Tuesday, December 5, 2006

December 3, 2006

Christmas Tunes

‘Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!’


One oppressively hot day in July 1945, Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn were in Los Angeles to talk with their publisher, Edwin H. Morris. Their business finished, Cahn suggested that they go to the beach to cool off. But Styne, always businesslike, thought they ought to work a little first. He suggested that they cool off by writing a winter song. Cahn finally agreed and dashed off the beginnings of a lyric; Styne responded with the beginnings of a tune. Before long, ‘Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow’ was finished. Vaughn Monroe’s recording shot to the top of the pop charts during Christmas of 1945.


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The Christmas season From the choir loft

As Christian musicians, our sole focus must be to worship God in our music. God created us for fellowship and with fellowship comes communication. We communicate our thoughts and feelings through our songs. In the Bible, from the time of Moses up until the present time, God has blessed us with powerful sacred music to worship Him. All our musical efforts during this blessed Christmas season are to lift our music in worship to Him. We only hope to honor Him for who He is!


"He is the reason for the Season!"


You know the Christmas musical is less than a week away. (First United Church in Silver Creek, NY on Sunday 12/10, and Sheridan United Methodist Church on Sunday 12/17.) Both dress rehearsals are on Sunday 12/3...we need everyone! The choir will rehearse on Tuesday 12/5 and Tuesday 12/12! Please make every effort to attend all rehearsals and concerts! We need everyone!


Don't forget that we are "Christmas Caroling" on Tuesday, 12/19. If you are singing inside St. Columban's On The Lake, please report to St. Columban's at 6:15 PM. If you are going out to sing to the "shut-ins," please report to Sheridan United Methodist Church at 6:00 PM. We will have music books. We are inviting everyone to sing with us! Not talent necessary. Just a willingness to bless others during this wonderful time of the year.


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History of Christmas Toys

Crayola Crayons


In the early 1900s, Binney & Smith, a chemical company, began to produce slate pencils and a type of dustless chalk. Company executives, and cousins, Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith realized that a new wax crayon they had developed to mark crates and boxes in their factory would provide a neater and more affordable alternative to costly imported crayons for American schools. Edwin Binney’s wife, Alice, picked Crayola as the brand name. In 1903, an assortment of affordable, multi-colored crayons was offered to the American public for the first time. The first Crayola crayons came in a box of eight and retailed for a nickel. The eight original colors were black, blue, brown, green, orange, red, violet, and yellow. In the company's 102-year history, over one hundred billion Crayola crayons have been produced. Binney & Smith produce nearly three billion crayons each year—that's about seven million every day. That much paraffin wax and colored pigment is enough to make a crayon thirty-seven feet wide and four hundred and twenty feet long, higher than the Statue of Liberty! Crayola crayons are sold in more than eighty countries and packaged in twelve languages. The average American child uses 730 crayons by his/her tenth birthday. Children ages two through eight spend an average of twenty-eight minutes a day coloring. That equals

6.3 billion hours spent coloring annually! The scent of Crayola crayons is among the twenty most recognizable scents to American adults.


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Today in history



(December 3)


1979 – The last Pacer automobile was manufactured

1950 – Paul Harvey began his national radio broadcast career


1947 – "A Streetcar Named Desire" opened on Broadway


1931 – Alka Seltzer was sold for the first time


Church office: (716) 672-2048, Bud: (716) 934-7734, email:


tubamanbud@yahoo.com

Visit "Bud's Blog" at www.frombudsworld.blogspot.com








From Bud’s


History of the Carols


December 3, 2006


"Angels We Have Heard on High"


(1937) pg. 238

Words: Traditional French Carol (1862)


Music: Arranged by Edward Shippen Barnes (1881 - 1958)



According to the story of the first Christmas, it was the shepherds tending their flocks near Bethlehem to whom the angels first gave the news of the baby Jesus’ birth. And so, in medieval times shepherds who found themselves minding their little herds in the wintry mountains of southern France on Christmas Eve remembered the story of that first birth and the angels who sang of it.


They called one to the other, each from his own peak, singing the good news as the angels had sung so long ago, until finally the mountaintops themselves rang with a glorious patchwork of echoing voices.


In this favorite carol, the music probably comes from a 17th or 18th century French carol, as does the text. But the back-and-forth "Gloria" refrain is probably based on a much older phrase of music, perhaps a bit of plainsong chant from the Church’s earlier days. The back and forth "gloria’s" in the chorus mimic the echo sound of the shepherds’ voices as they sang from the mountaintops. The combination of tune and text was not published, so far as we know, until it appeared in a carol collection in 1855.



Meanwhile…1937…69 years ago…in the United States…



U. S. President: Franklin D. Roosevelt…Vice-President: John Garner

Average prices


: Bread: 9 cents/loaf, Milk: 12 cents/qt.,

Car: $675, Gas: 20 cents/gal., Stamp: 3 cents


Best Actor


: Spencer Tracy…Favorite songs: ‘The Dipsy Doodle’ by Tommy Dorsey’… ‘The Moon Got in my Eyes’ by Bing Crosby…’Boo Hoo’ by Guy Lombardo

The Hindenburg burst into flames while landing in Lakehurst, NJ


Walt Disney’s ‘Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs’ movie was released


Amelia Earhart disappeared on her ‘around the world’ flight attempt


Rev. James W. Reis was pastor of Sheridan Methodist Church



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