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"It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" Lyrics, Text Format
"It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" Lyrics, Text Format

Beginners syncopation, two accidentals: natural and sharp,
and a mediant octave skip.

 

Description

  • Grade: Fifth
  • Origin: USA – Christmas Carol, words: Edmond Sears, 1849, music: Richard Willis, 1861
  • Key: B Flat Major
  • Time: 3/4
  • Form: ABCB
  • Rhythm: beginners: | ta ti ti ti ti | ta ti ta ti | syncopation, | ti ti ti ti ti ti | ta/a ti | syncopation
  • Pitches: intermediate: Mi Fe So Si La Ti Do Re Mi – accidentals: natural/lowered subdominant (Fe), raised/sharp dominant (Si)
  • Intervals: intermediate: m2: Si/La; M2: Mi/Fe, Fe/Si; m3: Ti/R; M3: Do/Mi8; P4: Mi\Ti, So/D;
    P5
    : Re\So; M6: So/Mi; P8: Mi\Mi (mediant octaveskip)
  • Musical Elements: notes: dotted quarter, quarter, eighth; pickup beat, ties notes, mediant octave skip, melodic rhythm patterns, accidentals: natural, sharp
  • Key Words: USA history, sacred, Christmas carol, Christmas hymn, midnight, glorious, Heaven, gracious, solemn, stillness, angels, cloven skies, peaceful, unfurled, heavenly, music floats, weary, lowly plains, hovering, Babel sounds, blessed, woes, sin and strife, suffered, beneath, angel-strain, thousand, crushing, whose, toil, climbing, painful, weary, hastening, prophet, bards, foretold, ever-circling, ancient, splendors, fling; abbreviations: o’er (over); possessive: life’s


“It Came Upon A Midnight Clear”
 
1.
It came upon a midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold;
“Peace on the earth, good will to men,
From Heaven’s all gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay,
To hear the angels sing.
2.
Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats
O’er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains,
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o’er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.
3. Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing.
4. And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!
5. For lo!, the days are hastening on,
By prophet bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing.
Additional Formats (click to enlarge)
music
"It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" Music Format
beats
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rhythm
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pitch numbers
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solfeggio
Click to Enlarge: "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" Solfeggio Format
letter names
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