Seems like everyone is jumping on the Christmas recording bandwagon these days. Chipmunks. Muppets. Opera singers. Rock stars. Some of their musical offerings succeed (some cuts off of Sting's IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT are quite lovely!); some, not so much (we won't name names).
Yet, if you ask me what my favorite Christmas song is, my answer might surprise you. It doesn't have a complicated melody. It doesn't have flash and a complex rhythmic structure. It is hauntingly simple. Many think it came from an anonymous Appalachian source. However, it was actually penned in 1933 by the folklorist and singer, John Jacob Nile. According to Ron Pen in his book, "A Kentucky Christmas" (University Press of Kentucky, 2003, pp. 200-201), Niles heard a young girl named Annie Morgan, sing a repeated line of music at a religious meeting in the Appalachians (North Carolina). She was beautiful but obviously very poor. But, according to Pen, she could sing and Niles took those brief lines and came up with the tune that we now know as "I wonder as I wander".
I have a very strong childhood memory. One of the things I would love to do was to slip out of the house after a snowfall at dusk. Everything was blanketed with snow and sound was muffled; lights were kind of impressionistic in their quality. And I wanted to be the first to walk in the blank snow canvas. Then I'd sit on the swingset, looking back at my footprints, and sing this song. Or maybe I didn't sing it and I only now superimpose that song on that memory. Either way, the song is my favorite. The lyrics are:
1. I wonder as I wander out under the sky,How Jesus the Savior did come for to die.For poor on'ry people like you and like I...I wonder as I wander out under the sky.
2. When Mary birthed Jesus 'twas in a cow's stall,With wise men and farmers and shepherds and all.But high from God's heaven a star's light did fall,And the promise of ages it then did recall.
3. If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing,A star in the sky, or a bird on the wing,Or all of God's angels in heav'n for to sing,He surely could have it, 'cause he was the King.
And, if you will forgive this indulgence, I've included a link where you can hear my childhood favorite singer, Barbra Streisand, singing this song. It is followed by a link where you can hear the New York Voices perform the same song (much jazzier version). They are sent out to you tonight as we anticipate the celebration of the birth of our Lord. Peace and Love to you all.
