It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

Christmas Carols Explained, #21

In 1849, Edmund Hamilton Sears penned this hymn—he was a pastor from Massachusetts. A hundred years before American writers focused on Bible stories to get us through World War 2, Sears felt his spiritual sensibilities bubble up during the Mexican-American War, and put his poetic talents to work for this classic. The music would come along a year later from Richard Storrs Willis who, like a lot of Christmas composers, studied music in Germany.

There was another hymn on this list that focused on the shepherds’ role in the Nativity story, and “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” carries on in that vein. It’s about the angel that appeared to them and led them to the manger. From there, the verses offer a contrast between the mortal condition and the peace and rest promised in heaven.

It’s not just about conflict versus peace, but even the hard grind of daily life, of toiling for our substance, which I can appreciate—I can’t remember the last time I worked a forty-hour week and came home to a clean house, but that’s me being a working husband and dad. It’s part of life.

I’m including two arrangements because I can’t decide which is my favorite—the steady, solemn instrumental that leads in from Mannheim, versus the soft yet rising vocals of the Groban track, both offer something that has affected me over the years. Back when I spent a lot of time and money on iTunes I remembered logging in on their landing page in the program and seeing the Mannheim track as a daily freebie. For weeks I would come home after work and put it on while I got cleaned up, and the strings especially would calm me down after a hard day.

This is one of my favorites. I’m glad it’s also in the LDS hymn book and I hope it gets called up more often in Church meetings.