Dives & Lazarus

There is some music I simply love. These variations on Dives and Lazarus, for instance, by Ralph Vaughan Williams:


Or Vaughan Williams Tallis Fantasia:


Or Samuel Barber's Adagio (which I totally want played at my funeral):

and has moments in it that make me hold my breath.

There is some music in this world that is so stirring, so powerfully emotive, that I have to listen. While these two pieces aren't Christmas pieces, many of them are, and I am grateful we're finally in the season when they return, like long-missed family and force me to think and feel beyond my everyday experience.