It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

Conductor Notes:

SSA a cappella. Elektra singer Susan Edwards created a simple, effective 3-part voicing of this traditional carol for Chez Nous 2017.

Composer / Arranger Notes:

A piano part was added to the revised version for ChezNous 2023.

Text:

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 all,
From Heaven’s all gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay,
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heav’nly music floats
O’er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains,
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o’er its Babel sounds
The blessèd angels sing.

But 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 lovesong which they bring;
Oh, hush the noise, ye men of strife,
and hear the angels sing!

For lo! the days are hast’ning 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 spendours fling,
And the whole world sends back the song
Which now the angels sing.