Christmas Comes in the Morning

Program Notes:

What were the preparations for Christmas in days gone by? Lighting the fire, baking bread, opening wide the door to friends and strangers and, above all, remembering that the dark and care of the world were washed away on this morning.

Conductor Notes:

This is Stephen Smith’s second setting of this Christmas text, the first being “If You Would Hear the Angels Sing”, an upbeat work with string quartet available in mixed and treble voicing.

Elektra premiered this more pensive, a cappella version in 2004. All of its SSAA parts divide occasionally.

As with all of Stephen’s music, word stress rules the day, and the strophic text gets different harmonic treatment in each verse, some quite complex.

Text:

If you would hear the angels sing,
Rise, and light your Christmas fire,
And see that you pile the logs still higher,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

People, rise! The world is old,
And time is weary, worn, and cold,
Yet, Christmas comes in the morning!

If you would hear the angels sing,
Rise, and bake your Christmas bread.
‘Tis merrier still the more that are fed,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

People, rise, the world is bare
and blank and dark with want and care,
Yet Christmas comes in the morning.

If you would hear the angels sing,
Rise, and open wide the door
Still wider than e’er it stood before,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

People rise! The world is wide
And many there be that stand outside.
Yet Christmas comes in the morning.

Dora Greenwell (1821 – 1882), alt.