The northeastern region of India with its multiplicity of around 400 tribes and sub-tribes along with varied music, songs, dances and cultures, is an anthropologist's delight.The region, comprising eight states, is also a paradise of .
The Choir incorporated Hebrew, Persian, Urdu and Khasi in the album
SHILLONG: From October, the Shillong Chamber Choir (SCC) has been on a virtual hunt of sorts. The attempt to record a hymn in ancient Aramaic the now-dead language believed to have been spoken by Christ himself took India’s best-known choir from Shillong to Switzerland. The result a version of ‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’ with lyrics in English and ancient Aramaic, which dropped on December 18 has been viewed 3.5 million times on YouTube and has furthered the choir’s reputation of multi-linguality.
Not just Aramaic, ‘Come Home Christmas’, the eight-track album the hymn belongs to, incorporates Hebrew, Persian and Urdu, besides Khasi. This, the choir explained stemmed from a desire to bring back the Mediterranean in the story of Christmas and gently remind audiences that Christ was, after all, west Asian.
Shillong Chamber Choir
Go Tell It On The Mountain as a disco song,
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen performed with a nod to Queen, and several kings instead of just three visiting Jesus Christ after his birth. Those are just few of the several surprises in
Come Home Christmas, the new album by Shillong Chamber Choir.
Conceptualised by the choir’s founder Neil Nongkynrih, the December 18 release offers Christmas carols and gospel songs featuring instruments and languages from West Asia.
The tracks include sections in ancient Aramaic, Hebrew, Farsi, Urdu, and Khasi, the first language for Nongkynrih and most of his group. The instruments used include darbuka, ney, oud, duduk, and saz. Additionally, the carols are blended with passages from George Fredric Handel’s mid-18th century oratorio