Park Ki-Young – Nella Fantasia

An evening pause: The music is by Enrico Morricone from the film The Mission (1986). There it is entitled Gabriel’s Oboe, a musical piece I have posted previously here as an evening pause. Here it is sung to lyrics written by Chiara Ferraù, celebrating the joys that freedom brings. “I dream of souls that are always free,/Like the clouds that fly.”

Hat tip Jim Mallamace, who notes that this song is written by an Italian and sung by a Korean about the American aspiration of freedom. Seems to me that this illustrates two aspects of that American aspiration, one of which is freedom, the second of which is that freedom is something all people from all cultures aspire to.

Buddy Greene – How Can I Keep From Singing

An evening pause: Most people in the secular world today know this version of the hymn, but this performance of the original is so magnificent I think all should see it, whether you are Christian or not. And for those who are Christian, what better day but today to hear it.

To me, it was this performance from 1987 by Jean Redpath that is most meaningful, but in good will I — a secular humanist born a Jew — post the gospel version now.

Benjamin Shapiro – Theme from Schindler’s List

An evening pause: Performed live in 1996, when Shapiro was twelve years old. Note that this is that Ben Shapiro, the orthodox Jew and well-known conservative columnist whom leftists ignorantly love to call a Jew-hater and white supremacist. How they come to that conclusion can only be because they are willfully ignorant or so filled with hate and their ideology that they can’t look at reality with any honesty.

I think, during this holiday season, it is wise to also reflect on humanity’s tragic failures, one of the worst of which was the Holocaust during World War II.

Hat tip Jim Mallamace.

Aryeh and Gil Gat – The Sound of Silence

An evening pause: I think this song is fitting for the last night of Hanukkah. For Jews, this verse well describes perfectly what it is like when they try to express their point of view in a harsh and hostile world:

“Fools” said I, “You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

The two singers are brothers and rabbis, and are performing here for an Israeli television show modeled after American Idol called Rising Star.

Hat tip Jim Mallamace.

Julie Andrew – Impossible

An evening pause: From the live television premiere of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella in 1957, their only musical written for television. Edith Adams plays the fairy godmother.

For the world is full of zanies and fools
Who don’t believe in sensible rules
And won’t believe what sensible people say
And because these daft and dewey-eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes
Impossible things are happening every day!

I first posted this in 2011. Time to see it again.

No Strings A Cappella – Past Three O’ Clock

An evening pause: Though written as celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus, I think the lyrics really apply all newborns. As William Wordsworth said, we arrive “trailing clouds of glory.”

past three o’clock,
on a cold frosty morning,
past three o’clock,
good morrow masters all.

born is a baby
gentle as may be,
son of the Eternal
Father supernal.

mid earth rejoices
hearing such voices.
ne’ertofore so well
carolling nowell!

cheese from the dairy
bring they for Mary,
and, not for money,
butter and honey.

thus they: i pray you,
up sirs, nor stay you
till ye confess him
likewise and bless him.

Hat tip Edward Thelen.

USAF Band – Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring

A evening pause: This is almost a real flash mob event at the Air & Space Museum. It seems as if they sneak up on the holiday crowds, but at the same time I am not so sure. Too many cameraman around, as well as performers. Regardless, it is a great performance.

Hat tip Edward Thelen, and Tim Vogel (who suggested this a couple of years ago when I was especially dismissive of fake flash mob events. Since then I’ve mellowed). Also, as Edward notes, the schedule of events at the end of this video no longer applies.

Samantha Whates – Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)

An evening pause: Hat tip Jim Mallamace, who tells this story about the song’s origin: ” Future country music star, Jeannie Seely, worked as a secretary at Liberty and Imperial Records in 1963. The producer for the record company, Eddie Ray, was looking for a new song for Rythm & Blues legend, Irma Thomas.

“After each day’s work, Seely would work on her own compositions on the studio piano. One day, Seely was asked to attend an Artists and Repertoire meeting by Ray. She came to the meeting with her stenography pad but was told, no, he wanted her to sing that song she was writing the night before.

“‘Anyone Who Knows What Love Is’ became a 1964 hit for Irma Thomas in both the R&B and Pop charts. It was the first song Seely had published.”

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