Christmas music is such a major part of that holiday’s season that we annually see “arguments” about the proper time to start listening to our Christmas playlists. For me, Christmas music starts as the Thanksgiving turkey is digesting and not before! After that, it’s not fully Advent/Christmas season until I listen to Handel’s The Messiah. Though technically more of an Easter piece, it’s performed so often  in December, we now associate it with Christmas. Easter is almost here, so if you want to listen to it again, I won’t count that against you!

A few years ago, I realized two things: there is a vast body of chorale music other than The Messiah. Secondly, Easter and Christmas aren’t the only holy days of the church year. I wondered if my enjoyment of Christmas came not just from the gifts, but feeling as though the music sacralized it, setting it apart from the rest of the year and imbuing it with an intentional, specific joy.

Could I play other musical masterpieces Oratorios or choral works every year during Christian holidays so that the music would help get me into the right mindset of the season? Sort of a personal, annual liturgy?

I tried it, and I have to say several years into it now, it works!

I look forward to my annual listening of Bach’s transcendent classic, St. Matthew’s Passion, during Holy Week (SOON, me pretties!), or Mendelssohn’s musical triumph, Paul, at Pentecost. [See my whole list below.]

In fact, this is what the Psalms were for the people of Israel: music during their festivals to remember God’s protection and provision of His people and to aid in worship. At the Last Supper, Jesus Himself sang one with His disciples before his long, agonizing journey to the cross.

There won’t be “time” in heaven as we know it, but we know there will be music. I wonder if we will use the music to mark the rhythms of our worship of the Lamb as endless ages roll. Hallelujah!

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My Liturgical Playlist

Advent/Christmas (the Beginning the Church Year) – The Messiah, Georg Fredrich Handel

Old and New Testament woven together to give the prophecies of the Messiah. An excellent choice when preparing to celebrate the birth of the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth.

Transfiguration Sunday (February/pre-Lent) – Elijah [Elias], Felix Mendelssohn

Seen with Jesus (and Moses) at the Transfiguration in the New Testament, Elijah was an Old Testament prophet, who God often led into the wilderness during his ministry before his ascension by a Chariot of Fire. A fine choice before the preparatory season of Lent.

Holy Week (March/April) – St. Matthew’s Passion, Johann Sebastian Bach

Taken from the gospel account in St. Matthew, Bach’s famous oratorio follows the King of the Jews on His week before His crucifixion (called Passion Week). Follow up with Bach’s Easter Oratorio because the story doesn’t end with Christ’s death!

Pentecost (May/June) – Paul [Paulus], Felix Mendelssohn

At Pentecost, God sent the Spirit to His Apostles and the gospels was preached “to the nations.” St. Paul, the missionary to the Gentiles, is the focus of this Oratorio by Mendelssohn. Switch things up and listen to Mendelssohn’s Paul on January 25 the date the church observes the Conversion of St. Paul and move Elijah to the Feast of the Transfiguration on August 6 for fun! (Yes, the church celebrates the Transfiguration twice!)

July – The Apostles, Sir Edward Elgar

Several of Christ’s disciples have feast days in July. The Apostles is written from their perspective during the time of Christ’s ministry. Elgar’s second Oratorio, The Kingdom, also follows the apostles, but after the events of Pentecost.

Rosh Hashanah (September/October) – The Creation, Josef Haydn

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, which they associate as the time when God created the earth. What better way to observe than with this Haydn masterpiece?