In the Bleak Midwinter

Christina Rosetti (1830 – 1894) came from a distinguished literary background and wrote the words to this popular carol in 1872 in response to a request from a magazine called Scribner’s Monthly for a Christmas poem. The first line runs: 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. Gustav Holst (1874 – 1934) wrote his hymn tune Cranham in 1906. This is one of the two melodies to which Christina Rosetti’s words are usually sung (the other being by Harold Darke). This arrangement was made for flugel horn player Joanne Protherough of the Cross Keys Silver Band.