The Gold Musician Angel is about 4½ inches tall, 4 inches across and 1¼ inches deep. The Angel has a gold wire frame. The arms and body of the gold wire frame are covered with Capiz Shell. The Angel is holding a gold metal Lyre. The Angel can stand on your mantle or shelf or hang from a loop of transparent thread. Select this link to view our Angel Ornaments.
Angels.
Literally messengers, these emissaries of God play an important role in the Nativity and subsequent Christmas celebrations through the ages. It is the angel Gabriel, who begins the Nativity story by his appearance in ancient Palestine to announce a remarkable pair of births. To an elderly couple, beyond the normal years of parenthood, he announces that they will have a son who is to be called John (later known as the Baptist). To a young virgin, Mary, kin to the first couple, Gabriel announces that she has found favor with God and will bear a child engendered by the Holy Spirit. In order that Joseph, Mary’s betrothed, does not repudiate her, the angel fills him in on the divine secret. When, at length, the child is born in Bethlehem, a great host of angels announces the news to shepherds in nearby fields. When the local ruler, Herod, appears bent on murdering the child, an angel warns the family to flee to Egypt and advises them later that it is safe to return. Select this link to view our Capiz Shell Christmas Ornaments.
Angels have long been symbols of Christmas in the form of ornaments, especially as tree toppers. Christmas cookies are baked in angel shapes. In Lithuania the traditional wafer is termed bread of the angels. They have always been a popular theme on Christmas cards and are indispensable in manger scenes where they hover over the stable. Henry Suso dreamt that angels came to comfort him, took him by the hand and led him in a dance while one sang “In Dolci Jubilo.” When he woke he wrote the music down in the form of a carol, which became “Good Christian Men Rejoice”. Angels have been the subject of Christmas music in many lands, particularly in their role as annunciators of the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. From France came Les Anges Dans Nos Campagnes, which has been translated into English as “Angels From The Realms of Glory.” From Moravia we have “Angels and Shepherds.” From England, “Angels We Have Heard on High“, “Hark The Herald Angels Sing“, and “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night.” American angel carols include “It Came Upon The Midnight Clear.” Select this link to view our Crystal Angel Pins.
The Lyre.
A classical lyre has a hollow body also known as sound box or resonator. Extending from this sound chest are two raised arms, which are sometimes hollow and are curved both outward and forward. They are connected near the top by a crossbar or yoke. An additional crossbar, fixed to the sound chest, forms the bridge which transmits the vibrations of the strings. The deepest note was that farthest from the player's body. The strings were of gut. They were stretched between the yoke and bridge, or to a tailpiece below the bridge. There were two ways of tuning: one was to fasten the strings to pegs which might be turned; the other was to change the place of the string upon the crossbar; probably both expedients were used simultaneously. Select this link to view our Crystal Guardian Angel Pins.
According to ancient Greek mythology, the young god Hermes created the lyre from a large tortoise shell which he covered with animal hide and antelope horns. Lyres were associated with Apollonian virtues of moderation and equilibrium, contrasting with the Dionysian pipes and aulos, both of which represented ecstasy and celebration. Select this link to view our Nativity Scene with Angel.