I meant to finish this mix a week ago on Christmas Day, but was too busy. A dystopian, haunting take on seasonal themes, cinema, shopping, church, people dying during the holidays, and especially inspired by the 1974 movie Black Christmas. I wanted to include a hymn I remember performing in 5th grade with my school choir at our Christmas program, but was only able to find the lyrics (below), and the minister who posted the piece didn’t credit the writer. The disappointment kind of sums up my feeling about the lost life/death poetry of a winter sacred time. On that note, Happy Holidays, everybody!
[DOWNLOAD]
- Caroline – Chrome [1976]
- Contrique – 808 State [1993]
- The Cherry Tree Carol – The Pentangle [1972]
- O Holy God – Maxim Berezovsky performed by the Kiev Chamber Choir [18th century]
- Monochrome Days – Thomas Leer & Robert Rental [1979]
- 39 Explosion Heats – 39 Clocks [1981]
- Nocturne No. 15 in F Minor, Op. 55, No. 1 – Frédéric Chopin [1842-44]
On the night when Christ was born,
In the starlight’s gleaming,
Sharp-speared thorn boughs in the shadow
Stirred with troubled dreaming
Of a cruel, piercing crown,
Of a King in death bowed down:
On the night when Christ was born,
And the glad song breaking,
Reeds about a marish pool,
As with long heart aching,
Wailed with pain of that far hour
When a reed should mock His power.
On the night when Christ was born,
To a bleak moon clinging,
Stood a grey, ungladdened wood
With the olives flinging
Writhen shadows—watchers dim
Of the tree which heareth Him.
Artwork: Photography and design by me