And of course, there’s Mike Oldfield’s unforgettably jaunty version… Many composers have since been influenced by its melody, including Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Liszt with his piano suite Weihnachtsbaum and Gustav Holst. This carol is a mixture of both German and Latin text, and dates back to the Middle Ages. The carol was set to music a year later by organist H.J Gauntlett. The words were first written by children’s poet Mrs Cecil Frances Alexander, who is remembered for her hymn ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’. The most common musical setting was adapted from an English melody in 1874 by Arthur Sullivan.īelieved to have first been published in the early nineteenth century, this carol paints a vivd picture of the nativity. The lyrics for this carol were written by Massachusetts pastor Edmund Sears and refer to ideas of war and peace. Three years later in 1871, his church organist Lewis Redner wrote the melody for the local Sunday school children’s choir. The lyrics refer to the ‘Massacre of the Innocents’ by King Herod, who in an attempt to ensure the death of the baby Jesus, ordered the death of all male children under the age of two in Bethlehem.įollowing a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Rector Phillips Brooks wrote the text to this hymn after he was inspired by the view of Bethlehem from the hills of Palestine. This carol can be traced all the way back to 16th-century England. Read more: The lyrics and true story behind ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel’ The music for the hymn was composed in such a way that both the English and Latin words can be used interchangeably. Sung at both Advent and Christmas, this hymn originates from Latin but was translated to English in 1861.
Read more: What are the lyrics to ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’? The hymn also features in the 1992 film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, when it is played by a symphony orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Possible candidates include King John IV of Portugal and John Francis Wade, while composers Handel and Gluck have been suggested as the brains behind the melody. It is unclear who first wrote the music or lyrics to this hymn. With lyrics written by Charles Wesley, and set to a tune by Mendelssohn, this carol was always going to be one of the most recognisable and popular ones on the list. The choir of King’s College, Cambridge use it every year at Christmas. But which one should you choose? There’s the popular version by Holst, or an arrangement by choral whizz Bob Chilcott – but you’re probably most likely to hear Harold Edward Darke’s setting. Nothing says ‘Christmas’ like a choral arrangement of ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’. In the Bleak Mid-Winter – Harold Darke version
Read more: What are the lyrics to ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ – and which version is better?Ĥ. The poem became recognised as a carol after it appeared in The English Hymnal in 1906, with music by Gustav Holst. In the Bleak Mid-Winter – Gustav Holst versionīased on a poem by the English poet Christina Rossetti, this carol was written sometime before 1872 in response to a magazine request for a Christmas poem.
0 kommentar(er)
