"The Return of An Altared Christmas" is here!
 |
|
||||||||||||||||
Yes, the eagerly waited follow up to the original "An Altared Christmas" has arrived.
When a fragrant, delicious fruitcake mysteriously appears, the unsuspecting revelers find it simply too hard to resist, and with each bite finding their minds and ears mysteriously opening, they are slowly carried into a musical world wherein the holiday songs of yore, with their original lyrics, are somehow transformed into something odd and new.
You too, can be witness to that same alchemy, for you can have in your hand that magical set of songs, transformed to a higher power, skewed and skewered yet reproduced with reverence, once again brought to you from that long-unknown musical universe we now know as ... The Altared Zone!
Order yours now!
Lyrics: Anon ca. 1885
Away in a manger, no crib for His bed
The little Lord Jesus lay down His sweet head
The stars in the heavens looked down where He lay
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay
The cattle are lowing, the poor baby wakes
But the little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes
I love Thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky
and stay by my cradle till morning is nigh
Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever and love me I pray
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care
And take us to Heaven to live with Thee there
Cyoakha: Lead Vocal, mall-girl
Gary Regina: Saxophone
Rhan Wilson: Drums, bass and keyboard sequencing
Dave Bell: Yodeling, guitar and vocal during intro song
This sweet lullaby has often been credited to Martin Luther, the German religious reformer, who did write a number of stirring hymns and hymn texts. In 1887, one James R. Murray included this tune in a collection called "Dainty Songs for Lads and Lasses," and crediting Martin Luther as its author and adding the his own initials, J.R.M. which confused matters even more.
The poem was neither Luther's nor Murray's but rather "borrowed" from a children's school book published a couple of years earlier in Philadelphia. The origin of the melody is also uncertain, though it is possible that Murray was the composer. The words of Away In A Manger are often sung to the melody used for the Scottish poem "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton."
THE ALTARED STORY
In the "Altared" version of this piece, the tune begins in a shopping mall, where one can clearly hear the sounds of cash registers, price scanners, an office page, a "straight" version of the tune, and even the sound of a customer asking for the crib he had ordered. All this is interrupted by the voice of an impatient young woman complaining, "Can you hurry up?!" She clearly doesn't get it.
