About 100 Christmas revelers gathered at the Trinity Lutheran Church, 3536 YMCA Drive, at noon Saturday to hear Christmas carols performed by 16 tubas and euphoniums, eight of each. The annual event, organized by volunteers and spearheaded by San Angelo tubist Eric Hansen, attracts musicians from all over the region. Two tubists drove down from Snyder, two from Sonora and one from Miles.
The musicians practice for approximately 1.5 hours before performing, according to the performance’s emcee Barry Dowell, who serves at the Director of Music & Worship Arts at San Angelo’s First United Methodist Church.
Directing this year’s performance was Dr. Ed Surface, interim Dean of the School of Music at Angelo State University.
San Angelo has celebrated Tuba Christmas since 2006, making this year’s the 9th annual concert. Each musician participating donated a $10 registration fee. Trinity Lutheran provided the stage, cookies and coffee. The event was free to the public.
The carols, each about 1.5-minutes in length, were introduced by Dowell, who gave a tidbit of history about each song. Here are the five most interesting things you probably didn’t know about some of the popular Christmas carols of our time.
The most published Christmas carol, or hymn, in North America:
“Joy to the World”
It’s based upon Psalm 98 in the Bible. English hymn writer Isaac Watts wrote the words to “Joy to the World” as a hymn glorifying not Jesus’ birth, but his triumphant return as prophesized in the Book of Revelation. The modern version’s lyrics, with which most are acquainted, are actually in the second verse of the hymn.
Christmas carol title most likely to be in the next sequel (or prequel) of Star Wars the Movie:
“We Three Kings”
The carol is also referred to as “The Quest of the Magi”. The hymn refers to the account in the Book of Matthew that describes distinguished foreigners from the East who visited Jesus when he was born. The Bible doesn’t say that there were three kings; instead it describes three gifts, or types of gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh.
From Matthew 2:1-2: “(1) Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, (2) Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.”
The un-Christmas Christmas carol
“Jingle Bells”
The song and lyrics were written by James Lord Pierpoint (1822-1893) and originally published under the title, “One horse open sleigh” in 1857. Pierpoint meant for the song to be sung at Thanksgiving.
The most un-Christmas Christmas carol
“Old Christmas Tree”
The original lyrics do not refer to a Christmas tree at all. Instead, the song is about Ach Tabbenbaum. A Tannenbaum is a regular ‘ol fir tree. The composer, Ernst Anschutz, based the lyrics upon a 16th-century Silesian folk song by Melchior Franck. The song was originally a tragic love song written by another musician named August Zarnack in 1819 that contrasted a faithless lover with the “faithfulness” of a fir tree. The custom of having Christmas trees in the 19th century eventually directed the song to become what it is today, replacing “true, faithful” as an adjective describing a fir’s needles to just “green”. The song was commercialized in the 20th century and became what we know it today.
The Christmas carol that begs for pudding.
“We Wish You a Merry Christmas”
This is a secular carol from 16th-century England. Peasants would gather at the mansions of noblemen and sing the song to beg for “figgy pudding”. In fact, the second verse, after wishing the nobleman a merry Christmas, is quite direct:
O bring us some figgy pudding (x3)
and bring it right here.
Tuba Christmas 2014
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