Reporter’s note: The third installment follows of a fourpart series delving into the role of Jesus Christ in how we celebrate Christmas. Previous stories dealt with Christ’s use of food and feasts in reaching the hearts of people and how in local schools free speech rights are tempered by the separation of church and state by the First Amendment. This week attention turns to Christ’s presence in Christmas songs new and old.
“I think they are up to the task, but that’s an awful lot to ask of them.”
That’s the thought of Suttons Bay resident Shelagh Fehrenbach, who is saddened at the diminished presence of Christmas music based on the birth of Jesus Christ. She notes that with fewer people attending church, traditional Christmas songs play a heightened role in introducing people of all ages to the story of the first Christmas.
Pastor Jerry Lange, who writes and records his own Christian music, agrees. He joins his wife, Bobbie, who is organist and music director at Northport Covenant Church, in leading the faithful during Sunday services.
“We’ve discovered a lot of kids, including those who come to church, don’t know the words to important songs like ‘Away in a Manger.’ Bobbie is careful to teach those words because a lot of them don’t know the words or the story,” Lange said.
While many contemporary Christmas songs speak of Jesustaught values such as love for neighbors (“Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas”) and compassion toward others (“Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer), few speak of Jesus himself. The most down-loaded Christmas song of all time is “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” recorded in 1994 by Mariah Carey, according to Billboard. A list of best-selling holiday singles gets down to No. 14 before a version of “Mary Did You Know” recorded in 2014 by the a cappella group Pentatonix appears.
The only non-secular song to make the most-downloaded list is Christmas Eve/Sarajavo by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which illustrates Lange’s concern. It’s an energetic orchestra arrangement of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” with no words.
“I think it would be good for society as a whole to have more religious Christmas music. I watch television commercials because I think they offer clues about pop culture. Commercials tend to have the melodies of Christmas songs without the words while they try to sell you everything from perfume to beer. I do think we are losing something,” Lange said.
Margaret Bell is perhaps best known in the county for directing the Leelanau Children’s Choir/ Leelanau Youth Ensemble. She is also director of music and worship at Leland Community United Methodist Church, and teaches piano and voice from her private studio.
The selections performed by the choirs have served as a bastion for Christmas music that for centuries has inspired Christians and brought others into the faith.
“We’re typically using 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th century text that’s set to music about the Christmas story. Hallmark didn’t invent Christmas … We get lost walking in a winter wonderland while Christmas started way before that. It’s rooted in this beautiful Biblical, Christian story. We’ve changed that, but I love the opportunity to teach and hear that (earlier) music,” Bell said.
One of her favorites is the “Angel Gabriel”, a Christmas folk carol originating in the 13th or 14th century in Basque Country that straddles the border between France and Spain. The song tells the story of the angel who told Mary that she was carrying the son of God.
“I’ve heard it by the King’s Choir (of King’s College, Cambridge) and I’ve heard it by Sting. I just love it,” Bell said.
The Children’s Choir and Leelanau Youth Ensemble are funded through a non-profit corporation. and provided rehearsal and concert space by LCUMC. The musical groups perform concerts in early June and December. Bell said selections for the Christmas concert come from an era when Christian life melded with the music world; the ageless pieces continue to please audiences.
“People come up to me after the concert in tears. They love the words, the music. They love what we are doing, and the music and words are beautiful,” Bell said.
In her long experience with the groups, she has encountered only one parent who objected to the Christian-influenced melodies.
“Years and years ago there was a parent who wasn’t comfortable with them. That was not what they believed, what they taught their children. In the spring we have more of a secular concert. It balances itself out for people who are uncomfortable. It works. In 31 years there has only been one family with a concern,” Bell said.
Christmas music has moved far from its roots, she believes, which makes the music of centuries ago all the more important to preserve.
“That’s where Christmas was. That’s where Christmas is. The current text comes from us changing Christmas. The world took over Christmas music. A lot of the earlier music was based on God, and we changed that,” Bell said.
Fehrenbach, who is elementary principal at Suttons Bay Public School, joined other members of Keswick United Methodist Church on Sunday caroling at the homes of older church members, including shut-ins.
“We sang ‘Jingle Bells,’ and we sang ‘Away in a Manger’ with my church family. We finished every house with ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ … it felt like we were doing Christ’s work on the porch in the rain. Christmas music has a way to connect moments magically,’” she said.
Fehrenbach finds herself always singing, sometimes spontaneously with her three daughters ages six-through-12 (“My kids have been laughing at me this week because I’m singing, ‘We fish you a harry Christmas”) , and some times with her husband, Jordon, in front of the Keswick congregation.
She’s a member of the Leelanau Community Choir, whose Christmas concerts earlier this month were held at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Leland; Suttons Bay Congregational Church and at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Glen Arbor. The choir performed “Sing We Now of Christmas,” which entailed learning a 51-song medley of favorites from “Angels We Have Heard on High” to “Joy to the World.”
Her favorite song lyrics are often overshadowed. They comprise the second verse of “O Holy Night,” a part of which reads, “In all our trials born to be our friend; He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger.”
“I think those traditional carols, the carols about the Christmas story, are the heart of Christmas. I think those carols are sometimes the only reminder we get. Especially those ones that make us stop thinking about what we’re going to buy someone for Christmas and start thinking about caring for others,” she said.
Added Lange, “The beauty of the story softens our hearts. The humble birth in a manger. The angels singing to shepherds. God staged it so beautifully that it touches us.”
