Advent Calendar – 7th December, 2020
Merry Christmas!
Danielle and Dave’s Advent Calendar
7th December, 2020
In the Bleak Midwinter
An adaptation of Gustav Holst’s setting
The words of this evocative carol are by Pre- Raphaelite poet Christina Rosetti (1830 -1894). She called it ‘A Christmas Carol’ in fact and it was first published in January 1872 in Scribner’s Monthly. Of course the midwinter imagery is a coupling of our own religious festival in the coldest time of year with the actual birth in Bethlehem which was extremely unlikely to have occurred in physically bleak midwinter conditions although spiritually it might be said to have been thus. All the words contain potent symbolism and imagery derived from different parts of the Bible.
This setting by Gustav Holst (1874 – 1934) makes a seemingly effortless musical structure from the metrical irregularity of the words and for that reason it is a popular congregational carol. It was published in the English Hymnal in 1906 and called Cranham after the place of that name in Gloucestershire which was the county of Holst’s birth.
Why do I love this carol? Well, it focuses on the gift of Christ’s birth in its simplicity.
1.
In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan;
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.
2.
Our God, heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain,
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty —
Jesus Christ.
3.
Enough for Him, whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom Angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.
4.
Angels and Archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air;
But only His Mother
In her maiden bliss
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.
5.
What can I give Him,
Poor as I am? —
If I were a Shepherd
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.
Recorded on Erat Grecian harp 1830s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
In_the_Bleak_Midwinter
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/occasions/christmas/in-the-bleak-midwinter-lyrics-song-carol-peaky/