twelve days of Christmas

12th Day of Christmas: ‘I walked in darkness’ by Kathryn Rose

Kathryn

For the twelfth day of Christmas, here’s I walked in darkness by Kathryn Rose, with words by Marnanel Thurman:

I walked in darkness. Many a lonely mile,
my eyes and footsteps hesitant and blind.
I sought a kindly light I did not find
in land or ocean, asking all the while
if lightless lives are taken in exchange
for light eternal; still the shades of sight
would whisper, “Even I shall see the light!”
I never thought the light would look so strange.
Not in a temple, echoing and awed,
Nor in a palace, glistening and grand,
Nor in my home, nor any friendly land.
But distant, dirty, in a shed abroad,
I met a maiden bloody from a birth
and in her arms, the light of all the earth.

[Listen to I walked in darkness on Youtube]

The score is available from the Choral Public Domain Library.

10th Day of Christmas: Christmas Eve by Tansy Davies

Kathryn

For the tenth day of Christmas, here’s Tansy Davies’s setting of Christmas Eve by Christina Rossetti.

Christmas hath a darkness
Brighter than the blazing noon,
Christmas hath a chillness
Warmer than the heat of June,
Christmas hath a beauty
Lovelier than the world can show:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.

Earth, strike up your music,
Birds that sing and bells that ring;
Heaven hath answring music
For all Angels soon to sing:
Earth, put on your whitest
Bridal robe of spotless snow:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.

[Listen to Christmas Eve on Youtube]

A printable download is available for purchase from Faber and Faber.

8th Day of Christmas: Ring Out, Wild Bells, by Rachel Devore Fogarty

Kathryn

Ring out the old, ring in the new, here’s something energetic for the New Year by Rachel Devore Fogarty:

[Listen to ‘Ring Out, Wild Bells’ on Soundcloud]

Sheet music available for purchase from MusicSpoke

If you’re the resolution-making (and keeping!) type, and involved in church music, are you resolving to include more music by women in your worship? To encourage, support or champion women in church music in some other way? I’d love to know the details.

5th Day of Christmas: Lullaby for the Christ Child, Ruth Watson Henderson

Kathryn

For the fifth day of Christmas, here’s Lullaby for the Christ Child by Ruth Watson Henderson:

[Listen to Lullaby for the Christ Child on YouTube]

The music is available from Good Music Publishing for unison voices; the Canadian Music Centre says the work is for “children’s choir (unison with descant), or for soprano solo, with piano or organ accompaniment, and optional adult choir SATB.”