It will be Christmas day in 6 hours in Chicago, USA and in 1 hour in the major cities of Germany.
So let's commemorate the birth of Christ with bi-lingual musical celebrations of this day, which is so central to our mutual Christian heritage.
On December 24th, 1914 - the Christian combatants from England and Germany (later to be engaged by the US Army in 1917), were in a brutal life and death struggle in the opposing trenches of the French battleground, when they declared a cease fire - and in a storied incident, jointly sang "Silent Night," and in its German form, "Stille Nacht."
Idealism prospers in peacetime and brutality reigns in wartime. As these men - many just kids recently drafted from civilian life, were only in their 1st half year of battle, their idealistic instincts remained intact.
But it never happened again, as military and political leaders, from both sides, banned such future demonstrations under threat of court-martial.
Here is the idealized depiction of the Christmas Eve World War I English/German cease-fire and mutual insubordination as seen in a recently aired English commercial:
Here is the great German/American pop icon, Linda Ronstadt, with her very nice rendition of the classic 1940s American Christmas song, which was sung as a sentimental song for the American troops overseas during WWII, and which Linda Ronstadt reprised in the 1980s: "I'll be home for Christmas":
Here is the German schlager/pop star, Helene Fischer, with her German language rendition of "Oh Holy Night,""Helige Nacht":
And here is the Belgian pop-orchestral leader (a regular presence on American Public Television) Andre Rieu with his orchestral version of "Silent Night,":
(Thanks to CSMR contributors, Joseph Sebastian, from Sacramento, California and Steve Keefe, from Washington, D.C for contributing to this article.)
Merry Christmas, all, from the Chicago Schlager Music Review!
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| Helene Fischer at Christmas |
So let's commemorate the birth of Christ with bi-lingual musical celebrations of this day, which is so central to our mutual Christian heritage.
On December 24th, 1914 - the Christian combatants from England and Germany (later to be engaged by the US Army in 1917), were in a brutal life and death struggle in the opposing trenches of the French battleground, when they declared a cease fire - and in a storied incident, jointly sang "Silent Night," and in its German form, "Stille Nacht."
Idealism prospers in peacetime and brutality reigns in wartime. As these men - many just kids recently drafted from civilian life, were only in their 1st half year of battle, their idealistic instincts remained intact.
But it never happened again, as military and political leaders, from both sides, banned such future demonstrations under threat of court-martial.
Here is the idealized depiction of the Christmas Eve World War I English/German cease-fire and mutual insubordination as seen in a recently aired English commercial:
Here is the great German/American pop icon, Linda Ronstadt, with her very nice rendition of the classic 1940s American Christmas song, which was sung as a sentimental song for the American troops overseas during WWII, and which Linda Ronstadt reprised in the 1980s: "I'll be home for Christmas":
Here is the German schlager/pop star, Helene Fischer, with her German language rendition of "Oh Holy Night,""Helige Nacht":
And here is the Belgian pop-orchestral leader (a regular presence on American Public Television) Andre Rieu with his orchestral version of "Silent Night,":
(Thanks to CSMR contributors, Joseph Sebastian, from Sacramento, California and Steve Keefe, from Washington, D.C for contributing to this article.)
Merry Christmas, all, from the Chicago Schlager Music Review!