21 Dec 2007, 3:22 pm
21 Dec 2007, 3:27 pm
21 Dec 2007, 3:29 pm
21 Dec 2007, 3:52 pm
21 Dec 2007, 3:55 pm
21 Dec 2007, 4:13 pm
21 Dec 2007, 4:56 pm
21 Dec 2007, 10:40 pm
Dunno if it's the BEST, but it's the only one I made myself, with my very best wishes for Christmas: 
http://www.mp3crib.com/users/476-blitze ... _nacht.mp3 (I wrote it and own the copyright, so copy, distribute, hike it up the billboard Top 40 - whatever 
)
It will soon be Christmas, before you know it.
"Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht" - "Silent Night, holy night" my favorite carol of all time. It has a story. Apparently a little church somewhere the German speaking world was stricken by some kind of acute organ failure hours before Christmas. I don't know whether the organ failed within the church, or within the organist, but whichever, it was serious trouble. The Preacher got together with someone who played the guitar, or maybe he did himself, and within a few hours one of the most beautiful carols of all time was being sung, to a guitar.
I do not know how true that story is. My ex told it too me on Christmas night, last year. However the inspiration for "Heilige Nacht" preceded the telling of that story by some 18 hours.
Leading up to last Christmas it was all-out KALTKREIG!
Formal speaking terms only, a lot of listening to the old grandfather clock tick.
I think I miss that old clock more than I ever missed him. I had painstakingly restored the chimes, then gone over it with a fine tooth comb until I found and fixed the minute loose spring that had sentenced it to stand silent and still for years for the crime of making deeply weird noises at even weirder hours. Striking 13 would have been a relatively functional behavior before I began the therapy. I had to redamper it too, in case the people of the village of Schwarzhausen across the river did not appreciate the tone as much as I did. By the time I left it was keeping something like time for as long as 72 hours.
Christmas Eve came, as bad any ordinary day. The bells rang out at midnight, like I never heard bells before in my life. They were SO BEAUTIFUL, but nothing changed. I fell apart, it was exquisite heartbreak.
For some reason, around 3am, we seemed to make some kind of connection, as if it was all going to be fine after all. Too late for the bells, and Hollywood-style pat perfection, though.
At first I could hardly believe my ears, at 3:30am in the distance, another peal of bells began. They rang for an hour. There is no tradition or precedent for this. I never did learn the explanation. The Swiss are REALLY resistant to noise outside certain hours. There are even laws restricting it.
It was as if I had REALLY got a Christmas miracle, the one I'd longed for since I was a child and never had. Something that would make it all right, balance the hurt of the years, something to be glad to be alive for.
It was only another illusion, of course. I think I left within 3 weeks.
Anyway, I found a funny little melody hiding down the cracks of tiny "virtual keyboard".
Ever wonder how I come up with melodies?
I always wondered how people did. Now I have fallen into a pattern.
I mess with a tiny "virtual keyboard" on screen. Then, maybe after ten seconds, or 2 hours I HAVE FOUND ONE. Go diving for an old empty diary, 1985, and frantically scribble down the note sequence. I can write on a clef but I can't be bothered ruling the lines. One day I must invest in some sheet manuscript paper, ready ruled.
Once I have found a melody, the REAL work begins on the sequencer. I can't quite "sight" read or write music yet, though I get better every time, so the next step is to work out the timing of the notes on the sequencer program. I could do it on a clef, but it's smaller and not so graphic to my mind. The basic melody for "Heilige Nacht" is six bars with a second variation that makes twelve. I usually work in fours and eights for some reason, but this one is different.
When I have that basic melody, it's time to dress it up, listen to what the melody is trying say, and where it wants to go. "Heilige Nacht" insisted on going to some wonderful places and bringing me along too.
I realized maybe there was a way to share the wonderful feeling of those bells in the middle of the night. When the whole world seemed to be asleep. Because it was a wonderful feeling, even if it wasn't true that very night, and even if it isn't true today. That doesn't mean it will never be true.
I think I did it.
When I first heard something like a full version of "Heilige Nacht" I wound up sitting here, on a miserable wet Irish morning, crying my eyes out.
Because I realized, as soon as I had the basics of that piece to listen to, the miracle had come true for me, after all.
Just not in the way I expected.
"Heilige Nacht" is the song of the bells that warn of Christmas miracles. Don't forget to have one to go with it, will you?
Have a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS, as many times a year as you possibly can. Every day is probably best of all.
M
22 Dec 2007, 12:09 am
Sorry I couldn't seem to work the link for the song, i'll keep trying. We have an old clock, not worth anything, but its a family airloon, its ticking away now. Merry Christmas to you too.
22 Dec 2007, 10:18 am
LeKiwi
Veteran
Joined: 26 Nov 2007
Age: 38
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,444
Location: The murky waters of my mind...
22 Dec 2007, 12:32 pm
Douglas_MacNeill
Veteran
Joined: 10 May 2007
Age: 60
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,326
Location: Edmonton, Alberta
22 Dec 2007, 8:23 pm
Just to be different:
My favorite Christmas song would be
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.
Merry Christmas anyway
27 Dec 2007, 5:12 am
My favorite Christmas song would be
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.
Merry Christmas anyway
That's my favorite, too!
Tim
29 Dec 2007, 10:21 am
29 Dec 2007, 12:02 pm
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