Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1185

Music of Christmas 29

    For my final installment of “Music of Christmas” for 2014, I offer two pieces.   I’ve always loved Miklos Rozsa’s score for the movie Ben Hur.  And his “Star of Bethlehem” is, in my opinion, one of its two highlights:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0cFM...   I heard a wonderful arrangement of it yesterday, performed by [Read More...]

“The Savior can change dark to light”

    This was my Deseret News Christmas column for 2012:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/76...   My 2014 Christmas column was actually published this morning.    

Airline passenger thrown off plane after angry reaction to “Merry Christmas”

    I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a law suit brewing over this, but I would have joined in the applause, too:   http://nypost.com/2014/12/25/plane-pa...    

“There is hope in every dawning”

    Christina Lyon Maughan, who has herself had a rough year and a rough Christmas season, brought the lyrics of this song by Sally Deford to my attention.  (I haven’t located a recording of it yet that I can use here.)   I share them here for all those — myself among them — [Read More...]

The Church of the Nativity, in Bethlehem

      The first Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem was begun by St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, in AD 333 as part of an overall building program launched in the aftermath of the great Nicene Council — a program of construction that also included Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  [Read More...]

A “Music of Christmas” Supercollection

    My gifted friend Will Schryver has assembled a collection of some of his favorite Christmas music.  You can access it here:   https://drive.google.com/folderview?i...   You need to actually download the collection in order to listen to the music.   Two of the thirty-three pieces — Jesus, Once of Humble Birth and the Greensleeves [Read More...]

“One of us”

    Responding to my Deseret News column of this morning, Ray Agostini reminds me of a 1995 hit song by Joan Osborne.  Don’t worry; the voice that begins the clip isn’t the voice in which she sings the rest of the song:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4CRk...   If God had a name what would it be? [Read More...]

The darkness and chillness of Christmas

    Christmas hath a darknessBrighter than the blazing noon;Christmas hath a chillnessWarmer than the heat of June;Christmas hath a beautyLovelier than the world can show:For Christmas bringeth Jesus,Brought for us so low. (Christina Rossetti [d. 1894])    

Christmas greeting

    I would like to wish everybody out there a wonderful, joyous Christmas.   For those who abominate religious faith and loathe Christmas — such people exist; I’ve encountered a few of them personally — I wish you a reasonably decent Thursday.   Posted from Bountiful, Utah    

On the eve of Christ’s nativity

    Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets. [Read More...]