"In the Bleak Midwinter" is a Christmas carol.

Although the lyrics were written as a poem by Christina Rossetti before 1872, it was published posthumously in Rossetti's Poetic Works in 1904 and became a Christmas carol after it appeared in The English Hymnal in 1906 with a setting by Holst.

According to the website CyberHymnal, Rossetti wrote these words in response to a request from the magazine Scribner's Monthly for a Christmas poem.^[1]

In 2008 Harold Darke's setting was named the best Christmas carol in a poll of some of the world's leading choirmasters and choral experts.^[2]

In verse one, Rossetti describes the physical characteristics of the Incarnation.

In the bleak midwinter

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 midwinter,

Long ago.

In verse two, Rossetti contrasts Christ's first and second coming.

Our God, heaven cannot hold him,

Nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When he comes to reign;

In the bleak midwinter

A stable place sufficed

The Lord God incarnate,

Jesus Christ.

The third verse dwells on Christ's birth and describes the simple surroundings, in a humble stable and watched by beasts of burden.

Enough for him, whom Cherubim

Worship night and day

A breast full of milk

And a manger full of hay.

Enough for him, whom angels

Fall down before,

The ox and ass and camel

which adore.

Rossetti achieves another contrast in the fourth verse, this time between the incorporeal angels attendant at Christ's birth with Mary's ability to render Jesus physical affection. This verse is omitted in the Harold Darke setting.

Angels and archangels

May have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim

Thronged the air;

But his mother only,

In her maiden bliss,

Worshipped the Beloved

With a kiss.

The final verse may be the most well known and loved. Here, Darke repeats the last line in his setting.

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.

The text of this Christmas poem has been set to music many times, the most famous settings being composed by Gustav Holst and Harold Edwin Darke in the early 20th century. There is another setting—less well known—from the same era, by Thomas B. Strong. Benjamin Britten includes a setting for chorus in his work "A Boy Was Born". Eric Thiman wrote a setting for solo voice and piano. More recently Bob Chilcott, at one time a member of The King's Singers, wrote a choral setting entitled "Mid-winter". Another recent setting is that by a Canadian, Robert C L Watson. The Holst version has been recorded by a number of popular recording artists, including Bert Jansch, Julie Andrews in 1982, Allison Crowe in 2004, Maire Brennan in 2005 and Sarah McLachlan in 2006, as well as by many choirs including the Robert Shaw Chorale and the choir of St. John's College, Cambridge. The Darke version, with its beautiful and delicate organ accompaniment, has also gained popularity among choirs in recent years, after the King's College Choir included it on its radio broadcasts of the Nine Lessons and Carols. (Incidentally, Darke served as conductor of the choir during World War II.)

The carol was first performed in the Nikolaus-Kirche (Church of St. Nicholas) in Oberndorf, Austria on December 24, 1818. Mohr had composed the words much earlier, in 1816, but on Christmas Eve brought them to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the church service.^[2]

In his written account regarding the composition of the carol, Gruber gives no mention of the specific inspiration for creating the song. According to the song's history provided by Austria's Silent Night Society, one supposition is that the church organ was no longer working so that Mohr and Gruber therefore created a song for accompaniment by guitar. Silent Night historian, Renate Ebeling-Winkler says that the first mention of a broken organ was in a book published in the U.S. in 1909.

Once In Royal David's City was published in 1848 in Miss Cecil Humphreys' hymnbook Hymns for little Children. A year later, H.J. Gauntlett discovered the poem and set it to music.

Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

Since 1919, the King's College Chapel (King's College, Cambridge) has begun its Christmas Eve service, the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, with "Once in Royal David's City" as the processional. The first verse is sung by a boy chorister of the Choir of King's Chapel as a solo. The second verse is sung by the choir, and the congregation joins in the third verse. Excluding the first verse, the hymn is accompanied by the organ. The arrangement, by A H Mann, is slightly different in harmony from the setting in Hymns Ancient and Modern. As the service is broadcast live on the BBC World Service, it is estimated that there are millions of listeners worldwide who tune in to this service.

The City

The city that the song speaks of is Bethlehem, which the New Testament records as the historical birthplace of Jesus and also of his ancestor King David.

Recordings

This song has been recorded by the King's College Choir, Cantillation Sinfonia Australis, The Chieftains, Jane Sheldon, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Jethro Tull, and popular singer Sufjan Stevens on his compilation album Songs for Christmas.

This carol was the first recording that the King's College Choir under Boris Ord made for EMI in 1948.

Lyrics

Once in royal David's city

Stood a lowly cattle shed,

Where a mother laid her baby

In a manger for His bed:

Mary was that mother mild,

Jesus Christ her little child.

He came down to earth from heaven,

Who is God and Lord of all,

And His shelter was a stable,

And His cradle was a stall;

With the poor, and mean, and lowly,

Lived on earth our Savior Holy.

And through all His wondrous childhood

He would honor and obey,

Love and watch the lowly Maiden,

In whose gentle arms He lay:

Christian children all must be

Mild, obedient, good as He.

For He is our childhood's pattern; (1)

Day by day, like us He grew;

He was little, weak and helpless,

Tears and smiles like us He knew;

And He feeleth for our sadness,

And He shareth in our gladness.

And our eyes at last shall see Him,

Through His own redeeming love;

For that Child so dear and gentle

Is our Lord in heaven above,

And He leads His children on

To the place where He is gone.

Not in that poor lowly stable,

With the oxen standing by,

We shall see Him; but in heaven,

Set at God's right hand on high;

Where like stars His children crowned (2)

All in white shall wait around.

(1) Or: "Jesus" is our childhood's pattern

(2) Or: "When" like stars His children crown'd

"Adeste Fideles" is the name of a hymn tune attributed to John Francis Wade and the first line of the Latin text for which the tune was written. The text itself has unclear beginnings, and may have been written in the 13th century, though it has been concluded that Wade was probably the author,^[1] and it has been interpreted as a Jacobite birth ode to Bonnie Prince Charlie.^[2]

The original four verses of the hymn were extended to a total of eight, and these have been translated into many languages many times, though the English "O Come All Ye Faithful" translation by Frederick Oakeley^[3] is particularly widespread.

Before the emergence of John Francis Wade as the probable composer, the tune had been purported to be written by several musicians; from John Reading and his son, to Handel including a Portuguese musician, Marcos Antonio da Fonseca who wasn't born until after the tune was first published. There are several similar musical themes written around that time, though it can be hard to determine whether these were written in imitation of the hymn, the hymn was based on them, or they are totally unconnected.

The earliest existing manuscript shows both words and tune. It was published in the 1760 edition of Evening Offices of the Church. John Francis Wade included it in his own publication of Cantus Diversi (1751). It also appeared in Samuel Webbe's An Essay on the Church Plain Chant (1782).

Text

The original text was at one time attributed to various groups and individuals, including claims that it was written by the 13th century St. Bonaventure or King John IV of Portugal. Though it was more commonly believed that the text was written by an order of monks, the Cistercian, German, Portuguese and Spanish orders have, at various times been given credit.

The original text consisted of four Latin verses, and it was with these that the hymn was originally published, however The Abbé Etienne Jean Francois Borderies wrote an additional three verses in the early 18th century. These are normally printed as the third to fifth of seven verses, while another anonymous additional Latin verse is rarely printed. The text has been translated innumerable times, but the most used version today is the English "O Come, All Ye Faithful". This is a combination of one of Frederick Oakeley's translations of the original four verses, and by William Thomas Brooke of the remainder, which was first published in Murray's Hymnal in 1852.

Source Wikipedia

Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), an Episcopal priest, Rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, was inspired when he was visiting the little town of Bethlehem in 1865. Three years later, he wrote the poem for his church and his organist, Lewis Redner, added the music. Redner's tune, simply titled "St. Louis", is the tune used most often for this carol in the United States. Meanwhile, the English tune "Forest Green", adapted by Ralph Vaughan Williams, is the tune most often used for this carol in the United Kingdom and sometimes in the U.S. as well, especially in the Episcopal Church.

Another version by H. Walford Davies, called "Wengen", is usually performed only by choirs rather than as a congregational hymn. This is because the first two verses are for treble voices with organ accompaniment, with only the final verse as a chorale/refrain harmony. This setting includes a recitative from the Gospel of Luke at the beginning, and cuts verses 2 and 4 of the original 5-verse carol. This version is traditionally used at the service of Nine Lessons and Carols in Kings College, Cambridge.

Lyrics

O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee to-night.

O morning stars, together
Proclaim the holy birth!
And praises sing to God the King,
And peace to men on earth.
For Christ is born of Mary,
And gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love.

How silently, oh how silently,
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him, still
The dear Christ enters in.

Where children pure and happy
Pray to the blessed Child,
Where misery cries out to thee,
Son of the mother mild;
Where charity stands watching
And faith holds wide the door,
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks,
And Christmas comes once more.

O holy Child of Bethlehem!
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us to-day.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel!

O come, O come, Emmanuel is a translation of the Catholic Latin text ("Veni, veni, Emmanuel") by John Mason Neale in the mid-19th century. It is a metrical version of a collation of various Advent Antiphons (the acrostic O Antiphons), which now serves as a popular Advent and Christmas hymn. Its origins are unclear, it is thought that the antiphons are from at least the 8th Century, but "Veni, veni Emmanuel" may well be 12th Century in origin.^[1][2] The text is based on the biblical prophesy from Isaiah 7:14 that states that God will give Israel a sign that will be called Immanuel (Lit.: God with us). Matthew 1:23 states fulfillment of this prophecy in the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

Musical setting

It is believed that the traditional music stems from a 15th Century French processional for Franciscan nuns, but it may also have 8th Century Gregorian origins. It is one of the most solemn Advent hymns.

One widespread practice in the Catholic church has two subsequent verses sung each week of Advent, beginning with the First Sunday of Advent as verses 1 & 2. The Second Sunday of Advent, verses 3 & 4 are sung. On the Third Sunday of Advent, verses 5 & 6. On the Fourth Sunday of Advent however, verses 1 & 7 are then sung.

Performance variations exist today over the rhythm of the music. Many performances pause after "Emmanuel" in both the verse and the chorus, or extend the final syllable through a similar count. Often however, performances omit these pauses to emphasize the meaning of the chorus: "Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee O Israel". If a pause is included, the meaning may be confused, as an audible comma is perceived between "Emmanuel" and "shall come to thee...", changing the grammatical subject of the sentence from Israel to Emmanuel. Rushing the first and final lines to omit the pause produces a greater sense of movement, which may or may not be desirable in performance as it contrasts with the unhurried pace of the remainder of the song.

Ottorino Respighi quotes the melody in "The Gift of the Magi" in his Trittico Botticelliano.

The composer James MacMillan wrote a percussion concerto based on this carol in 1991, and it was later premiered during the 1992 BBC Proms.

The composer Arvo Part wrote a symphony, his 1977 Symphony no. 3, that utilizes the melody and expresses the millenarian (or even apocalyptic) theme of the text. He also wrote seven Magnificat Antiphons, which were essentially the German texts of the hymn set to a variety of arrangements.

Source Wikipedia

"Frosty the Snowman" is a popular song written by Walter "Jack" Rollins and Steve Nelson, and first recorded by Gene Autry and the Cass County Boys in 1950. It was written after the success of Autry's recording of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" the previous year; Rollins and Nelson shipped the new song to Autry, who recorded "Frosty" in search of another seasonal hit. Like "Rudolph", "Frosty" was subsequently adapted to other media including a popular television special. The song was originally titled "Frosty the Snow Man".

Song

The song is about a snowman who came to life by some magical hat some children found; he then had playful adventures before he "hurried on his way." These included games, sports, and other jolly things. Near the end of their adventures together, the children are saddened by Frosty having to hurry on his way for the last time. However, Frosty reassures them by exclaiming, "I'll be back again some day." (Some versions of the song change the last line to "on Christmas Day!") It has been covered by many artists over the years, including Jackson 5, The Ronettes,Bing Crosby,Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Larry Groce, Ray Conniff, the Cocteau Twins, Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Beach Boys, Leon Redbone with Doctor John, Red Foley (and his daughters) and countless other musical acts (including a 2005 recording of the song by actor Burt Reynolds).

Jimmy Durante has recorded two versions, one with the earlier alternative lyric, and another for a television special of the same name (see below).

"Frosty" was recorded by Ella Fitzgerald on her Verve release Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas which is now available on cd and for downloads.

Source Wikipedia

"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about a White Christmas. It is the best selling single of all time, and won an Academy Award. The morning after Berlin wrote the song in 1940 at the poolside — he often stayed up all night writing — he told his secretary, "Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written — hell, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!"

"White Christmas" was introduced by Bing Crosby in the 1942 musical Holiday Inn. In the film, he sings a duet with Marjorie Reynolds. The song received the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Though Marjorie Reynolds was the actress playing Linda Mason, her voice was dubbed by Martha Mears for the movie, and in the script as originally conceived, Reynolds, not Crosby, was to sing the song.

The first public performance of the song was also by Crosby, on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day, 1941; the recording is not believed to have survived. He recorded the song with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers for Decca Records in just 18 minutes on May 29, 1942 and it was released on July 30 as part of an album of six 78-rpm songs from the film. At first, Crosby did not see anything special about the song. He just said "I don't think we have any problems with that one, Irving." The song initially performed poorly and was overshadowed by the hit song of Holiday Inn, "Be Careful, It's my Heart".By the end of October, "White Christmas" topped the "Your Hit Parade" chart and remained in that position until well into the new year. (It has often been noted that the mix of melancholy — "just like the ones I used to know" — with comforting images of home — "where the treetops glisten" — resonated especially strongly with listeners during World War II and the Armed Forces Network was flooded with requests for it.) In 1942 alone, the song spent eleven weeks on top of the charts. The original version also hit number one on the Harlem Hit Parade for three weeks. It returned to the #1 spot during the holiday seasons of 1945 and 1946 (on the chart dated January 4, 1947), thus becoming the only single with three separate runs at the top of the U.S. charts. Crosby's "White Christmas" single sold 50 million copies. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the song as a 100-million seller (this encompassing all versions of the song, including albums).

Source Wikipedia

"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a Christmas song introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis. Frank Sinatra later recorded a version with modified lyrics, which has become more common than the original. The song was credited to Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, although during a December 21, 2006 NPR interview, Martin said that Blane had encouraged him to write the song but had not had anything more to do with writing it. In 2007, ASCAP ranked "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" the third most performed Christmas song written by ASCAP members of the past five years.^[1]

History

The song first appeared in a scene in Meet Me in St. Louis, in which a family is distraught by the father's plans to move to New York City for a job promotion, leaving behind their beloved home in St. Louis, Missouri just before the long-anticipated Louisiana Purchase Exposition begins. In a scene set on Christmas Eve, Judy Garland's character, Esther, sings the song to cheer up her despondent five-year-old sister, Tootie, played by Margaret O'Brien.^[2]

The sentimental setting of the tune in the finished scene owes much to the understated orchestration by Conrad Salinger and musical direction of Georgie Stoll.

However, when presented with the original draft, Garland, her co-star Tom Drake and director Vincente Minnelli criticized the song as depressing:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last,
Next year we may all be living in the past
Have yourself a merry little Christmas, pop that champagne cork,
Next year we will all be living in New York.

No good times like the olden days, happy golden days of yore,
Faithful friends who were dear to us, will be near to us no more.

But at least we all will be together, if the Fates allow,
From now on we'll have to muddle through somehow.
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

Source Wikipedia

"Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", also known as "Let It Snow", is a song written by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne in 1945. It was written in July 1945 in Hollywood, California during one of the hottest days on record.

First recorded by Vaughn Monroe on October 31, 1945, it became a popular hit, reaching number one on the Billboard music chart the following year. One of the best-selling songs of all time, "Let It Snow!" has been covered countless times. Due to its seasonal lyrics, it is commonly regarded as a Christmas song. Yet despite its cheery, holiday feel, it is a love song that never mentions Christmas and both the composer and lyricist were Jewish.

Popular cover versions during the song's original popularity (late 1945-early '46) included the jazz bands of Woody Herman and Bob Crosby. This song was included on Ella Fitzgerald's 1960 Verve Records release: "Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas". Bing Crosby's version was recorded in 1962.

Sinatra's fellow Rat Pack alumni, Dean Martin, recorded a version. The 1945 recording by Monroe was used as the initial end credits song during the first two Die Hard movies, set during Christmas Eve in (assumedly) successive years.

Jessica Simpson's version, recorded for her Rejoyce: The Christmas Album in 2004 (see 2004 in music) and produced by Billy Mann, was the album's first single, and made the top twenty of the Adult Contemporary chart. The Italian singer Irene Grandi recorded in 2008 a personal version, sung in English.

The song was also covered by Vonda Shepard in 2000 for Ally McBeal,you can find that version on the album "A Very Ally Christmas".

"Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (sometimes with Coming changed to Comin') is a Christmas song. It was written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, and was first sung on Eddie Cantor's radio show in November 1934. It became an instant hit with orders for 100,000 copies of sheet music the next day and over 400,000 copies sold by Christmas.

Recordings

The earliest known recorded version of the song was performed by George Happle and the Hotel Taft Orchestra (featuring Sonny Schuyler on vocals) in 1934. It was mostly an instrumental except for a 35-second vocal by Schuyler. The version shown in the Variety charts of December 1934 was Harry Reser featuring Tom Stacks on vocal. The song was a sheet music hit, reaching #1. The song was also recorded on September 26, 1935, by Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra [1].