It came upon the midnight clear (Arthur Sullivan)
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CPDL #18467:
- Editor: Rod Mather (submitted 2008-12-29). Copyright: Public Domain
- Edition notes:
- Editor: Edward L. Stauff (submitted 2004-05-20). Score information: Letter, 1 page Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes: harm. by Edward L. Stauff, 1999, a cappella
- Editor: Paul Howarth (submitted 2002-04-08). Score information: Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes: 2 versions available - strophic or extended partsong setting; from the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive.
General Information
Title: It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
Composer: Arthur Sullivan
Tune: Noel
Lyricist: Edmund H. Searscreate page
Number of voices: 4 or 5vv Voicing: SAATB or SATB
Soloists: S
Genre: Sacred, Carol
Language: English
Instruments: a cappella
Published:
Description:
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
- 1
- It came upon the midnight clear,
- That glorious song of old,
- From angels bending near the earth,
- To touch their harps of gold;
- “Peace on the earth, good will to men,
- From Heaven’s all gracious King.”
- The world in solemn stillness lay,
- To hear the angels sing.
- 2
- Still through the cloven skies they come
- With peaceful wings unfurled,
- And still their heavenly music floats
- O’er all the weary world;
- Above its sad and lowly plains,
- They bend on hovering wing,
- And ever over its Babel sounds
- The blessèd angels sing.
- 3
- Yet with the woes of sin and strife
- The world has suffered long;
- Beneath the angel strain have rolled
- Two thousand years of wrong;
- And man, at war with man, hears not
- The love-song which they bring;
- O hush the noise, ye men of strife
- And hear the angels sing.
- 4
- And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
- Whose forms are bending low,
- Who toil along the climbing way
- With painful steps and slow,
- Look now! for glad and golden hours
- Come swiftly on the wing.
- O rest beside the weary road,
- And hear the angels sing!
- 5
- For lo! the days are hastening on,
- By prophet-bards foretold,
- When with the ever circling years
- Comes round the age of gold;
- When peace shall over all the earth
- Its ancient splendors fling,
- And the whole world send back the song
- Which now the angels sing.