Sunday Special: Macht hoch die Tür!

Mainz's Christmas market

This Sunday marks the beginning of a new church year. I love the season of Advent, and couldn't be more ready for it. This weekend also marked my first concerts with a new choir. Having done our full program (to a full house!) on Friday, we got to relax on Sunday with an hour or so of Christmas carols and Advent hymns on the stage at Mainz's Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market.) My fingers were cold, but we were paid with vouchers for Glühwein, so that was only a temporary problem. And I loved getting to sing the wonderful German carols, some of which I'd been taught as a girl, and some of which I was learning for the first time. Händel's "Tochter Zion, freue dich," was simply something I'd never imagined I'd get to sing:




Exhortations continued in Macht hoch die Tür:



I imagine that the audience might have clamored for "Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen" if we hadn't given it:



We also sang "Es commit ein Schiff geladen," but not in the snazzy arrangement below:



Whatever your (non-)observances of Advent are, Gentle Readers, I wish you a December full of excellent choral music.