Carey Landry and Carol Jean Kinghorn, composers of some of the most popular music for children and for liturgy over the past 35 years, have created their first Christmas collection! Designed for adult choirs, children's choirs, liturgical celebrations, liturgies with children and catechetical moments, How Beautiful Is the Child offers 14 wonderful new songs for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany.
The collection opens with "Season Full of Promise," a delightful round for children's choir, and "Waiting in Silence," a hauntingly beautiful Advent hymn. Other highlights include Carey's arrangement of his classic hymn "Hail Mary: Gentle Woman" and "Silent Night" to form a beautiful medley; an innovative setting of the traditional hymn "The Friendly Beasts," which children will love; and several pieces in which the adult choir and the children's choir sing together. From energetic music for children to more contemplative hymns for adults, Carey and Carol have included songs in a variety of musical styles, both contemporary and traditional.
Contents:
Offering songs that unite liturgies throughout Advent and Christmas, this collection is accessible—simplifying the planning required for these seasons—and inspiring, drawing us into a more sincere celebration of Christ’s incarnation and presence in our world today.
Knowing the difficulty of introducing new music at this busy time of year, Dan has created easy-to-learn contemporary arrangements of many traditional melodies. The collection includes psalm settings for use throughout Advent and Christmas, allowing a community to learn and use one refrain setting for all the Sundays of each season. In an effort to promote unity within Advent and Christmas, Dan provided hymns that can be woven into the liturgy throughout the weeks of each season. He’s included extensive texts for these seasonal hymns to accommodate the changing themes of each week.
Christians everywhere long for peace, harmony and justice in the world. We continue to hope for the fulfillment of God’s promise to us, which began with the birth of Jesus. The 14 songs in Prince of Peace give voice to these hopes and longings, reminding us that God wasn't born just once in time, but takes flesh for us every day, and each year.
