Repeat The Sounding Joy

Occasionally I will use this blog to reflect on personal occurrences with Christmas music. This is one such post.

I am an auditory learner. I associate things with sounds and so, as evocative as music is for people, it is especially evocative for me.

Though I am not a Christian, Christmas has a lot of meaning for me, as there is no other event in our culture that has so much music associated with it.

During the Christmas season, my hometown, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, has an event called, The Community Christmas sing. All the town's church and school gathered to make music. My parents took me from when I was very young, and sitting in the old junior high gym I loved hearing the sounds reverberate around me as we sat in metal chairs and the choirs sang around us on the bleachers. I vowed I would be there some day.

And...I was. In high school I was a participant (One year, though, the bleachers were stained too close to concert time and the school district had to eat some dry cleaning bills).

The best part was the finale. All the choirs and the audience joined in on "Joy To The World." Though, not a Christian, I love this song because it sounds great.....loud. Though I love the Eugene Ormandy arrangement, I love this song as a vocal number.

All those years, as audience and participant, I lustily sang along and relished all the voices cascading around me.

One regret.......I never heard it outside of the building. It had to have been audible in our small Wisconsin city for blocks as it would rebound and slice through the cold night air.

It is my favorite Christmas music memory and I am happy to share it. Repeat the sounding joy, indeed.

If you would like to read my other blog, it is posted here.