Welcome to HighNotes, brought to you by the Evanston Symphony for the senior members of our community who must of necessity isolate more because of COVID-!9. The current pandemic has also affected all of us here at the ESO, and we understand full well the frustration of not being able to celebrate holidays with family or make music with friends or go holiday-shopping in a real store. We certainly miss performing for our loyal audiences, especially this month when we would have had our annual festive Holiday Concert Musical Notes and Activities for Seniors at ETHS with perennial favorites like “Sleigh Ride,” ballet selections from the Evanston Symphony Orchestra from The Nutcracker, the ESO Holiday Concert Gospel Choir led by the Reverend Ken Cherry - and maybe even tap-dancing reindeer! However, since we can’t invite you to an in-person concert this Holidays of Light! 2 year, we’ll present one to you in these pages and in links to videos and recordings that show off the orchestra and the music. An Evanston Symphony Holiday Concert 4 HighNotes always has articles on a specific musical theme plus a variety of puzzles and some really bad jokes and puns. For this Sleigh Ride; Music for Hanukkah; issue we want to “Light up the Holidays!” - which seems appropri- Christmas Choral Works; ate for winter in general and December in particular, when we try to brighten the long darkness with the wondrous lights of Diwali, The Nutcracker; Traditional Carols; Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa. So, pour a big mug or Christmas Pops; Gospel; Hallelujah or glass of your favorite beverage, put on your Chorus; and Christmas Sing-Along warmest (virtual) hat, mittens and scarf, and sit back and enjoy this wonderfully Meet The Reverend Ken Cherry! 8 bright and fes- tive tive music! A Christmas Far From Home 10 Bygones, Puzzles, Vol. 1, No. 6 HighNotes December 2020 Editor ..............................................................................................Kelly Brest van Kempen Jokes & Other Amusements 12 Technical Advisor..................................................................................................David Ellis Puzzle & Maze Checkers …………………………..Connor, Addison, Ryan, Calli, Ciara & Gus December 2020 © - Copyright 2020 - ESOA (except for original authors’ copyrights) HighNotes ESOA makes no claim to copyrights held by others and uses such materials for educational purposes only under the “fair use” exception to copyright law. xxX All human beings need light to thrive, so in winter we tend to punc- C Hristmas always falls on December 25 in the modern tuate our lives with holidays that focus on light. After Halloween, the calendar and is the day Christians celebrate the birth of Celtic festival celebrated with light from bonfires (and tricks and Jesus “on a cold winter’s night.” The star symbolizes the treats!); come other major fall and winter "holidays of light.” light that shone over Bethlehem and served as a guide for Diwali is a festival of lights on the Indian subcontinent, the Three Kings. As Christianity spread around the world, it usually lasting five days and celebrated between mid- borrowed many customs from local cultures. For example, the October and mid-November in our calendar year. One of Christmas tree began in Germany with an evergreen tree (a sign of the most popular festivals in India, Diwali symbolizes the life in the dead of winter) decorated first with apples (Adam and spiritual "victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and know- Eve), later with glass balls, stars and candles. The Christmas tree ledge over ignorance." Hindu Diwali has its basis in specific events went to Britain with King George III’s German mother, then came to in Hindu religious history, but Diwali is also celebrated by Jains, the US with early British and German settlers. The Three Kings’ Sikhs and certain Buddhists; each mark their own religious events, gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh are the basis for the giving of but have similar customs. A Indian friend in Kansas describes her gifts, as is St. Nicholas Day on December 6 – but now it all gets family’s celebration like this: “In our home we light small tea lights rolled up into one! As for St. Nick himself, our Santa Claus comes called “Diyas” to symbolize light over dark and good over evil. We from the Clement Moore poem we know as ‘Twas the Night Before sometimes light sparklers outside if the weather is nice. Christmas. Moore’s inspiration for the description of Saint (In India there are major fireworks displays.) Our family Nicholas was a local Dutch handyman with “a round face dress in new traditional Indian outfits, gather with and a little round belly.” Moore originated many of the family and friends and enjoy an endless table of food.” features that are still linked with today’s Santa Claus (Sinterklaas in Dutch), such as a sleigh, and borrowed HanukkaH is the eight-day Festival of Lights that is other aspects, such as stockings and the use of reindeer. usually in December and celebrates an ancient miracle: After the Jews, under the leadership of Judas Macab- kwanzaa comes from a Swahili expression meaning baeus, defeated invaders that had desecrated the “First Fruits.” This spiritual holiday is based on ancient temple in Jerusalem in about 160 BCE, they set to work cleansing African harvest festivals and celebrates ideals such as the temple. However, they needed oil for the re-dedication and to family life and unity. The holiday was created by African observe Sukkot, a holiday they had been forbidden to celebrate. Americans in the early 1960s and is celebrated from December 26 Unfortunately, there was only one day’s worth of oil for one lamp, to January 1, when millions of Black Americans dress in special so a runner was sent to find more. Much to everyone’s surprise, clothes, decorate their homes with fruits and vegetables, and have when the runner returned with more oil eight days later, the lamp a special candle-lighting ceremony centered on a candle-holder was still burning – hence the eight days of the Festival of Lights. called a kinara. The kinara holds seven candles, each representing Beginning at sundown each day, Jews light a candle in a special a specific principle to follow in life. Each night of the holiday, the holder called a menorah to commemorate this miracle. Food is family lights a candle and discusses one of the seven plentiful during Hanukkah, notably potato pancakes called principles: unity; self-determination; collective work latkes. Gifts are exchanged and kids play a special game and responsibility; cooperative economics; purpose; with a four-sided top called a dreidel to win treats - creativity; and faith, all vital to a good life. chocolate coins, candy, nuts, or raisins. 2X 3 partway down and blow into the trumpet while shaking it!). And Every December, the Evanston Symphony Orchestra joins forces there’s also a hobby horse that pops up from the back row of the with our holiday partners, the North Shore Choral ESO at just the right time! Society, the Evanston Children’s Choir, the Evanston Dance Ensemble, and our very own ESO Holiday MuSic foR hanukkah. Since Hanukkah usually comes before Concert Gospel Choir to bring a festive holiday Christmas, music for that lovely Festival of Lights is next. Over the concert to our community. But the 2020 pan- past 30 years, the ESO has performed a number of medleys of demic has unfortunately prevented us from traditional Hanukkah songs, including Blessings for Hanukkah; Who participating in many of our treasured holiday Will Light the Narrow Candles?; Little Top, Spin, Spin, Spin; For the activities and traditions. So, the best the ESO can offer Miracles; Rock of Ages; and of course, I Have a Little Dreidel. you this December is a “virtual” Holiday Concert. We’ll talk about Another favorite because of its klezmer feel is Hanukkah, Oh some of the music here and then give you the links to either the Hanukkah, which gives all the holiday details in song: ESO, another orchestra, or one of our partner groups performing Hanukkah, Oh, Hanukkah And while we are playing the pieces of music. So, as we said on our welcome page “pour a Let's light the menorah The candles are burning low big mug or glass of your favorite beverage, put on your warmest Let's have a party One for each night, (virtual) hat, scarf and mittens, and sit back and enjoy this wonder- We'll all dance the hora They shed a sweet light fully bright and festive music!” Gather 'round the table, To remind us of days long ago We’ll give you a treat One for each night, A dreidel to play with They shed a sweet light Sleigh Ride Our virtual concert . And latkes to eat To remind us of days long ago absolutely must open with this fun piece of music by Leroy Anderson, which has been part of every ESO In the category of major choral works is George Frideric Handel’s Holiday Concert for the past 30 Judas Maccabaeus, with its triumphant march Hail the Conquering years! We gave a bio on Anderson in October when we high- Hero Comes, which tells the story of the great events that led to the lighted his “Typewriter” piece, so here’s a brief re-cap: He was a creation of Hanukkah. classical pianist, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard, and a WWII intelligence officer who spoke nine languages, including chRiStMaS choRal WoRkS. We’ll start off the Christmas portion Icelandic, but is best known today as someone composer and of the concert with another major choral work. While we provide Boston Pops maestro John Williams calls "one of the great links to several of these works on the links page, we’ll American masters of light orchestral music." Sleigh just mention our all-time favorite here: Randol Alan Ride is indeed one of these light orchestral works Bass’s Gloria! It’s sung in Latin, but you don’t need to and is great fun, especially with its jaunty rhythm and understand Latin to appreciate this musical work.