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I'm curious how Byzantines do Christmas liturgy. Should be nice.

Let us know! Would this be the vigil or the Midnight Mass? I'd think Midnight would be sung as a High Mass, and would be outstanding. Not sure about the vigil.

David and I went to a concert last night to hear Boston Camerata, a group that specializes in singing "Early Music". After the intermission, and before they started singing the second half of the concert, the director talked about the period instruments that were being played. They had a vielle, the Medieval precursor to the violin. The director said that at the time the violin was introduced, it had such a much sharper sound than the vielle, that it was considered almost vulgar, laughing about how attitudes have changed over the years, so now the violin is considered highbrow. They also had a viola da gamba, which looked like an early cello. Both instruments made gorgeous mellow sounds. One man was playing a sackbut, which I'd heard about, but never seen. It's like a slide trumpet, and I guess is what evolved into the trombone. It had a very rich sound like an English Horn, though, not brassy. He and the man who was the countertenor for the group also played the trumpet, which was the old 'herald' type instrument. The countertenor also played a VEY old cornet, which looked like an oboe that was curved at it went down through the bell end; strange looking, but again a gorgeous sound. The director of the group, Joel Cohen, played a lute, too. It was the first time I'd ever seen one in person, and the sound was just lovely. All of the instruments really blended well with the human voice, so they accompanied the singers wonderfully.

This was their French program. They'd done a program of Mediterranean music earlier in the season, but I really wanted to hear this one of Christmas music. They only sang two songs that are one the CD's of the group that I already have, so it was nice hearing lots of new material.