Seasonal music filled with religious themes

A news report the other night concluded that the most popular of Christmas songs were secular, not religious at all; and that there was only one popular song even bordering on the spiritual aspects of the season, “Little Drummer Boy.”

We must march to a different drum, indeed, for it’s the religious music we cherish at this time, playing over and over again – Celtic and British Yuletide ballads, Carnegie Hall Christmas concerts, Mormon Tabernacle Choir performances and traditional carols sung since childhood.

These are songs of the heart in celebration of a season of the heart: Handel’s “Messiah,” “Alleluja,” from “Exsultate, jubilate” and “Chorale from the Christmas Oratorio” by Bach.

We never tire of hearing Leontyne Price with members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra sing “Ave Maria.” We listen to Kathleen Battle and Frederica von Stade harmonize “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” and the Chapel Choir of King’s School, Canterbury, sing “Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.” Young soprano Charlotte Church performs “The Lord’s Prayer.”

Renditions of “I Saw Three Ships,” “The First Noel,” “Away in a Manger,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” and “Silent Night” play for hours, alternating choral music with instrumentals: voice, then flute; choir, then brass; tenors, then violins and harps.

Some of the sounds seem to contain their own peal of heavenly bells. Vocalists blend into an imaginary heavenly chorus.

The songs continue: “Sheep May Safely Graze,” “I Wonder As I Wander,” “The Holly and the Ivy,” “Joy to the World” and “Gesu Bambino.”

Certainly, Tchaikovsky’s music from “The Nutcracker” is lively and memorable. Old favorites “Winter Wonderland,” “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” are familiar to sing, and enjoyable.

But “popularity” among Christmas songs depends upon who’s doing the selecting. We’d vote for one “O Holy Night” over someone else’s even dozen “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”