Christmas is not just for good times

Bah, humbug. This year I am going to have a religious Christmas, because it suits my counter-cultural miserabilism and means I can forget that the enlightenment happened. I've been reading Diderot lately (see previous blog-posts) and anything that allows me to ignore the rise of capitalist consciousness is a Vile Favourite this month.

After I have seen my last pantomime, that's it: I'm pretending that is is about 1500, and the only art I'm allowed is Christian. Beat that, ascetics.

On the positive side, I totally win the music. The oft-repeated phrase 'the devil has all the best tunes' is tested by Christmas. Apart from that one song by her off Titanic, Christmas music is rubbish, and mostly celebrates the secular side of the season. So you can have Roy Wood, Chris De Burgh and Slade. I've got Bach and Arvo Part. 


And I've got the Scottish Ensemble. Three Parts Bach is their Christmas offering, and there's plenty of Jesus stuff there. Have some of this for starters.

Here's the lyrics.


German text

Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein
und wissen nicht, wo aus und ein,
und finden weder Hülf’ noch Rat,
ob wir gleich sorgen früh und spat:
So ist das unser Trost allein,
daß wir zusammen ingemein
dich rufen an, o treuer Gott,
um Rettung aus der Angst und Not.
Sieh nicht an unser Sünden groß,
sprich uns der selb’n aus Gnaden los,
steh’ uns in unserm Elend bei,
mach’ uns von aller Trübsal frei.
Auf daß von Herzen können wir
nachmals mit freuden danken dir,
gehorsam sein nach deinem Wort,
dich allzeit preisen hier und dort.
Paul Eber, 1566 based on In tenebris nostrae by J. Camerarius, c.1546
 

English translation
When we in deep distress and grief,
knowing not where to seek relief,
can find no help nor comfort here,
tho’ we have sought it far and near.

Then this alone our comfort be,
that we may all in unity
still call on Thee, true God, and know
Thou’lt save us from all fear and woe.

See not, thou’ great our sins may be,
but by Thy grace, Lord, set us free,
be near us in our misery
and keep us all from sorrow free.

That we with all our hearts may raise,
once more our joyful, grateful praise,
submissively Thy word declare,
and ever praise Thee, here as there.


Seriously, check the rhymes. 'Deep distress and grief... no help nor comfort here'. I'm just asking - what sounds more like the UK in December 2015: this, or that bloke with sideburns bellowing 'It's Christmaaaaas!!!!'?

Okay, I am against the bombing of Syria, and the best way I can imagine to combat ISIL is to celebrate the best of the western tradition. David Cameron might think that an elite group ignoring both common sense and the opinion of a large proportion of the populace is part of the western tradition (and yes, that has been a bit of a theme, especially in the twenty-first century), I am going to listen to the compositions of reverential composers.

Five Performances for a Post-Referendum Scotland

Audience (Ontroerend Goed)
Many critics got upset because the company abused a plant in the crowd, missing the subsequent deconstruction of 'the manufacture of consent' and dismissing the Belgians as shock-tactic nihilists. The last half hour, however, demonstrates how easy mass manipulation can be, and the problems that 'doing the right thing' can bring to anyone who mistakes observation as passivity.

Bloody Mess (Forced Entertainment)
The show that will keep Forced Entertainment on the syllabus of University Theatre Studies until the subject is finally rolled up into the Faculty of Neo-Darwinian Analysis, Bloody Mess  is a glorious fusion of many themes and competing ideas. One especially powerful strand is the gradual revelation that apparent communication is, in fact, just the juxtaposition of individuals following their own journey and accidently bumping into each other. Plenty is said, but no dialogue ever emerges. 

Fall (Zinnie Harris)
Apparently, in the navy, when the tempest rages and men are swept

overboard or eaten by a giant squid, a wily old jack tar will mumble: 'never mind, worse things happen in a Zinnie Harris play.' Miserable dystopias are cheap in theatre, ever since Beckett got chuckles from Godot: it is Harris' attention to detail and broad poetic scope that lift her apocalypses above the mundane. Dominic Hill's direction often found the beauty in the brutality, and Fall's finale renders the end of the world... delicate.

Jesus, Queen of Heaven (Jo Clifford)
Remember how I bang on about the hermeneutical spiral? This is a good reminder of how the event (in this case, the claims for the incarnation of the Judeo-Christian God) is given meaning by the process of rereading and recontextualisation. Note: does not contain fundamentalism.

VSPRS (Les Ballets C de la B)
This rarely needs a reason to be included, but... like Bloody Mess, it has strands to spare and the way that the awkward, the physically unique and the other are capable of moving towards an ecstatic moment of unity probably make it the one of the most vivid and visceral expression of the holiness of all human life (at least in the tradition of European contemporary dance). Plus it had Iona Kewney in it, and a gypsy band playing psychedelic versions of Monteverdi.