Getty Music: In the Bleak Midwinter

Praise.com is thrilled to partner with Getty Music to bring you exclusive free content from preeminent modern hymn writers, Keith and Kristyn Getty. Keith and Kristyn have reinvented the traditional hymn and become global ambassadors for modern hymns in the USA and throughout the world. Best known for their instant classic “In Christ Alone,” their hymns are used increasingly in both traditional and contemporary circles.

 

Each month we will feature a different hymn from the Getty music catalogue. You will have access to a recording of the song and original sheet music. 

The first selection this month is “In the Bleak Midwinter,” with music by Gustav Holst and Antonin Dvorak, and lyrics by Christina Rosetti. Additional words and music by Keith and Kristyn Getty. 

 

“In the Bleak Midwinter”: The Story Behind the Song

This carol is the creation of two extraordinary artistic talents: English poet Christina Rosetti and German composer, Gustav Holst, best known for composing the orchestral suite The Planets. For me, this melody is the most beautiful of all the Christmas carol melodies. 

In the second verse of the carol, Rosetti contrasts the reigning Lord of all heaven and earth with the ruler of all becoming a man and being born in the humblest of circumstances. 

 

 

In fact, all the way through the original first four verses, Rosetti juxtaposes the divinity of Jesus with his humanity. And, again, we are encouraged to look back in wonder at his birth as a baby 2,000 years ago, but also to look forward to the day when Jesus will come again and reign over the Earth. 

We sing this carol about half-way through the second half of our Christmas concerts. It’s always a special moment of devotion. Particularly when we come to the last verse: 

 

It reminds us of the need to not only stand at the crib filled with wonder at the incarnation and adore our God who chooses to take on the fragile frame of a human being; it also reminds us that we need to respond, to do something with the revelation we have received. Our greatest act of worship is not in the gifts and abilities we might have that we can use for God’s glory but in the simple, and sometimes harder act of giving our hearts, our full selves, to Jesus in an act of surrender, allowing him to use us as he wishes. 

For our latest Christmas tour, we took the Gloria refrain from Antonin Dvořák’s New World Symphony and added in a chorus; it’s just delightful!

 

 

The wonderfully descriptive words and plaintive melody come together to make this a carol that can open our eyes to the eternal truth of the enduring humility and power of the Son of God. 

 

To get tickets for Sing! An Irish Christmas tour head over to: https://www.gettymusic.com/christmas

 

Keith Getty