A Song, A Song High above the Trees

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Blessed Solstice
...and all that jazz!

I have an eclectic variety of Christmas and Winter Solstice music in my vast collection of CDs and old LPs.  One of my favorite holiday songs is "The Bells of Bethlehem" hardly ever heard anywhere and recorded only twice that I know of.  I have jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd playing the lovely little carol in his typical fingerstyle on a compilation of his solo guitar Christmas music. Listening to that song led me to hunt down classical guitar music for Christmas and wintertime. Recently I came across this lovely upbeat tune though many guitarists play it much slower in tempo. Entitled Villancicco de Navidad it was written by little known Paraguayan composer Agustín Barrios Mangoré (1885-1944).

Well... little known if you live in the USA and only listen to contemporary music. If you listen to or play classical guitar you may very well know him. He was one of the most prolific composers for that instrument when he was alive. After searching online for a suitable video I found this quick video of Costa Rican classical guitarist David Coto playing the tune. He re-recorded it this year only a two weeks ago, but I prefer this first version he recorded in 2019 because of the close-ups of his hands on the strings. Enjoy!

 

Whoever or whatever you believe in, however you celebrate this end of the year, have a memorable and magical time. Make the most of it you wonderful people out there in the dark! Looking forward to more literary Lost in Limbo discoveries and sharing them with you in a hopefully saner, more humane and compassionate 2026.