Another year bites the dust

I hosted today's session of the Music Group, the last session of the year because of Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. It's a group tradition to concentrate on Christmas music each year for our final session. Maybe it isn't all that strange that all but one music choice was vocal, but that's how it turned out, but only one of the seven choices being non-vocal. The variety was terrific, ranging from the seventeenth century to the present day.

We made a bit of a fuss. One of the guys brought prosecco, another brought individual stollens, and I made up some Glüwein. It was just a spice pack from my local offie and a cheap bottle of red, but it turned out rather nice. Everything came together to create a really good celebratory atmosphere.

Inevitably, there was an element of nostalgia and reminiscence. Back in January we were still reduced to meeting virtually by Zoom (thank goodness that's out of the way!), so we were thanking providence for being fully returned to normal. The dreadful war in Ukraine cast a shadow over things, marked by the musical inclusion of the wonderfully calm music of Valentin Silvestrov, a Ukrainian composer who had to flee his country after the invasion and is now living in exile.

So that's it for this year. The whole thing kicks off again on 7th January when we have a themed day — music from operetta, musicals and film. It's always a good day, easing us gradually back into another musical year. In the mean time, today's session was really great.