When I went home this Christmas, my parents were looking at a German hymn in their Carol book. It's an old family favorite, and my mother wanted us to sing it as a Christmas present for her aunt, who's recovering from Leukemia. It was the first time we'd attempted something classical together, but we're all choir nerds, so it only took a few sessions in front of the piano to get it down...
At first I didn't find the song that interesting, but when we got all four parts together, I melted like buttah.
The words are so sweet too. God comes down from the heavenly kingdom to be like us mortals...it softened the German language to me. I've sung in German in choir and lessons, but I don't have a strong relationship to it, unlike my parents. I still find it aggressive a lot of the time.
Michael was coming up from California to meet the fam on Christmas day, so I told my mom he could record us and help us Skype our song out. We were just deciding on whether to sing the words or sing on "doo's" and I suggested that yes, on the day my Jewish boyfriend meets my family we should bust some German out in 4-part harmony...
"Dad, what's the literal meaning of Himmel reich?"
"Umm...heavenly kingdom."
"K...just checkin."
At first I didn't find the song that interesting, but when we got all four parts together, I melted like buttah.
The words are so sweet too. God comes down from the heavenly kingdom to be like us mortals...it softened the German language to me. I've sung in German in choir and lessons, but I don't have a strong relationship to it, unlike my parents. I still find it aggressive a lot of the time.
Michael was coming up from California to meet the fam on Christmas day, so I told my mom he could record us and help us Skype our song out. We were just deciding on whether to sing the words or sing on "doo's" and I suggested that yes, on the day my Jewish boyfriend meets my family we should bust some German out in 4-part harmony...
"Dad, what's the literal meaning of Himmel reich?"
"Umm...heavenly kingdom."
"K...just checkin."
