We're Digby-bound tomorrow, if it doesn't snow too badly, so I'm enjoying my last night with the little Advent candles I have in my bedroom. I should really get some sleep because there are a million things to do in the morning before we leave, but this last week before Christmas always feels so special and goes by so quickly that I don't want to sleep through it. That and I picked a stupidly time-consuming hat pattern for my cousin Rod that has thrown the last possible finished-by-Christmas knitting schedule out the window.

I think I'll use this last week to go through the standard carols, the ones that have the congregation singing and descants. I did all of these to death a few years ago and so I never really feel like listening to them until the end of Advent. This O Come, All Ye Faithful isn't my favorite arrangement, since it doesn't have the Willcocks descant on the third verse, but it's still nice. And I love the shot of the organ right at the beginning. I think it embodies everything that drew me to the organ in the first place: there's a real dignity to it.

It now officially feels like Christmas: Karen's home, the gingerbread houses are assembled, and I'm coming to terms with the fact that I'm NOT going to have all of my knitting done for Christmas morning. I say coming to terms with because I never fully resign myself to not finishing until the last minute on Christmas Eve. Ah well. I could have it done if I did absolutely nothing but knit from now until Christmas, but I don't really want to. There are so many other things I want to enjoy while I have the chance, like sleeping, and reading, and then sleeping some more in the middle of the afternoon.

And by the way, I finished the first non-school related book I've read since September today, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and I would highly recommend it!

This is the carol that - I think - I will be singing Christmas Eve, though in a solo arrangement.

I was kind of hoping that I might get to bed a little earlier over the holidays, but I suppose that doesn't happen when you decide to make eight hats a week before Christmas... just finished Hat #3 at 1:30am.

I think I already posted the other version of In the Bleak Midwinter, but this one is just as lovely.

Ah.... vacation. I read today (not a textbook!), knit, went out to lunch, practiced a bit for Christmas Eve, baked panforte, and curled up with Amber to watch The Polar Express (I know, it's not as good as the book, but it gives me warm fuzzies). It was perfect.

Last year I knit mittens for all of the family, nine pairs in a few weeks, so this year I decided to do hats. I have a week left. And still 5.75 hats to make. Wish me luck. Anybody know any fast-moving patterns?

Amber leaves tomorrow, Karen comes on Saturday, and then we all head for Digby on Monday. I can't believe how fast everything goes by at this time of year!

Dad and I also watched a bit of our Carols from King's DVD (more fuzzies), and I rediscovered this Berlioz.

How many times on how many different networking sites can I post this and with how many exclamation marks?

I'M FINISHED FIRST TERM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seven more like that and I'll have my degree. First degree. Meh, it wasn't too bad. It just feels good when it stops for a few weeks.

Here's more Britten, A hymn to the Virgin, which I could tell you all sorts of things about, but won't because it's all SO LAST TERM!

Sooooooooooo close... this time tomorrow I will be done first term. Satisfying and scary all at the same time.

You know what else is scary? Watching all sorts of videos of last year's Carols from King's and being able to recognize some of the choral scholars as boy choristers from nine or ten years ago. What's really funny is one of the countertenors who still shapes his vowels in exactly the same way. And yes, I watched my Carols from King's DVD enough to recognize all these people.

This is an absolutely beautiful piece by Bob Chilcott, which I think was written for King's Choir about ten years ago.

I think all musicians go through various favorite-composer phases. I certainly do. The Composer of the Term for me was Britten – I wrote my Music History term paper on him, read large chunks of a biography, and listened to Rejoice in the Lamb obsessively for a few weeks. But since it's Christmas I'm coming back to the first Britten I ever knew, the Ceremony of Carols, and somebody seems to have uploaded a few selections from the recording I got to know when I was little. I always thought it was Westminster Abbey... the video says Westminster Cathedral... who knows? It's lovely, anyway. I remember the Christmas when I was thirteen, waking up on Christmas morning a few hours before everyone else, and listening to this in bed. It's been special ever since.

The piece starts off with the choir processing in to the Gregorian chant, Hodie Christus natus est, and then they go into a bunch of different carols, mostly settings of old English words. In this video, after the chant, there's Wolcum Yole and Balulalow.

I vaguely remember something about posting the Sussex Carol on Karen's Birthday last year, because, although she probably didn't see it, I knew she liked the carol anyway. So here we are on her birthday again (for one more minute, that is), and since it generally suits my festive we-have-a-tree-and-it's-snowing-again (!!!) mood, I thought I'd post the Sussex carol again. It's a slightly different arrangement than last year.

And is it just me or does that organ scholar look really young? About my age, actually. What I wouldn't give to be in his cassock. Look at all those stops!

I've been studying Gothic art all day so... check out that Late Gothic architecture! You can tell by the arches and the windows and the particular type of vaulted ceiling. Four days till freedom!

I seem to be all about carols I haven't heard before this year (maybe I did the regulars to death over the last few years), so here's another one: Hodie by James Whitbourn.

One exam down! Four to go. Music History was almost ridiculously easy this morning (hoping that'll be trend-setting), and the weekend ahead seems to be mostly free to study for Art History and English, so I'm feeling good about life in general at the moment. It also helps that I spent the evening with Amber and Liz watching It's a Wonderful Life, which filled me with warm fuzzies.

Here's a carol that, for all it's Rutter cheesiness, has always had the warm fuzzy effect too:

Am I beginning to get repetitive? I don't mean to, but really, at this point, the only thing on my mind is making it through to the end of next Wednesday. My first exam is tomorrow morning: Music History. I'm not worried about it at all (we're even allowed to bring a cheat sheet with whatever we want on it), and since the intro MH course is a general overview, a lot of it is stuff I sort of knew before. Matt and Holly and I tried having a study party for it over lunch today, but (like most study parties, I would assume), we didn't get much done. One of us would ask the others a question, which would be answered (or not), which would lead to some discussion on a not-so-closely-related topic until, ten minutes later, we'd remember to FOCUS! Good thing none of us are desperate.

ANYWAY, here's another carol I had never heard before: Out of Your Sleep by Richard Rodney Bennett.

I'm not feeling particularly Christmassy tonight, even though Jenn's juries are finally over and we're in the middle of another snow storm. I've begun to realize just how much studying I have to do before exams, and there's nothing I feel less like doing right now. Anyway... it will get done, and a week from now my last exam will be over (haven't even started studying for that one yet), and then I can begin round-the-clock the knitting and cooking. Can't wait!

I do love finding new carols. This is Rutter's arrangement of the Sans Day Carol.

I think it's time for some Vaughan Williams. I just finished an essay on Britten, and I feel like RWV's taken more of a bashing than he deserves (Britten didn't like him). So here's one that we used to do at St. Paul's every year (no more, apparently):

The music department always has a Christmas Collegium on the last day of classes in the atrium of the Conservatory. Everyone gathers around the tree, and somebody plays Santa Claus, and general warmth and fuzziness fills the place. They enlisted me to play the carols on the little positif organ this year: fun, even though it's kind of tricky to play. And now classes are over, and by this time tomorrow Jenn's (the singer I'm accompanying) recital jury will be over. I'm going to emphatically NOT set my alarm for tomorrow morning, and I might even have a leisurely reading breakfast before studying/practicing. HAPPY.

This is the Cherry Tree Carol I know and love (and not the one our choir did the other night that I didn't like).

We had our university choir concert last night, and right afterwards... a snow storm! SO perfect! And my essays are finished, and tomorrow is the last day of classes, and two weeks from tomorrow we'll be headed for Digby for the best week of the entire year. And I have new fuzzy sheets. So much goodness.

I realized today that it was exactly a year ago that I wrote the SAT. My turning point, in a number of ways. Things are certainly much different this year, and for the first time in ages I don't wish that I could rewind and try everything again. Well, maybe I'd practice more...

Anyway... here's one for the first snow day of the season:

Wow... I love it when I stumble upon something that I'm looking for, but which turns out to be exactly what I want. I just found this video of King's doing an Eric Whitacre piece I'd never heard, "Lux Aurumque," and it's absolutely amazing. I'm not even going to try and say any more about it. Just listen. But one thing: keep your eyes open. The text is about light (lux), and it is so perfect the way there's a big bubble of candlelight around the choir stalls.

Just back from a party, and feeling both happy and like falling into bed right away. So here's something short and happy:

This is Westminster Cathedral, and I know the quality isn't great, but it's still a good performance.

It's after midnight, but I'm slightly giddy over the fact that I just finished reading the last short story for English. And that, after tomorrow, two out of three final papers will be passed in. And that I have about two or three paragraphs left to write of the third one.

Has it been obvious from the last few posts that the only thing on my mind right now is ticking off the hurdles that have to be jumped over before I can officially declare myself FINISHED for Christmas? A few more paragraphs, a choir concert, Christmas Collegium, my singer's two juries, a couple of parties that I'm not going to feel like going to but will enjoy once I get there, a couple of study parties in which no studying will get done, and then four exams. With a lot of cramming Art History facts into my head in between all of that. That's not so bad.

But now, King's. I have organ envy.

I can't tell you how much I'm loving taking time to find a carol and post it every night. It's a quiet, very peaceful time that I look forward to all day. And speaking of things to look forward to, I just realized that, two weeks from today, I will have just finished my last exam. Thinking of all the studying that has to be done before then is a little scary, but over the term I seem to have developed the totally uncharacteristic ability to not stress over such things. Maybe it simply turned out that university (at least first year) isn't as difficult as I thought it was.

So... here's a peaceful carol, with some of my favorite Christmas words: What Sweeter Music. I don't always like John Rutter's settings, but this one is absolutely beautiful. And... it's King's.

Today's progress: now halfway through my LAST ESSAY. So close.

This carol from Gloucester Cathedral was perfect for my after-midnight/this-week-isn't-going-fast-enough mood.