Stories Behind Songs of
Inspiration.
by
An American Original
BROTHER LEE HALL
Is
there anyone in America who has not heard about "The Odd Couple", Felix
and Oscar? Two men of very opposite personalities and lifestyles sharing
an apartment. Well, this little story of the making of a Christmas song
that not only was 101 years in the making, but had another rather odd match
of the same names as these two.
Chuck
- a very gregarious, hard-working and plain-spoken song lyricist and poet.
Felix - a stoic man and avid lover of Classical tastes and talents.
Before
he died, Chuck had written over 6,500 songs. One such song was never well
known because it seems no one could come up with a musical score that made
the song pleasant to hear and sing. It can be assumed that this was a great
source of frustration for Chuck.
Felix, know to have been a childhood
prodigy who worked on symphonies and concerts in his adult life, became
a famous performer and composer. After many years, Felix composed a tune,
in part for the anniversary of one of the World's great inventions. This
tune carried the words and thoughts of Chuck's song on the wings of melodious
delight, and became a song people loved to hear and seemed to thoroughly
enjoy singing. Felix titled his tune:
"FESTGESANG, OPUS 68."
It
is indeed almost strange how sometimes the difference in people make for
beauty, and not conflict. For you see, the song Chuck or Charles (That's
Charles Wesley) wrote in about 1739, had to wait for the tune, Opus 68,
composed for the anniversary of the invention of the printing press in
1840, 101 years later by Felix, and that was (Felix Mendelssohn).
That tune and that song we
call:
"HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING."
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