Tonight, we completed our final pre-Christmas ritual:  we attended the Bach Society’s Candlelight Concert at Powell Hall.

This concert is the most popular Christmas concert in the St. Louis area and has been a tradition since 1951.  The concert includes the Bach Society orchestra and a 55-voice chorus.  It is beautiful, special, and inspiring.  This year, the highlighted musical selection was the Magnificat, Mary’s response to the news that she would be the mother of the Christ Child.  The orchestra director pointed out that it would be more appropriate to play this in March but, over the years, it has become associated with Christmas and the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child.

The second half of the program is comprised of well-known religious Christmas carols.  The stage lights dim and the chorus–each member holding a candle–enters the darkened auditorium from the back and walks down the aisles and around the seating sections of the auditorium until they have encircled the audience.  They sing all the while, so the music is all around us.  The adult chorus exits through the rear doors and the youth chorus (high school age kids) comes onstage in red robes, sings several carols, and exits.  Then the audience sings two carols with the accompaniment of the orchestra.  For the closing performance selection, both choruses enter from the rear and walk down all the aisles as they sing and re-group in a single line (150+ choristers) beginning on the stage and extending down along the outer walls of the auditorium.

The final carol of the evening, sung by the choristers and the audience, is Silent Night, during which both choruses walk into the aisles and again, surround the audience with music and candlelight.  When they finish Silent Night, the concert is over and the chorus members are in the auditorium.  They greet concert attendees as the attendees leave their seats and wish them a merry Christmas.  It’s a beautiful evening and puts us in the holiday spirit.

Just like Mary, we now anticipate the birth of the Christ Child.  Let Christmas begin (and end) with peace in our hearts.