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Hark! Songs For Christmas - Vol. II
''Songs for Christmas'' (stylized as ''Sufjan Stevens Presents Songs for Christmas'' on the cover) is a box set of five separate EPs of Christmas-related songs and carols recorded by independent musician Sufjan Stevens between 2001 and 2006. The EPs had been given as gifts to friends and family of Stevens over the past six years, except for 2004 when he was too busy recording the ''Illinois'' album. Though the first three EPs had already been available on Sufjan Stevens-related fansites for several years, ''Songs for Christmas'' is the first official release of these EPs. Most of the tracks are versions of traditional Christmas songs, with a number of original compositions such as "Sister Winter" and "Star of Wonder". Sufjan Stevens has developed a reputation for being a devoted Christian and many of the songs he chose for inclusion on ''Songs for Christmas'' are religious in nature, including his original compositions. The box set includes a poster of Sufjan Stevens, an animated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens ( ; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released ten solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nominations. His debut album, ''A Sun Came'', was released in 2000 on the Asthmatic Kitty label, which he co-founded with his stepfather. He received wide recognition for his 2005 album ''Illinois (Sufjan Stevens album), Illinois'', which hit number one on the Billboard charts, ''Billboard'' Top Heatseekers chart, and for the single "Chicago (Sufjan Stevens song), Chicago" from that album. Stevens later contributed to the soundtrack of the 2017 film ''Call Me by Your Name (film), Call Me by Your Name''. He received an 90th Academy Awards, Academy Award nomination for Academy Award for Best Original Song, Best Original Song and a Grammy nomination for Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media, Best Song Written for Visual Media for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silent Night
"Silent Night" () is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ... in 2011. The song was first recorded in 1905 and has remained a popular success, appearing in films and multiple successful recordings, as well as being quoted in other musical compositions. It is one of the most recorded Christmas songs, with more than 137,000 known recordings. History "" was first performed on Christmas Eve, 1818, at the Nikolauskirche, Oberndorf, Nikolauskirche, the parish church of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Oberndorf, a village in the Austrian Empire on the Salzach river in present-day Austria. A youn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cecil Frances Alexander
Cecil Frances Alexander (April 1818 – 12 October 1895) was an Anglo-Irish hymnwriter and poet. Amongst other works, she wrote "All Things Bright and Beautiful", " There is a green hill far away" and the Christmas carol "Once in Royal David's City". Biography Alexander was born at 25 Eccles Street, Dublin, the third child and second daughter of Major John Humphreys of Norfolk (land-agent to 4th Earl of Wicklow and later to the second Marquess of Abercorn), and his wife Elizabeth (née Reed). She was known by family and friends as Fanny. She began writing verse in her childhood, being strongly influenced by Dr Walter Hook, Dean of Chichester. Her subsequent religious work was strongly influenced by her contacts with the Oxford Movement, and in particular with John Keble, who edited ''Hymns for Little Children'', one of her anthologies. By the 1840s she was already known as a hymn writer and her compositions were soon included in Church of Ireland hymnbooks. She also contrib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Once In Royal David's City
Once in Royal David's City is a Christmas carol originally written as a poem by Cecil Frances Alexander. The carol was first published in 1848 in her hymnbook ''Hymns for Little Children''. A year later, the English organist Henry Gauntlett discovered the poem and set it to music. History ''Hymns for Little Children'' was a collection of poems aimed to elucidate parts of the Apostles' Creed for use in Sunday schools or in the home; "Once in Royal David's City" told the story of the nativity of Jesus to illuminate "born of the Virgin Mary". Other well-known hymns in the collection included " All Things Bright and Beautiful" (on the subject of " maker of Heaven and Earth") and " There is a green hill far away" (on " Was crucified dead and buried"). Alexander was married to the Anglican clergyman William Alexander, who became Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, and after her death became Archbishop of Armagh. Her most famous poems are commemorated in a memorial window at St Columb's C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Saw Three Ships
"I Saw Three Ships (Come Sailing In)" is an English Christmas carol, listed as number 700 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The earliest printed version of "I Saw Three Ships" is from the 17th century, possibly Derbyshire, and was also published by William Sandys in 1833. The song was probably traditionally known as "As I Sat On a Sunny Bank", and was particularly popular in Cornwall. Lyrics The modern lyrics are from an 1833 version by the English lawyer and antiquarian William Sandys, and consist of nine verses. The lyrics mention the ships sailing into Bethlehem, but the nearest body of water is the Dead Sea about away. The reference to three ships is thought to originate in the three ships that bore the purported relics of the Biblical Magi to Cologne Cathedral in the 12th century. Another possible reference is to Wenceslaus II, King of Bohemia, who bore a coat of arms "Azure three galleys argent". Another suggestion is that the ships are actually the camels used by the M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Robinson (Baptist)
Robert Robinson (27 September 1735 – 9 June 1790) was an English Dissenter, influential Baptist and scholar who made a lifelong study of the antiquity and history of Christian Baptism. He authored many published works in his lifetime, his work on baptism, ''History of Baptism and Baptists'', appearing the year of his death. His many written works have been collected, and include ''Arcana, or the Principles of the Late Petitioners to Parliament for Relief in the Matter of Subscription'' (1774), and ''A Plea for the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ in a Pastoral Letter to a Congregation of Protestant Dissenters at Cambridge'' (1776). He was also author of the hymns, '' Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing'' (1758), which he wrote at age 22 after converting to Methodism, and ''Mighty God, While Angels Bless Thee'' (1774) which was set to music by organist John Randall of Cambridge University. Early life Robert Robinson was born in Swaffham in Norfolk, on 27 September 1735, to Mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing
"Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" is a Christian hymn written by the pastor and hymnodist Robert Robinson, who penned the words in 1757 at age 22.Later in life, he wandered from his faith. A young woman used this hymn to encourage him to return to the Lord. Tunes In the United States, the hymn is usually set to an American folk tune known as "Nettleton", which first appears in ''Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second'' (1813), possibly collected by Elkanah Kelsey Dare, who was the musical editor ( John Wyeth himself was a printer). The tune appears on page 112 in F major for two voices (tenor and bass), with a revival chorus (Hallelujah, Hallelujah, we are on our journey home); the facing page has another musical setting ("Concert") in A minor without any chorus. Asahel Nettleton also published music, so some attribute his namesake tune directly to him. In the United Kingdom, the hymn is also often set to the tune "Normandy" by C Bost. The "Nettleton" tune is u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angels We Have Heard On High
"Angels We Have Heard on High" is a Christmas carol to the hymn tune "Gloria" from a traditional French song of unknown origin called "", with paraphrased English lyrics by James Chadwick. The song's subject is the birth of Jesus Christ as narrated in the Gospel of Luke, specifically the scene outside Bethlehem in which shepherds encounter a multitude of angels singing and praising the newborn child. Tune "Angels We Have Heard on High" is generally sung to the hymn tune "Gloria", a traditional French carol as arranged by Edward Shippen Barnes. Its most memorable feature is its chorus, "Gloria in excelsis Deo", where the "o" of "Gloria" is fluidly sustained through 16 notes of a rising and falling melismatic melodic sequence. ''Les Anges dans nos campagnes'' is sung to a similar tune known as "Iris". This tune takes its name from the newspaper associated with James Montgomery, who wrote " Angels from the Realms of Glory", the version of this carol normally sung in the United ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Newton
John Newton (; – 21 December 1807) was an English evangelical Anglican cleric and slavery Abolitionism, abolitionist. He had previously been a captain of slave ships and an investor in the slave trade. He served as a sailor in the Royal Navy (after forced recruitment) and was himself enslaved for a time in West Africa. He is noted for being author of the hymns ''Amazing Grace'' and ''Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken''. Newton went to sea at a young age and worked on slave ships in the Atlantic slave trade, slave trade for several years. In 1745, he himself became a slave of Princess Peye, a woman of the Sherbro people in what is now Sierra Leone. He was rescued, returned to sea and the trade, becoming Captain of several slave ships. After retiring from active sea-faring, he continued to invest in the slave trade. Some years after experiencing a conversion to Christianity during his rescue, Newton later renounced his trade and became a prominent supporter of Abolitionism in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amazing Grace
"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn written in 1772 and published in 1779 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is possibly the most sung and most recorded hymn in the world, and especially popular in the United States, where it is used for both religious and secular purposes. Newton wrote the words from personal experience; he grew up without any particular religious conviction, but his life's path was formed by a variety of twists and coincidences that were often put into motion by others' reactions to what they took as his recalcitrant insubordination. He was pressed into service with the Royal Navy, and after leaving the service, he became involved in the Atlantic slave trade. In 1748, a violent storm battered his vessel off the coast of County Donegal, Ireland, so severely that he called out to God for mercy. While this moment marked his spiritual conversion, he continued slave trading until 1754 or 1755, when he ended his seafaring alt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Bacchus Dykes
John Bacchus Dykes (10 March 1823 – 22 January 1876) was an English clergyman and hymnwriter. Early life He was born in Hull, England, the fifth child and third son of William Hey Dikes or Dykes, a ship builder, and Elizabeth, daughter of Bacchus Huntington, a surgeon of Sculcoates, Yorkshire, and granddaughter of the Rev. William Huntington, Vicar of Kirk Ella. His paternal grandparents were the Rev. Thomas Dykes of Hull, and Mary, daughter of William Hey. He was also a cousin of the Rev. George Huntington. Dykes was a younger brother of the poet and hymnwriter Eliza Alderson, and wrote tunes for at least four of her hymns. William Hey Dikes in 1812 entered a shipbuilding partnership with William Barnes of Hull, Barnes, Dikes & King. They launched the ''Ferraby'' at their yard at Wincolmlee on the River Hull in 1815. Dikes, King & Co. launched the ''Zoroaster'' at Hull in 1818. By the age of 10, John Bacchus Dikes played the organ aSt John's Churchin Myton, Hull, wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Es Ist Ein Ros Entsprungen
"" () is a Christmas carol and Marian hymn of German origin. It is most commonly translated into English as "Lo, how a rose e'er blooming" and is also called "A Spotless Rose" and "Behold a Rose of Judah". The rose in the German text is a symbolic reference to the Virgin Mary. The hymn makes reference to the Old Testament prophecies of Isaiah, which in Christian interpretation foretell the Incarnation of Jesus, and to the Tree of Jesse, a traditional symbol of the lineage of Jesus. Because of its prophetic theme, the hymn is popular during the Christian season of Advent. The hymn has its roots in an unknown author before the 17th century. It first appeared in print in 1599 in Cologne and has since been published with a varying number of verses and in several translations. It is most commonly sung to a melody harmonized by the German composer Michael Praetorius in 1609. The hymn's popularity endures in the 20th and 21st centuries. Meaning The hymn was originally written with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
