The Choir of Winchester Cathedral and the Waynflete Singers, under the direction of David Hill, and accompanied by the Resounding Brass, perform the 'Noel' setting of the popular Christmas carol 'It Came Upon a Midnight Clear'. This setting of the carol takes is text from a poem by Edmund Spears and its melody from a tune adapted by Arthur Sullivan. Sullivan's tune, often known as 'Noel', is the more commonly heard setting of 'It Came Upon a Midnight Clear' in Britain but is in fact a newer musical setting of the text than is Richard Storrs Willis' melody 'Carol'. 'Carol' is more recognisable in the United States.
For an enjoyable comparison, I have made the other setting available:
'Carol' by St Peter's Choir:
[ Text: ]
It came upon a midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold:
"Peace on the earth, goodwill to men,
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 heavenly 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.
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.
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 give back the song
Which now the angels sing.
[ Recording available on the disk 'O Come, Let Us Adore Him: Christmas Carols from Winchester Cathedral' (Herald, 1999). ]
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