USC Thornton Chamber Singers: 'Mid-winter' by Bob Chilcott

The USC Thornton Chamber Singers perform "Mid-Winter" by Bob Chilcott at the 2014 Winter Gala. Jo-Michael Scheibe, conductor; Sarah Bauza, trumpet; Nathan Johnson, trumpet; Anne-Marie Cherry, horn; Charles Lilly, trombone; Brandon Davis, tuba, Aram Arakelyan, piano.

[carolinegray]

I have been searching for this arrangement forever! I sang it in the Furman Children's Chorus about 20 years ago. I got full body chills and tears in my eyes when I found this and listened! Beautiful! Bravo!

[giapetto]

The brass orchestration really adds to this lovely performance. Well done, whoever arranged it.

[charlesmcvey]

Certainly, truly beautiful music, especially the USC Thornton Chamber Singers + orchestral accompaniment version on Youtube.


Mr. Chilcott's music captures well the tenderness of spiritual poverty that builds from the middle of Rosetti's second stanza to a quiet, spiritual 'crescendo' in the last stanza . . . though for me, Mr. Chilcott's music misses the 'bleak' of Christine Rosetti's 'Christmas poem', an essential lyric element that must be found also in the music to contrast with the warmest, most tender feel of a precious, woolly lamb in your arms reflecting Christ's warmth in your heart, as I, along with Ms. Rosetti, realize, my true poverty and can only offer Him in return what He, my Creator, has given me...my heart; this music misses the cold snow around my feet while standing on a Scottish hillside watching my Shetland sheep in deep December; there is no moaning, frosty wind...no hard-as-iron, unyielding frozen earth beneath me, or icy stone-like water to present difficulty in watering my sheep, reflecting the seeming insurmountables we often face as life in this world continually entangles our wool; I see, hear and feel no "snow on snow on snow"; poor mortal that I am, Rosetti's first stanza and a half remind me that the Good Shepherd understands the real bleakness that often confronts us like a lost lamb, alone, distraught, shivering, caught in brambles on a freezing winter's eve; then her poem feels down into my vulnerable soul's depth to melt away that bleak danger and bring me back to His eternal warmth in the stable in Bethlehem. These elements must be in any attempt to give her lyric the musical wings it awaits!


Appreciating to some extent this vital contrast in the original Holst and later Darke musical arrangements for "In the Bleak Midwinter", I still feel there must yet be out there a more perfect musical transport for Rosetti's thoughtfully contrastive lyrical journey from 'bleak snow' to 'warm heart', from pitifully mortal to lovingly eternal. Could such be found as in the humility of Gruber's hastily formed guitar melody for Father Mohr's 'Stille Nacht' in a wintry Austrian village on a frosty Christmas eve or in Episcopal Rector Brooks' memories of visiting the place of the Christ child's birth converted into church organist Redner's deeply warm 'O Little Town of Bethlehem'? I wait expectantly!


(humble perspectives from a poor German Shepherd in Scottish America)

[corinnequinlan]

Wonderful sound love the brass also!! Smooth and effortless. Bravo!!

[ChoirRehearsalbyMusicbyMolly]

So Beautiful! I sang the SA arrangement in college, but the extra voice parts add so much!

[jaydlane]

Lovely singing, and a nicely done orchestration, too!

[timonoschebuar]

I'm gonna play this banger with my trombone in the Matthäus Church in Erlangen with the "Blechelite Erlangen".

[CatsJams]

Lyrics, if for no one's edification than my own (I love to sing along)!  
BTW, GREAT song!

Midwinter

In the bleak midwinter 
Frosty wind made moan,  
Earth stood hard as iron,  
Water like a stone: 
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,  
Snow on snow,  
In the bleak midwinter,  
Long ago. 

Our God, heaven cannot hold him 
Nor earth sustain; 
Heaven and earth shall flee away 
When he comes to reign: 
In the bleak midwinter 
A stable place sufficed 
The Lord God Almighty,  
Jesus Christ. 

Angels and archangels 
May have gathered there,  
Cherubim and Seraphim 
Thronged the air: 
But only his mother 
In her maiden bliss 
Worshipped the Beloved 
With a kiss. 

What can I give him,  
Poor as I am? 
If I were a shepherd 
I would bring a lamb; 
If I were a wise man 
I would do my part; 
Yet what I can I give him 
Give my heart.

[明天twadoy]

Paisible, paisible ... pour un Noël 2019... et moins loin si vous aspirez présentement à la sérénité...