Christmas Music
"Music is what feelings sound like." - unknown.
I do not know what the most popular Christmas song of all time is, but I read that Bing Crosby's White Christmas is the best-selling (over 50 million copies sold). I found that interesting. The song is wistful and nostalgic; it paints a picture of a human predicament that many can relate to. "A painting is music you can see, and music is a painting you can hear." - Miles Davis.
Songs are prayers that we throw out into the universe. They can be about any and everything, but Christmas songs often include words of wonder for the baby Jesus and his story. Looking at some of the most popular Christmas songs makes you realize that they aren't all songs of praise. There are songs of heartbreak (Blue Christmas), homesickness (I'll Be Home For Christmas), humor (Nuttin' for Christmas), and fun (Jingle Bells). The thing that these songs all have in common is their ability to make us feel. "Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought." - E.Y. Harburg.
As a mother, I have a hard time not tearing up every time I hear Mary Did You Know? It gives me all the feels. I will even listen to it periodically throughout the year. "Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks, and invents." - Ludwig van Beethoven. If you are not identifying with that song, I dare you not to feel anything when listening to the Carol of the Bells (especially when performed by Trans-Siberian Orchestra). "We don't have a language for the senses. Feelings are images, sensations are musical sound." - Anais Nin.
It is funny how different artists interpret music. I asked one of my sons what his favorite Christmas song was this year, and he told me O Come, O Come Emmanuel by Skillet. I listened to it, and it wasn't bad, if you like heavy metal music 😄. "Art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time." - Jean-Michel Basquiat. Musical styles come and go, and it is not often that grandparents, parents, and children like the same song, but it is different with some Christmas songs. This is because they are associative. When we hear certain songs, we associate them with people or activities. Maybe your grandfather liked to make you laugh by singing Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer or your family always listened to It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas while you trimmed the tree. These songs become traditions in your family because of the emotions they evoke. "We are mosaics- pieces of light, love, history, stars- glued together with magic and music and words." - Anita Krizzan.
Since we are feeling beings, full of emotions and thoughts, we can use music as a tool to help us in life. We can use it to spark memories. "Music imprints itself on the brain deeper than any other human experience. Music evokes emotion, and emotion can bring with it memory. Music brings back the feeling of life when nothing else can." - Dr. Oliver Sacks. We can use it to focus our non-stop brain chatter on something else. "The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought." - unknown. We can use it as a way to tell others what we are feeling. "If I send you a song, it is because the music made me think about you, or even deeper, it's helping me explain who I am to you in a way that I cannot." - unknown.
Not being able to put a voice to our feelings is an ongoing human problem. This is why music can give us such a sense of relief, as it often says exactly what we wish we could. "Music begins where the possibilities of language end." - Jean Sibelius. I hope that you get a chance to listen to your favorite Christmas music this year and that you can take the time to feel and appreciate the feelings that it stirs in your soul. As Jim Carey, while playing as the Grinch, says, "Blast this Christmas music! It's joyful AND triumphant."
Love and Hope,
Big Sky Baby