The Deepest Human Desires in 2:24 Minutes

A Song for Christmas

“Vouchsafe me, O Lord” has been with me for 42 years, and it works for me. With all the joy, sadness, and eternal craving, this is the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard in my life:

Felix Kemp is literally crying, while singing it. Ever since I’ve been young, I was always afraid that I would be one of those, whose heart in the last days would grow cold¹. I am glad that I can still cry, when I listen to this, and I do it once a year, and it always fills my eyes with tears²:

Felix’s performance is my favorite, and I have posted about the sounds of healing and the sounds of destruction:

I Felix’s performance is not the healing part, nothing is.

As a bonus, this is how it must have sounded at the time of Handel; beg your pardon, Purcell:

Merry Christmas!

When I was young, I used to sing in a choir, but those days are long gone. However, here is a decent performance of Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum:

1. Growing up in a poor, crime-infested place, where you have to be on constant alert in order to protect the people you love, conditions you to leave most emotions behind.

2. During my volunteering at the Psych Wards and taking care of patients in their homes for free, I saw too many people going insane after trying to be stronger than they can be. Serving was the utmost experience for me to learn that I had to accept my weaknesses as well, which I would have never experienced otherwise. I also loathe the Anglo-Saxon tradition of males being blocked from expressing emotions, and in my life, I’ve had too many pats on the back, when I simply wanted to give a hug to someone I cared for. Accepting one’s weaknesses is part of the same person’s strength.