The Lutheran Voice Children's Choir - Silent Night
Of all the thrift stores in all the towns in all the world, this album found mine.
I never expected to see an actual Taiwanese Christmas album here in Fort Wayne. But this cover stood out like a someone wearing a White Sox jersey at a Cubs game in Wrigley Field.
With the exception of the title, the artist, and the city of origin, and the names of the songs on the back cover, there is no other printing in English. What's worse is I'm not certain of the language printed all over the covers and insert.
This album contains fourteen Christmas songs sung by a children's choir either in Chinese, Cantonese, Korean, or Philippino. It's fun, touching, and a treat to hear these favorites in a brand new way.
And if the final seven songs sound like the album's warped, you're only half right. When I transferred this, I noticed the grooves on side two were off-center. This meant the needle was bucking and weaving side-to-side like a seismologist's needle during a mild earthquake!
I wish I had the capacity to record a YouTube video and post video of this needle swaying in the wind - it's the darnedest thing I've ever seen when transferring an album.
The Lutheran Voice Children's Choir - Silent Night
Happy listening...
Capt
Comments
The language on this album is the one I see every day- Traditional Chinese Characters- used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Overseas communities. The mainland, while sharing the same official language (what you call Chinese is Mandarin, the Beijing Dialect), uses a simplified set of characters. They read the same, but with fewer strokes required to write them.
And the kids are singing in Mandarin as well. the insert.jpg is a transcription of the lyrics. each character is one syllable long, though I imagine it'd be impossible for you to follow along. I remember when I first moved here how it seemed chinese was an impenetrable wall of impossibility.
anyway- this is a real treat for me- thanks so much.
-anthony
Thanks so much & merry xmas to ya & yr family~
azul
Thanks for giving us the answers about the language and for leaving us a comment all the way from Taiwan!
Azul - Glad you enjoyed the album!
Capt
Capt
We had the BEST choir director, Mr. Lin, who along with his wife the accompanist taught us to sing in parts, to listen to each other, to feel the text and sing with appropriate emotions. This choir quickly became quite successful and were invited to sing in many churches, gymnasiums, and concert halls. We went on week-long concert tours of the island of Taiwan visiting many cities. We even flew to Hong Kong for a concert tour there as well!! That was quite unheard of for children’s group back then, unless you were the Vienna Boys’ Choir, of course.
Our repertoire included hymns, anthems, Chinese folk songs, western folk songs, and Latin masses, sung in Mandarin, English, and Latin. My all time favorite was Sanctus by Charles Gounod. What an absolutely gorgeous piece for children voicing!
The children that came after us started to record albums. Yours is one of those albums. What a surprise to see your post! It brought back such sweet memories…