The Best Nativity Fast/Advent Music
Having trouble finding music to listen to this season?
Our Little Fox loves music. Whenever we start playing something she begins her version of dancing and if there is words she tries to sing along. Malls and other stores have already started playing Christmas music. But it is not Christmas yet! A few years ago I went on a long search to find a compilation of advent music. Besides O Come O Come Emmanuel, it was hard to find. Eventually I found enough songs I liked from different artists to put together a playlist. This week I transferred that to TheByzantineLife.com YouTube channel. And I thought I’d share my favourite advent songs with you all!
Best Advent Song Goes To…
Christ the Lord, sung by Sarah Hart and Robert Feduccia
The first verse is both my husband’s and my favourite. It starts “Darkness hangs, the world is aching, Yearning for the coming light. In his rising home awaking, Love has come to steal the night. In our hearts true east we’re facing, Towards the coming of our Lord.” The imagery is beautiful, deep, and feels very byzantine. Absolutely love it!
Other Greats
So I love the hymn, “The Angel Gabriel.” Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any artists who sing the version with mt favourite translation of the lyrics. Instead I’ve had to settle for others that sound beautiful, but don’t match the lyrics in my mind. If I am not listening closely I can sing my lyrics over the music anyway. All Angel’s does a lovely version you can watch here, or one by King’s College Choir here.
Bernadette Farrell does two of my advent music favourites: Litany of the Word and one we used as the entrance song at our wedding, Christ be Our Light. We got married three days before the start of the Nativity Fast, though I didn’t know it at that time. Either way both these songs are beautiful.
Come Thou Fount is another classic in Advent music. I chose two versions for our YouTube playlist. From All Sons and Daughters there is this one, and then this one from Audrey Assad. She’s a Catholic convert and I love her music, so if you haven’t heard her before, check her out!
O Come O Come Emmanuel
This song gets its own heading. There are just so many good versions of it. I had trouble narrowing it down to just a few for the playlist. I have a few more versions on my own itunes, including in Spanish, but here are the ones that made it to TheByzantineLife’s playlist.
Latin version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tId6ePj7Zpo&index=12&list=PLr-s-3NrQWZhj6JoliOoXwipvbO-hUndR
Instrumental from ThePianoGuys (piano and cello) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO7ySn-Swwc&list=PLr-s-3NrQWZhj6JoliOoXwipvbO-hUndR&index=3
English A Capella version from Pentatonix – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTsCC0hwL5g&list=PLr-s-3NrQWZhj6JoliOoXwipvbO-hUndR&index=9
English with Catholic Artist Matt Maher https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHnShpvbAlE&list=PLr-s-3NrQWZhj6JoliOoXwipvbO-hUndR&index=20
And then a version with a twist, called Emmanuel, by Steve Angrisano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFghkY6OwA0&index=19&list=PLr-s-3NrQWZhj6JoliOoXwipvbO-hUndR
Other Advent Music
Some other songs I like include The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns, which is a bit more upbeat, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, and Ready the Way by Curtis Stephan. O Come Divine Messiah also has a faster tempo. Lo, How A Rose E’re Blooming is another of my favourites, and I’ve put two versions on the playlist. First an A Capella version, and secondly, an instrumental version. Finally there is Maranatha Come Lord Jesus, and the Magnificat – I like the version with Kristyn Getty. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zNzCL8lOn4
The Whole Playlist on our YouTube Channel
And for your convenience, this advent music is all available to listen to on one YouTube playlist!
Do you have any other advent favourites? Let me know in the comments. I would love more great music to listen to during the Nativity Fast. Also be sure to check out our other article on the Nativity Fast and Advent, and read about the Feast of St. Nicholas.
