Merry Christmas Bells

To our family and friends—
A most Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year!

Von Himmel Hoch: A Family Fantasia

I think it’s reasonable to say our family is somewhat musical. Overall, there’s a fair number of us who can sing on key, plunk a tune on an instrument, or at least appreciate the gathering together and making of music.

At Christmas, this family musical-ness is epitomized by one particular piece—the German Christmas Song.

The German Christmas Song (actually titled ”Von Himmel Hoch Da Komm Ich Her: Weihnachtsfantasie für Klavier,” by Ferdinand Keller) is a medley of carols many of us grew up playing on the piano. As kids, the octave tremolo in the intro marked the maturation of our handspan. The full keyboard run in the finale highlighted our developing technique. Every year my grandmother Ruth requested that someone—anyone—play the German Christmas Song.

Does anyone know the history of this piece? From where did we get it?

The arrangement must be old. I researched Ferdinand Keller and the publisher Robert Lienau and they’re both from the 19th century. All I know is that we’ve always been playing this piece.

In our house, pulling the German Christmas Song out from the piano bench marks the beginning of the holiday season. I love this time of year! I also love the personalization of the song, how each of us plays it according to our own skill, style and interpretation.

This year, we’re going to ask Sarah to play the German Christmas Song. Sarah is Ruth’s great-granddaughter (Dave’s daughter) and she’s much, much more than somewhat musical.

Thanks Sarah! You play beautifully!

And here it is—the German Christmas Song. Click here to hear to listen! While you’re listening, share your memories of this special piece.

Sarah is relishing her senior year of high school at Powers Catholic High School in Flint, MI. She keeps extremely busy with piano, organ, drama and all the other activities that come with high school. Her goal for college next fall is to study piano.

Need music for the German Christmas Song?
As far as I know, “Von Himmel Hoch Da Komm Ich Her: Weihnachtsfantasie für Klavier,” by Ferdinand Keller, is no longer in print. Instead, I searched high and low online for copyright ownership to the arrangement. I found nothing. I also scanned through English translations of German copyright laws (my understanding of such is extremely limited however).

Because of its age, I’m going by the assumption that its beyond copyright ownership. Thus, I’ve posted a pdf copy of the music here.

If anyone finds I’m wrong in posting this, please let me know. I want to be respectful to copyright laws and intellectual property. In the meantime, Merry Christmas to all and have fun playing the music!

The Bell Mishap

Guest Post

by Diahann’s daughter Jenny

In introducing this blog almost a year ago, my mom alluded to the fact that my great-grandmother’s bells were “lost in a mishap.” That was actually a kind way of referencing the scrooge-like person that caused the bells to disappear and now, years later, for my mom to finally punish me by making me, a decidedly non-tech-savvy, non-blogger, pen this post admitting my responsibility for the lost beaded bells.

The beaded bells graced our Christmas tree for as long as I can remember, and were always some of my favorite Christmas decorations. At some point when I was in college, my mom stopped putting them on our regular Christmas tree as the bells made way for the collection of Barbie and NFL quarterback ornaments we accumulated. I missed the bells, though. To me, it’s the older, traditional decorations that really make it feel like Christmastime.

When I finished school and moved away, my mom gave me the set of beaded bells. She warned me that if I ever didn’t want them, I had to give them back—I shouldn’t give or throw them away (at the time I was a little offended by this—as if I would throw away my favorite ornaments?!).

For several Christmases, I decorated my own little tree with the beaded bells. Then I moved to a nicer apartment, where I had a storage locker in a securely locked room in the basement. Acting uncharacteristically for myself, I got all organized and placed my “seasonal” box down in the storage locker. Just to be safe, I put that box in the very back, and put additional boxes and bags of junk items needing to go to goodwill on top of and in front of the ornaments box.

I proceeded to forget about everything in the storage locker for nearly a year. Then one day a sign appeared near the mailboxes of my apartment building warning residents that there had been a rash of thefts in the storage lockers. I went to check mine out and everything looked okay at first. Then, suddenly I remembered the box of ornaments. Sure enough, though all my goodwill-bound junk was still there, the box of Christmas stuff—and the bag of Great Grandma’s beaded bells—were gone. Not only had someone broken into my locker, but they’d dug through everything until they found the Christmas ornaments and specifically took just that box. Who does that?!

I reported the theft to my building management, trying to stress the importance of the ornaments, but sadly the thief was never caught and the bells were gone for good. I remembered my mom had written a little note about the history of the beaded bells and placed it in the plastic bag with the ornaments. I wondered if the person who took them would have a change of heart after reading their historical importance, so I repeatedly checked back in the storage room looking for the bells to be returned—but no luck.

Feeling distraught about losing my favorite Christmas ornaments, and also not really wanting to admit to my mom that I’d allowed them to get stolen, I became a little desperate. First, I started checking Craigslist and eBay, convinced that the thief could be trying to sell these valuable antique ornaments for a profit. Sadly, they didn’t turn up. However, I did find for sale a kit for making beaded bells. As a sign of how truly desperate I was, I decided to purchase the kit, thinking that I could make my mom a replacement set (and hey, maybe even a set for myself also).

Unlike Great Grandma, and most of the rest of my family, I am not crafty. I really tried though. I spent several hours a night after work, trying to figure out the instructions, manipulate the teeny-tiny beads onto fishline, figuring out I completely misread the instructions 10 steps ago, undoing, redoing, etc. etc.

Finally, after about two weeks of evening working, my bell (yes, one bell) was done.

Not too shabby right? Wrong.

Needless to say, I had to confess to my mom that the bells were lost. I thought she took it surprisingly well (not knowing that she’d later force me to confess my responsibility to the entire internet). I’m happy that my mom has decided to make beaded bells, and that hers are looking much better than mine!

And somewhere out there, I hope that thief is actually using the beaded bells this Christmas, taking to heart my mom’s history note that was kept with the bells in the stolen box.

Chrismons

Salem Lutheran Church, Owosso, MI, 2010

Back in 1957, a woman named Frances Kipps Spencer, of Danville, VA., was looking to decorate her church’s Christmas tree in a manner more reflective of its Christian faith. According to this website, she asked herself “How would Mary celebrate Jesus’ birthday?”

Mrs. Spencer’s answer to this question was the Chrismon.

Chrismons—the name is compounded from the words Christ and monogram—are beaded ornaments depicting the names, life, ministry and nature of Christ. Designed by Mrs. Spencer, the idea soon spread to other churches and she eventually published five books giving instructions on making the ornaments and explaining their meanings.

Mrs. Spencer was close in age to my grandmother Ruth, and I imagine the two would have gotten along very well.

In fact decades later, Ruth and all her lady friends got a hold of one of those Chrismon books and spent a year beading ornaments for their very own Salem Lutheran Church in Owosso, MI.

A couple months ago I talked to Carol Hanchett, a member of Salem, and she brought up the Chrismons.

“They’re all we have on our tree,” said Carol, of their congregation’s Christmas tree. “They’re ornaments made of beads and pearls. I would think your grandmother made a good share of them. She was talented in making things.”

Unfortunately, Carol also said the ornaments are getting old and some “are in distress.”

Last week I called Salem and spoke with secretary Esther Matthies. She was so nice to take a picture of their Christmas tree and send it.

Isn’t it beautiful?

And, yes, she agreed the ornaments are showing their age. The plan is that this coming summer, several Salem ladies are getting together and beading new ornaments.

Isn’t that super?

Francis Spencer and Ruth Larson would be pleased, I’m sure.

Further information:

Chrismon books, by Francis Kipp Spencer, are available through Ascension Lutheran Church, Danville, VA.; on Facebook; and through Amazon.com. According to Esther, Salem has the book “Chrismons, Basic Series.”

Here’s another interesting site on Chrismon-like ornaments. It’s an instructional site that also gives historical background of Chrismons used by early Christians. I don’t know if the ornaments in this site are the original designs as copyrighted by Ascension Lutheran Church, but they’re very pretty nonetheless.