12/23/16 Our Special Holiday Program
Posted by Ben Lowry
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On Christmas eve-eve, we celebrated the holidays at our own Holiday Inn. As usual, our club historian extraordinaire, Russ Burleigh, was at the podium, with the talented Kathy Grammer tickling the ivories and offering her skilled voice as accompaniment.
The theme of the program was “The Bells of Christmas” and we were provided with a combination of history lesson and sing-along that got the large crowd into the Christmas spirit, with an acknowledgement to other celebrations within our club, the nation and the larger planet. It was interesting that the bells of Christmas were originally used to ward off evil spirits, but became intertwined with the Christian holiday in the many, many songs that have become part of the lexicon of Christmas.
“Ding Dong Merrily on High,” first published in 1589 as a dance instruction tune, was updated in the 1800’s and has become a holiday favorite. After warming the room with our voices on that piece, Kathy tried to get us to join her in singing “Kling Glockchen Kling,” a German holiday song. Our effort was strong, but the results were lacking. “Sliver Bells” was a vast improvement. Written for the movie, “The Lemondrop Kid,” starring Bob Hope, the song became an instant hit…but not as big as “Jingle Bell Rock,” which has become one of the most popular songs in history. Our Rotary chorus nailed each of these and felt increasingly confident as Russ continued on. When he began discussing “Campana Sobre Compana,” a Spanish tune, we were brought back to the reality that all of us need to maintain our day jobs.
Russ introduced us to the controversy that has swirled around “Jingle Bells” since 1857, when James Lord Piermont wrote the popular tune. Both Medford, Massachusetts and Savannah, Georgia claim to have been the “birthplace” of the song, which interestingly was the first song played in space, in 1965. There has been no resolution to the dispute, but we New Englanders adopt the “snowier” explanation of Medford.
“The Bells of Finland” was followed by a fascinating description of how “I heard The Bells on Christmas Day” was written by Portland’s own Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Kathy gave us a warm rendition of the song and we concluded our meeting with a sign-a-long of “Silver Bells,” which allowed us all to leave the meeting and head out into the cold with the warmth of Christmas bells chiming in our heads.
Many thanks to Russ and Kathy….and a very happy holiday season to us all!
The theme of the program was “The Bells of Christmas” and we were provided with a combination of history lesson and sing-along that got the large crowd into the Christmas spirit, with an acknowledgement to other celebrations within our club, the nation and the larger planet. It was interesting that the bells of Christmas were originally used to ward off evil spirits, but became intertwined with the Christian holiday in the many, many songs that have become part of the lexicon of Christmas.“Ding Dong Merrily on High,” first published in 1589 as a dance instruction tune, was updated in the 1800’s and has become a holiday favorite. After warming the room with our voices on that piece, Kathy tried to get us to join her in singing “Kling Glockchen Kling,” a German holiday song. Our effort was strong, but the results were lacking. “Sliver Bells” was a vast improvement. Written for the movie, “The Lemondrop Kid,” starring Bob Hope, the song became an instant hit…but not as big as “Jingle Bell Rock,” which has become one of the most popular songs in history. Our Rotary chorus nailed each of these and felt increasingly confident as Russ continued on. When he began discussing “Campana Sobre Compana,” a Spanish tune, we were brought back to the reality that all of us need to maintain our day jobs.
Russ introduced us to the controversy that has swirled around “Jingle Bells” since 1857, when James Lord Piermont wrote the popular tune. Both Medford, Massachusetts and Savannah, Georgia claim to have been the “birthplace” of the song, which interestingly was the first song played in space, in 1965. There has been no resolution to the dispute, but we New Englanders adopt the “snowier” explanation of Medford.
“The Bells of Finland” was followed by a fascinating description of how “I heard The Bells on Christmas Day” was written by Portland’s own Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Kathy gave us a warm rendition of the song and we concluded our meeting with a sign-a-long of “Silver Bells,” which allowed us all to leave the meeting and head out into the cold with the warmth of Christmas bells chiming in our heads.
Many thanks to Russ and Kathy….and a very happy holiday season to us all!