of December sees the flocking of many local citizens to the rotunda of the state capitol building, literally camping out in order to get good seats, to listen to several hundred high school kids from our city's high school involved in choir and orchestra perform some of the world's most beautiful and treasured Christmas music. The event, Capitol Caroling, is many decades old and is a landmark event in our city's historical legend.
My freshman year in high school was Capitol Caroling's 38th year (I may be inaccurate on this). Our director, Carl E. Burkel, performed as a young boy in the very first performance and as of 1978, my freshman year, had been the director for many years, including when my parents were in high school. Everything I learned about vocal music performance I learned from Mr. Burkel. It is because of him that I can't hear "O, Silent Night" or "O, Holy Night" without breaking down.
Looking back, I am proud of those years, those performances. Learning how to make vowels match, how to drive a director nuts while tuning a choir body of more than 300 voices, how to run amok on a solemn, sedate building of government and make it ours for a night. I couldn't have said so then, but we really rocked that building from 1978 to 1981 with some excellent voices and musicians. To have been a part of that it something I treasure for the gift it was.
So I'm grown now and other experiences replace what was then, events that have their own unique richness and tradition, including playing Christmas songs on the keyboards for my children as they prepare for bed. Not a sellout performance for sure, but maybe one day my kids will remember them as the same cherished, running theme that has been present throughout my life.
Adeste fideles,
laeti triumphantes;
venite, venite in Bethlehem;
natum videte regem angelorum.
venite, adoremus Dominum.
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