I have a very eclectic taste in music. I like a lot of different styles from classical to US pop, R&B and country, to styles from Mexico whose names you wouldn’t understand. And there are many songs, carols and hymns that are related to Christmas that I thoroughly love. I especially love them in new and exciting formats or presentations. My favorite being acapella.
This first one is my favorite Advent hymn, Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel. My favorite version is plaintive and harmonic by an acapella group from Brigham Young University, BYU Vocal Point.
Whether it is Christmas Eve or a Christmas Day service my favorite hymn for the processional is Oh Come, All Ye Faithfull. The bigger and more triumphant the better. A choir and congregation, a big honker of a pipe organ and even an orchestra make it over the top. I really like this arrangement by the late Sir David Wilcocks from a 2009 service at Kings College, Cambridge. I usually sing the last verse as loudly as I can! 🙂
For a number of years, I have especially liked the song Mary Did You Know. Last year one of my favorite acapella groups, Pentatonix, released their fantastic rendition sung in a catacomb-like setting. I believed that nothing would top their version. But this year another acapella group, with whom I’m not very familiar, released this version that has risen to my current favorite and someone will be really hard pressed to beat this out as my favorite. The group is Voctave and it features Mark Lowry who wrote the song. Mark comes from the evangelical side of US Christianity and has sung with The Gaither Vocal Band.
Enjoy. I wish you each a very Merry Christmas!