Our Kind of Spirituals, No. 63: Enya, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

You’d think there would be dozens of versions of this song by rock and roots musicians – U2, for instance: it’s in a moody minor key, it’s about ransoming captives, and it strikes a religious note with artful obliquity.

But no: All that iTunes and YouTube push up are frankly pretty wan versions by Sufjan Stevens and the Punch Brothers – and this epic (as in film epic) version by Enya, who sounds like she was born to sing it, and no wonder, because she probably grew up singing it.

Turns out U2 rooted their song “White as Snow” in “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” both the music and the words – which deal with a dying soldier what turns out to be his final journey home from the war in Afghanistan. That’s apt this Advent season – one as thick with awful news of captives (held by ISIS) as any since those of 1979 and 1980.

What I’ve always loved about this song – the original hymn, I mean – is the darkness of it. It stays in the minor key. Even the “Rejoice” chorus refuses the invitation (heard by latter-day western ears, that is) to go into the major. Not yet, the hymn seems to say – not till Christmas.

What I love about Enya’s version is the spaciousness of it. A synthesizer, Enya’s voice, and – what else? Enya’s voice, triple- or quadruple-tracked to make a choir.

Come here, those voices seem to say. Come to this empty place, to this clearing in time, and fill it.