It Came Upon The
Midnight Clear/It came Upon A Midnight Clear
(Edmund
Sears/Richard Storrs Willis/Uzziah Christopher Burnap/Sir Arthur S.
Sullivan)
This
Christmas carol was written in New England as a poem requested of W.P.
Lunt, who was a minister in Quincy, Massachusetts, in December 1849 and it
made it's first appearance in the Christian Register on the 29th
of that month.The appearance
of this carol was almost a unique occasion in New England at the time as
none were written, and it was still remembered that the Puritans forbade
celebrating Christmas only 200 years previous, from 1659 to 1681 and if a
child missed Christmas Day at school right up until 1870, they would suffer
punishment or be expelled.The
words are several verses telling the story of the birth of Jesus and that
even in today's suffering of mankind there is still hope in Christ.In 1850 it was set to the music
called simply "Carol", originally composed by Richard Storrs
Willis for the hymn "See Israel's Gentle Shepherd Stand" and
published as "Organ Study No. 23".Uzziah Christophe Burnap made the adaptation/arrangement
of the music, and several years later around 1870, an English version of
the carol was put to the music "Noel" which was an adaptation of
a melody written by Sir Arthur S. Sullivan.Some time prior to 1860 the tune was adapted by Willis
to be used for the carols "Calm on the Listening Ear" by Edmund
Sears and "While Shepherd's Watch Their Flock".Still very much heard today it has
been taken to the No. 1 position in the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary
Tracks chart by Daryl Hall & John Oates, been recorded in 2003 by the
group Sixpence None the Richer and in 1981 it was sung in Sweden as
"Jag ser en stjarna pa himmelen", translated as "I See a
Star in the Sky", by the singer Stefan Borsch and appears in the Leroy
Anderson composition Suite of Carols for String Orchestra.
Leroy Anderson and His Orchestra recordings
Decca B0003552-02 (CD: A Leroy Anderson Christmas)
