It’s lovely how the simplest tunes often – perhaps most often, maybe even always – make the most beautiful of melodies. So it is with Gustav Holst’s (1874-1934) carol ‘In the Bleak Midwinter‘ (1906) a very simple F-major progression, all within the octave – of the scale, that is, but also in reference to Christmas. (Not quite like another of his famous works, ‘The Planets‘, his majestic and resounding symphonic magnum opus. We do derive the melody, known as Thaxted, for another famous hymn, O God Beyond All Praising, sung at many a wedding and funeral, and I Vow to Thee My Country).
Holst did not write the words. They’re by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), in a poem published in 1872, titled, simply ‘ Christmas Carol’. She was one of the ‘Pre-Raphaelites’, a group of various artists who sought to recapture the beauty and spontaneity of the ‘Quattrocento’ in Italy, before ‘classical’ formality set in.
Theologians have debated the orthodoxy of the poem’s text, but I suppose Miss Rossetti – she had three offers of marriage but declined them all – can claim poetic licence.
Anon, the text and music speak for themselves in this winter frost, at least from where I write. May the beauty bring some warmth to your hearts, wherever you be:
And, for a more upbeat tempo, here’s another of the most popular Christmas motets – its theme suggests the Third Sunday of Advent, but it’s certainly about the birth of Christ – Gaudete, Christus Natus Est. The composer is unknown; it first appears in 1582 in a collection of Swedish and Finnish songs, and the text was set to a melody probably dating to the late mediaeval era, the harmonies added later on.
Here is a version by the Gesualdo, with all-male voices, simple, clear and to the point:
