When I was a kid, I played the clarinet. One of my more cherished books of sheet music was a Christmas carol collection that came with a cassette tape for accompaniment. (I am that old).
Within the typical options of Silent Night and Up On a Housetop was a song I’d never heard before. One I adored and thought was the prettiest and softest song–akin to watching snow tumble in fat flakes against the window pane. But, when I lost my sheet music so too went the song.
I remembered that the title was Jesu something but it’s not Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring. My endless searching couldn’t dig up an answer. I put the song and the idea of finding it ever again from my mind.
Then, this year, a happenstance. I put on a collection of random instrumental carols on youtube and there it was! Like an angel plucked from my memory. The song! But there was no track. No title. No explanation of what it was.
Thank god for smartphones or it’d have once again vanished to the ether. Asking Google Assistant to help, it told me that the lost song was called “Gesu Bambino.”
At long last, after all these years of searching and abandoning hope, I got to hear the song again. Funny how just hearing the notes puts me back into the age of twelve, sitting in my grandma’s living room by the tree, and playing along with that old white cassette tape.
Here, I want you all to listen along with me. Maybe one of you will find the same joy in it as I do.
Ellen Mint 