Most modern English church music is on the shrieky side, but John Rutter has taken perhaps the loveliest Christmas poem in the English language and set it to music that can heal the heart. Here is the King’s College choir.
What sweeter music can we bring
Than a carol, for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?
Awake the voice! Awake the string!Dark and dull night, fly hence away,
And give the honor to this day,
That sees December turned to May.Why does the chilling winter’s morn
Smile, like a field beset with corn?
Or smell like a meadow newly-shorn,
Thus, on the sudden? Come and see
The cause, why things thus fragrant be:
‘Tis He is born, whose quickening birth
Gives life and luster, public mirth,
To heaven, and the under-earth.We see him come, and know him ours,
Who, with his sunshine and his showers,
Turns all the patient ground to flowers.
The darling of the world is come,
And fit it is, we find a room
To welcome him. The nobler part
Of all the house here, is the heart.Which we will give him; and bequeath
This holly, and this ivy wreath,
To do him honour, who’s our King,
And Lord of all this revelling.What sweeter music can we bring,
Than a carol for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?
Robert Herrick (1591-1674)
Leon, may you and yours — and all the commenters on this site — have a great and blessed Christmas.
I second what Joseph said. Thanks for a great site.