A concert by Harald Haugaard and Helene Blum inspired me to create not just one, but two new lyrics. Both are rough translations—really loose paraphrases—designed to let us to sing great Danish music in English.
The second of these extends my recent train of thought about what makes good Christmas music, beginning in earlier posts on Staffansvisa and Every Star Shall Sing a Carol. If you’re tired of the theological path I’ve veered down lately, I almost have it out of my system, although tomorrow I'll continue one more day with the pot-smoking Lutheranism of none other than Miley Cyrus.
To close their holiday concert, Helene sang “Dejlig er Jorden,” a Danish lyric to a familiar tune known in the US as “Beautiful Savior.” Harald tells me “this is the Christmas song in Denmark.” The performance was superb, sounding similar to this.
Onto this sound I projected the standard English words I learned as a child. But here began some disquiet. Bundling those ideas with the tune functioned, for me, to end the concert on a slightly deflated note. Everything else rang perfectly true, but this closing selection seemed, not exactly bad, but pointing a few degrees off center.
I wondered if Helene was singing other lyrics than what I imagined. A quick search established that there are Danish and German versions—significantly different—and I was thinking about the German ideas while she sang the Danish ones. When I learned the gist of the Danish meanings, this seemed to put me back on track....
NOTE: a post about this song originally followed here. But then I rewrote it twice, while also improving the first draft of my lyrics. So I refer you to the later versions also tagged "Dejlig Er Jorden."