Advent hymns - Celebrating the birth

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: This Sunday marks the fourth, and final, Sunday of Advent. While our Music of Advent features come to an end today, next Friday we’ll bring you music for Christmas Eve.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ve made a Spotify playlist for you of this year’s selections. And some asked if we could also make an Apple Music playlist. I’m happy to report that we now have both! Links are included in today’s transcript.

Bonnie Pritchett comes now with two versions of two different selections about the humble birth of Jesus.

BONNIE PRITCHETT, CORRESPONDENT: Snow probably didn’t fall. And, most likely, it wasn’t even winter in Bethlehem when Jesus was born. But, perhaps, it was a steely, cold, bleak winter day in London as Christina Rossetti penned the poem: In the Bleak Midwinter.

Winter’s short days shroud the world in darkness as moaning winds chill to the bone. Rossetti’s poem hints of a tomb and the hope of Christ’s coming glory.

Born in 1830, Rossetti became a respected and prolific poet in Victorian England. She wrote few hymns but the lyrical quality of her poetry prompted some to set a few of her works to music and publish them in hymnals. In the Bleak Midwinter has been put to a number of melodies, the most popular being by Gustav Holst.

CROUCH END FESTIVAL CHORUS: Snow had fallen, snow on snow on snow, in the bleak midwinter long ago…

This 2021 album, Christmas Choral Classics: Encore features the Crouch End Festival Chorus and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

SINGING: …heaven and earth shall fall away when he comes to reign. In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

The cello and violin-playing duo, The OK Factor, composed this arrangement and simply called it “Midwinter.”

MUSIC: [INSTRUMENTAL]

O Little Town of Bethlehem is another hymn that underscores Christ’s humble birth. The angels’ startling announcement to shepherds sent the men hurrying to Bethlehem where they found the newborn king. Luke 2 tells us they returned to their fields praising God.

Bethlehem’s residents slept through the whole thing. Or, so the song goes. Nat King Cole sings the story in his 1962 album The Christmas Song.

NAT KING COLE: O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie. Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by; yet in thy dark street shineth the everlasting light. The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight…

A trip to Bethlehem during Christmas inspired Phillip Brooks to write this poem in 1868 for the children’s Sunday school class at the Philadelphia church where he served as rector. The Lord’s humble entry into the world exemplifies the child-like humility we must have in order to receive him.

SIDEWALK PROPHETS: Where meek souls will receive him still…

On their 2019 album Merry Christmas to You (Great Big Family Edition), the Sidewalk Prophets linger on the message of God with us. Abide with us.

SIDEWALK PROPHETS: Come enter in. Come enter in. Christ enter in. Oh, Son of God, please enter in. A baby born. Our Savior lives. Light up the world in Bethlehem…

I’m Bonnie Pritchett.

SIDEWALK PROPHETS: Emmanuel. Emmanuel. Our God with us, Emmanuel. A baby born. Our Savior lives, light up the world. Light up the world in Bethlehem. Light up the world in Bethlehem.

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