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One of the things that drives me a little bit nuts about modern church music has to
do with how gentle a lot of it is. And I think if you read, I mean certainly the old testament,
but especially the things surrounding the birth and death of Christ. It's really crazy
and violent. It's a really extreme situation. Christmas in particular
what drives me crazy is these beautiful kind of slow....
But you don't mean Christmas as in Christ-time. You mean Christmas in the Middle Ages, like
that it was all violent...
I mean Christmas as in year zero.
Right, because stars came from heaven.
Not just stars, the entire heavenly appears. Everyone's there. All kinds of angels. People are looking up and
seeing grandma. And remember that we are literally in a barn in Palestine; and it's really cold;
and the heavens are ripped open. And it's like, what a lot of the English culture does
with it, which of course I love, I love, I love, does with that
[PIANO MUSIC] *Little Child of Bethlehem"
And you're like "meeh"
It doesn't give me, like you look up and Palestinian grandma's there, looking down at you angrily.
You're seeing more of an action film.
Well it is really. And the idea is the shepherds, the people living out in the mountain are
terrified. They're meant to be terrified by what is happening. It's not this gentle "Aww."
I thought "what does it actually sound like when... what's the kind of stylized version
of that moment when you look up in the sky and everyone you know's there screaming."
[CHORAL MUSIC] "Senex Puerum Portabat"
Which seems more appropriate. That's sort of for me what any like meteorological event, which is how this is described
should feel, is that you don't know what's going to happen. And what always drives me crazy,
is like with Christmas it's always like
[PIANO MUSIC] "Gloria"
And you think, "well I know exactly how that ends." That's the same text. You know the
heavenly host appears and they sing "Glory be to God" and it's fine, but it's meant to
be terrifying.