Vox Does Christmas music

Rediscovering the sacred

by James Leonard

posted 12/15/2003

There are basically only two kinds of Christmas music: sacred and profane. The profane includes everything from "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" to "Jingle Bell Rock," and most of it is sentimental at best and inane at worst. The sacred includes everything from "O Little Town of Bethlehem" to "Away in a Manger," and most of it is nostalgic at best and insipid at worst. But while there is very, very little truly great profane Christmas music, there is an enormous amount of truly great sacred Christmas music. One has to go back to find it,

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