What Child Is This?
The St. Olaf Christmas Festival - 1983
The Christmas Festival at St. Olaf College marks the beginning of the Advent/Christmas/Epiphany season for the thousands of people who attend the concerts year after year. For St. Olaf, the Festival is an outgrowth of Christian conviction and an expression of a rich musical heritage. The annual Christmas Festival was begun at St. Olaf by the late F. Melius Chrisitiansen as a worship service in song during the Christmas season of 1912 and has continued since that time.
Performing groups included are: the St. Olaf Choir, directed by Kenneth Jennings; the Chapel Choir and the Viking Chorus, directed by Robert Scholz; the Campus Choir, directed by John Ferguson; the Manitou Singers, directed by Sigrid Johnson; the St. Olaf College Orchestra, directed by Steven Amundson; and the St. Olaf Handbell Ensemble, directed by Robert Thompson.
The study and appreciation of music has been an important part of education in the liberal arts at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota since its founding in 1874. Established by Norwegian Lutheran immigrant pioneers with 37 students 109 yeas ago, the St. Olaf College today is a four-year, coeducational, liberal arts college of the American Lutheran Church with a student body of 2900. Students at St. Olaf College maintain a high caliber of scholastic achievement. The college ha earned an enviable reputation through-out the nation by the contribution of its graduates to science, education, business, the professions, and the clergy, as well to music.
The St. Olaf music department has long been held in high esteem. Along with 180 music majors, about one-fourth of all students are actively involved in the music program through course work, private lessons, or participation in on of the music organizations on campus.
The program was recorded digitally and videotaped in Skoglund Center Auditorium on the St. Olaf College campus by KTCA-TV (Public Television in the Twin Cities) for a special national Christmas telecast on Public Broadcast Service (PBS) stations. The telecast was simulcast nationally on National Public Radio (NPR).
0:00 Fantasia on "Greensleeves"
4:24 Lift Up Your Heads
7:46 Ruler of Heaven
9:56 Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming
13:06 Softly, Softly Fell the Snow
15:02 Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day
17:48 Salvation Is Created
21:28 Hodie, Christus natus est, HWC 319
23:30 O Come, All Ye Faithful
26:28 From Heaven Winging
28:17 From Heaven Above to Earth I Come
31:55 Shepards Dance
35:24 What Child Is This?
39:50 Spotless Rose
42:08 I Saw Three Ships
43:25 O Day, Full of Grace
47:21 The Death of David (and God said the Earth Shall Dawn)
51:57 All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name