Merry Christmas Eve! As promised, I’m returning the topic to Christmas Carols this week, although I hope you didn’t mind the brief detour to Rachmaninoff’s Bells. I spent some time this week thinking what the most fitting carol would be for this Christmas season, and one kept returning to my mind- In the Bleak Midwinter.
The winter solstice having just passed for what is the darkest winter we likely have ever had to endure, the title alone seems to describe the state we are in. There are many musical settings of this poem, but the two most popular are by Harold Darke and Gustav Holst. Holst enjoyed more success with his compositions on the whole, notably his symphonic set of The Planets. (You’ve probably heard Mars played by a marching band at a football game, or sung the slow middle section of Jupiter at Church.) But Darke’s setting of In the Bleak Midwinter was the one that was selected as the best carol written in a poll of choirmasters and choral experts from around the world.
The poem, by Christina Rossetti in 1872, is 5 stanzas long. The first and last of the stanzas are the ones that stick with me as I listen to this piece. The first describing the desolation of winter, and the last giving an action to fight that desolation- giving of heart:
In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan;
Earth stood hard as iron,
winter like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.
What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a Sheperd
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.
The Holst setting is in a major key (major tonalities generally are viewed as happier in tone). Yet there is a wistfulness through the tune. An earnest sadness moves through most of the piece, yet it never actually leaves the major key that is established at the start. I would recommend listening to two different versions of this piece. The first, is an acapella rendition of the hymn exactly as Holst wrote it. The second, an arrangement by Mark Wilberg with orchestra accompanying a choir singing Holst’s hymn which highlights some of that wistful sadness.
While the Darke setting is also in a major key, it has a happier feeling in my opinion. It almost is as if it’s describing a winter from years past. Ease and contentment are the overriding feelings I get from listening to this, very unlike the Holst, even though the poem that inspired them both is unchanged. This recording is the original setting for organ and choir.
Through picking this hymn, I unintentionally betrayed my Alma Mater as both the composers attending the Royal College of Music, friendly rivals of my Royal Academy of Music where I went for my masters degree. And so, I would be remiss to not include an arrangement of Darke’s hymn by a fellow student from the Academy. This acapella arrangement by Jacob Collier (who also was nominated for album of the year at the Grammys next month) includes some special bells, electronic effects, and contrabass instruments. It also is theoretically non-functional in many places, and uses micro-tonalities to create some quite magical moments. If you have any questions on this arrangement, or any of the others, feel free to send me an email and I’ll go into it more!
I wish all of you a most happy Christmas, and I can not wait to return to making music with you in person in the coming year.
-John