The Annual Murfin Winter Holidays Music
Festival
works like this. Every year beginning on
the First Sunday of Advent until the
Feast of the Epiphany—the Day of the Three Kings—on January 6, I
will post a seasonal song, not only sacred and secular Christmas favorites, but songs celebrating the many winter festivals observed during this time of
year including Hanukkah, St. Nicholas Day, Santa Lucia, Winter Solstice, Boxing Day, and New Years.
I try to mix up the familiar with what might not be so well
known including songs from different
cultures and new music. Of course there will be plenty of time and
space for the old chestnuts. Regular followers know that I am especially
fond of the secular songs of the Golden
Age of American Christmas Music which stretched roughly from the early
1930’s to the late 1970’s.
I am
also eager to get suggestions and
requests. You can message me on Facebook, e-mail pmurfin@scbglobal.net , or post a comment to a blog entry.
The logo of the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles.
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This
year we begin by noting the coincidence of the First Sunday in Advent with World AIDS Day. In honor of that we feature the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles (GMCLA), the oldest, largest, and
most prestigious Gay Chorus in the United States. It was formed in 1979 at Plummer Park Community Center in Los Angeles, with 99 members.
Its first public performance was
at the National March on Washington for
Lesbian and Gay Rights that October and they also performed at n the first ever national LGBT concert at the Washington Memorial.
As
GMCLA continued to grow throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s the AIDS crisis
did not spare its members, the chorus suffered the loss of its musical
director, Jerry Carlson, to as well
as over 20 other members by 1988. Ultimately, over 150 members were lost to the
AIDS pandemic leaving only eight original members of the chorus as
members now known as the “First Nighters.”
The
Chorus has grown in size, gained professional
artistic and administrative staff,
toured nationally and internationally, released 16 CDs, and appeared with numerous stage, film, and television celebrities including Billy Porter, Lily Tomlin,
Angela Lansbury, Bea Arthur, Jerry Herman, Melissa
Manchester, Mary McDonnell, Stephen Schwartz, Liz Callaway, Lance Bass, Jennifer Holliday, LeAnn
Rimes, and Christy Metz. The
Chorus has appeared on several television
broadcasts including the 85th Academy Awards, Access
Hollywood, Will & Grace, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Mad
TV, and a six-episode arc on Six Feet Under.
Back
in 2011 I was honored and astonished when Chorus members commissioned an original choral setting from my poem Rainbows Are Not Enough
as a retirement salute to their long-time
music director. The poem was included in my 2004 Skinner House Books collection We
Build Temples in the Heart.
Members of the GMCLA don ugly Christmas sweater in a holiday performance.
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GMCLA’s
annual Holiday Spectacular concerts are highly awaited seasonal
programs. Today’s selection, O
Holy Night was featured in the 2012 program and featured baritone Louis Ramirez.
You can still make it this year's GMCLA Holiday Spetacular.
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O Holy Night was composed by
Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem Minuit, chrétiens (Midnight,
Christians) written by wine
merchant and poet Placide Cappeau.
Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight,
editor of Dwight’s Journal of Music, translated
the song into English lyrics in
1855. In both the French original and
the English version of the carol, as well as in many other languages, the text reflects on the birth of Jesus and on humanity’s redemption.
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