It begins way too early for my liking these days, radio stations switching to “all Christmas, all the time” sometimes even before Halloween, not to mention Thanksgiving. It offends my sense of order. I like to keep definite boundaries around my holiday seasons, and hearing Christmas music in October is one of the ways those boundaries become mushy.
 
Truth told, I’m not fond of the playlists those radio stations choose anyway. I know they are considered standards in the holiday repertoire, but that gossip about Mommy Kissing Santa Claus is TMI.  And though I’m sorry about Grandma and her run-in with that reindeer, maybe she’s better left to rest in peace than have her sad story dredged up half a dozen times every day.
 
No, the Christmas music I like to hear – the music I NEED to hear – is not the cheesy old standbys or even the latest pop singers new holiday release. The Christmas music that feeds my soul with hope is the music that I’ve developed a history with, the music with a message that touches my heart, the music that comes to me every holiday season just as reliably as that north star, guiding my way out of despair and toward the light of hope.
 
Since I was very young, I’ve been playing music and singing in choirs. I’ve always had multiple performances to give at Christmas time, either at church or with the school choirs I accompanied or the handbell ensemble I perform with. Sometimes every weekend leading up to Christmas is jam packed with concerts. And since I’ve racked up about 50 years of performing, much of the music I play is more than familiar – it’s like a member of my family. Like family members, there are some pieces I’m excited to see pop up in the repertoire list: “O Come O Come Emmanuel! Great to see you again, it’s been too long!”
 
Others, I might wish had decided to visit someone else’s concert season instead of mine this year. “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas, you’re back already? Didn’t we just play you five years ago?”
 
There is one song I’m particularly grateful to see, because it’s a song that resonates with hope for me, both in it’s lyrics and melody, and in the memories I have of playing it over the years.
 
Henry David Longfellow wrote the words to I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day at a time of deep personal despair. His son was gravely wounded in the Civil War, his wife had died, and the country was torn apart from within by hatred and violence. His poem describes the evolution of his feelings about hearing the sound of bells peal for joy on Christmas morning, how “wide and sweet the words repeat/of peace on earth, good will to man.”
 
But grief and despair are difficult to overcome. In the arrangement of the song I’m playing with my handbell ensemble, the opening verse is in the normal major key, but changes to minor in the next verse. The chord progressions become fierce and strident, as if Longfellow were pounding his fist on the table with every word.
  It’s easy to identify with those feelings these days. The world is in turmoil once again – and really, isn’t it always? This time though, perhaps it hits closer to home for many of us than it often does.
 
But the song’s arranger, Cynthia Dobrinski, artfully leads us away from this angry declaration with a beautiful modulation into the major key before the final verse, which is rich and harmonious, using the full spectrum of available bells before finally ending in glorious peals of joy.
   
What could be more hopeful? The wrong shall fail, the right prevail/With peace on earth, good will to men. Every time we reach that point in the song, I literally heave a sigh of relief. I believe it. I have hope. The music led me there.
 
I haven’t played this piece in about five years, and this was the perfect year for it to make an appearance. It may not be as familiar as Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, or as high on the charts as Taylor Swift’s famous Last Christmas, but its message of hope is both timely, and timeless.
 
May you find similar harmonies of hope to cheer you during this Advent season of 2018.
 

Becca Rowan

 
 
*Although I don’t have a video of my own group, here is a link to another group performing this stunning arrangement of I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.