Merry Christmas!

By Bobby Chang

Traditionally, around this time of the year, I would usually make a phone call to the local talk radio station and include what has become the special Christmas message in my call. Yesterday afternoon, I made the call, this time on Ingrid Schlueter’s Wisconsin radio show, unusual in that it was from that show. But when your hometown has not had talk radio for seven Christmases, what can you expect?

After our Christmas greeting and wishes, we discussed the lack of sacred music in church (which is something this tenor has long complained since the double-whammy of Ingrid’s show and voice lessons) and she is as concerned as I am on this. Her broadcast later concluded with Beethoven’s “Welten singen, Dank und Ehre” from Christus am Ölberge, Op. 85. That piece has been occasionally played by the choir at another friend’s church in Charleston on Christmas Eve services, and I’ve heard that song there (but not in other areas; go figure) around Christmas and Easter when I visit the area.

As we celebrate the birth of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (oh, those words remind me of Händel, which I have learned to embrace, and love, in these years since I started to sing!), let’s celebrate the Birth of the Saviour with this finale of the one oratorio of Ludwig von Beethoven, one that I want my church to sing instead of the WMG karaoke!

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, unto God’s Almighty Son!
Praise the Lord, ye bright angelic choirs, in holy songs of joy.
Man, proclaim His grace and glory! Hallelujah!



Merry Christmas, everyone.