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JDM-I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day cover

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J. David Moore

J. David Moore is a composer, arranger, conductor, teacher, and Southerner who has lived in the Upper Midwest for most of his life. His music has been called “endlessly inventive,” “glorious…haunting…breathtaking,” and “joyous…wild and elemental.” He publishes through his company Fresh Ayre Music, and is the founder and conductor of The First Readings Project, a...

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Fresh Ayre Music (J. David Moore)

I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day

Name: I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day
SKU: FAM-0068-01Bdg
Availability: InStock

J. David Moore

A new tune to a familiar and beloved Christmas lyric.

Choral

mixed choir

piano

Difficulty: 3

Duration: 3-5 min.

FAM-0068-01Bdg

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SATB, piano, 3 hands

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote “Christmas Bells” on
December 25, 1863, at the height of the Civil War, when the outcome of that conflict was still uncertain. A few weeks before, the poet had received word that his son Charles had been wounded in the Battle of New Hope Church in Virginia, and had brought him home to Cambridge to recover. It was with the mixed emotions born of horror at the war and gratitude for his son’s survival that he penned the poem, which was first published in his book Household Poems in 1865.

The poem was set to music for the first time in 1872 by the English organist John Baptiste Calkin. This present tune is apparently the fourth or fifth one that the poem has inspired. Calkin’s setting omits two central verses that most directly refer to the American war, and reorders the remaining verses slightly. This revision has been retained in the current setting.

The three-hand piano accompaniment is adapted from my original
bell choir version, and is intended to maintain its bell-like quality. It is not meant to be particularly melodic, but evocative of the bells of a valley full of village churches clangorously announcing a day of celebration.

Text

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

– Longfellow

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