Christmas in July! It's July 19th and I've come to the Christmas section of the LDS Hymnbook. Maybe that will make me feel cooler these next couple of weeks!
"Joy to the World" is one of my favorite Christmas hymns. I've sung it all of my life. It wasn't until I was older that I learned the music was written by George F. Handel and Lowell Mason. You can see the similarities in the first line of "Joy to the World" and "Lift Up Your Heads" (from Handel's Messiah). There is also a similarity to "And Saints and angels sing..." and the accompaniment to the tenor aria "Comfort Ye My People". (I stole these two ideas from Karen Lynn Davidson's book "Our Latter-Day Hymns: The Stories and the Messages".)
This hymn was one of the first songs that I was able to pick out on the piano at church--just the melody line. I must have been about 11 years old when I tried it. I played it in the key of C, but the one in our hymnal is in the key of D. I can now easily play the entire song as written!
"SING * PLAY * LOVE"...My thoughts and memories as I play one hymn each day from the hymnbook of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" during 2012.
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