“In the Bleak Midwinter” by Paul Colman Trio, Sunday, December 18, 2022

December 18, 2022

“In the Bleak Midwinter” is another Christmas Hymn that I like particularly because of how infrequently we hear it. The lyrics were penned by Victorian poet Christina Rossetti and published with the title “A Christmas Carol'' in the January 1872 issue of Scribner Monthly and later compiled with other poems in Goblin Market, The Prince’s Progress and Other Poems.

IF I WERE A WISEMAN, I WOULD DO MY PART. Christina Rossetti was a devout Catholic living in Protestant England. "In the Bleak Midwinter" shows Rossetti's style of vivid description of scene and sentimental religious feelings. In fact, the lyrics of "In the Bleak Midwinter" touch on a more personal note than other impersonal Christmas hymns as the speaker in the hymn, and us when we sing the hymn, makes a commitment to give the babe in straw her heart. The poem was later set to music and there are two popular versions. Harold Drake composed music for the hymn to be sung by a choir, as did Gustav Holst, who penned the most popular version of the hymn. Unlike Rossetti, the faith of composer Gustav Holst, on the other hand, was not as straightforward. He was a veracious reader and many of his compositions were inspired by Victorian writers. Part of his inspiration for this version was the church in Cranham, which he titled the piece that took the resemblance to a Christian hymn.

WHAT CAN I GIVE HIM? Today's version of "In the Bleak Midwinter" is performed by Paul Colman Trio. I chose this version because it's the first time I remember hearing it. Although it is in the Seventh-day Adventist hymnal, I don't remember singing it in church. My first experience with the song is on the City on a Hill Christmas compilation album It's Christmas Time. This was the third project from the Essential Records collective of acoustic, poetic Contemporary Christian artists such as Jars of Clay, Sixpence None the Richer, Caedmon's Call, Third Day, and Jennifer Knapp. Hailing from Australia, Paul Coleman and his band got a slot on the record as they had several number one hits from their breakthrough album, Turn, and a Grammy nomination in the Gospel category. The piece was also an exercise in my classical guitar method I studied, but what solidifies this song as one of my favorites was when Paper Route included the hymn on their digital holiday EP, Thank God the Year Is Finally Over. There are so many myths about Christmas reinforced through song because northern Europeans blended local religions with medieval Christianity. Christ, if he were born as the Bible tells us, probably wasn't born on Christmas day and there definitely wasn't "snow on snow." But the liturgy of seasons changing and celebrating holidays during the dark and depressing winter months can give us hope when we need it the most. I think that's why Paper Route included the track on Thank God. And as things look pretty bleak this time of year--finances, deaths, uncertainty--we know that spring will eventually lift us out of the depression.